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Gee's Bend and Voting Rights

Students will learn about the community of Gee's Bend, Alabama, and about the quilting tradition that has been passed down through the generations. They will explore the history of the Ferry that had given them access to voter registration and voting.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

Steps

  • Step 1

    Gee's Bend is a rural community in Alabama with a predominantly African-American population. Have students investigate the history of this area and especially about the closing of the ferry service in 1962 when Martin Luther King Jr. visited the community during the civil rights movement. The ferry closing served to isolate the community and prevented residents from registering and voting. Have students learn about the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative formed by Black women in 1966 as a way to raise income for their families How was it started? In which museums and embassies are the quilts displayed? Where are they sold today?

  • Step 2

    Ask students to look at images of some of the beautiful, brightly colored quilts created by the women of Gee's Bend. Have them create a poster to commemorate the reopening of the ferry, which finally occurred in 2006, using some of the colors and images featured in the quilts.

  • Step 3

    Have students present their Gee's Bend poster and discuss some of the facts they learned about the people and history of this community.

Standards

SS: Time, Continuity, and Change: Analyze the causes and consequences of past events and developments, and place these in the context of the institutions, values and beliefs of the period in which they took place.

SS: Time, Continuity, and Change: Understand linkages between human decisions and consequences.

SS: Civic Ideals and Practices: Explore views of citizenship in other times and places through stories and drama.

Adaptations

Encourage students to watch videos online featuring the quilters of Gee's Bend and their stories.

The Gee's Bend quilting tradition has been passed down from mothers to daughters since before the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. Have students investigate some of the prominent women associated with its history, including Mary Lee Bendolph whose work was featured on a U.S. postal stamp commemorating Gee's Bend quilters and Estelle Witherspoon, a founding member of the Freedom Quilting Bee and a civil rights advocate.