"Rough road to equal rights."
"Prepare to stop racism."
"Hope." "Justice." "Inspire." "Empower." "Accountability."
These are just some of the words that you'll find on quilt squares on display right now at the V. O. Dobbins Community Center Complex in Kingsport. Among the names you'll also find on the tapestries are George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Ahmad Aubery, and Brionna Taylor, even Malcolm X, John Lewis and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The traveling displays are the product of Care NET, a Rogersville-based community conservation committee of the East Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club. The quilt project was born out of concern and frustration, particularly with the killing of George Floyd.
"Our group was already devoted to issues that involve social, environmental and economic justice," says Bobbi Smith of the Care NET group. "The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was so moving, that it touched us into doing something to express our grief."
Out of that grew the sewing of quilt squares in a way to honor the sacrifices made by people like Floyd and others.
Smith says the idea for a quilt came from Care NET member Wendy Ritchey of Limestone, Tennessee. "Her idea was a quilt to 'work through the grief' of yet another Black life taken as a result of continuing racism in our country," she says.
The first quilt made was named "Say Their Names--Never Forget." At any given time, 20 to 30 members of Care NET and people in the local communities were working on the squares, which took great care to construct. Each participant chose a person and dedicated their work to crafting that particular square. Working at their own pace and with great care, some squares were finished promptly, others took a little more time. Care NET member Alicia Salzman did the hand quilting on this particular one.
The second quilt was named "George Floyd Square---Unity in the Community," and features scenes from the spot and surrounding area of Chicago Avenue between East 37th and 39th Streets in Minneapolis where Floyd was killed. Pictures of the square were photo-reversed so that squares could be composed from them. A group of about a dozen Care NET and community members sewed the tapestries into the resulting quilt.
A third quilt is more local---it's called the Langston Centre Children's Quilt, whose squares were made by children at the Langston Centre's afterschool program in Johnson City. 15 children made the squares in that display, sewn into a quilt by Smith.
The quilt sculptures have been displayed at various venues in upper East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Right now, you can see them free of charge through Black History Month in the Douglass Room of the V.O. Dobbins Community Center Complex, 301 Louis Street in Kingsport.
Ms. Smith says historically, "the making of quilts has been seen as 'women's work.' They are soft, touchable, gentle and warm. Often we put them aside, and yet they are living reminders of our past, our present and our future."
"Events of the recent past are a wake-up call to the racism that's going on in this country," she says. "We do hope that viewing the quilts causes an emotional reaction in people who see them, that will bring tears and sadness to the forefront, but also hope, kindness and a sense of shared humanity."
