The Setting: Gee’s Bend, Alabama, 1939–2002

Recommended Grade Level: 8–12

Suggested Areas of Study and Discussion: The Civil Rights Movement, The Emancipation of Women, Contemporary Fiction, Memoir, Quilt Making, Creating Family Traditions through Folk Art

The Story: Your students will love this important personal story about two generations of African American women who seek to move past the shadows of slavery and forge independent lives. The Pettway women struggle to learn to read, register to vote, and march for civil rights in Selma, Alabama with Martin Luther King. Alabama society responds with vicious anger, stopping the ferry which is the lifeline for the residents of Gee’s Bend. This racially discriminatory action, cutting off the residents of Gee’s Bend so they cannot register to vote, vote in elections or even get supplies, creates isolation and abject poverty. Out of necessity, the women of Gee’s Bend create quilts from the scraps of their lives which become a unique artistic expression of their African roots. As they pass on remarkable quilt-making skills from generation to generation, their quilts become the focus of national attention and are put on display at the Smithsonian.