On This Day in History Quilt for March 13:
On this day in 1869, the Arkansas General Assembly passed a law that made the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) illegal. Throughout the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, the KKK, a white supremacist organization, used violence and intimidation in an attempt to reverse suffrage rights of African Americans and protest the disfranchisement of ex-Confederate Democrats.
This signature quilt in the Shoo Fly pattern was made as a fundraiser for the KKK in Chicora, Michigan around 1926. The person who donated the quilt to the Michigan State University Museum is the grandson of the person who won the quilt. He tells this family history of the quilt: “To get your name stitched onto a block you paid 10 cents. An individual would stitch the names on a given block for instance, my Aunt Grace Raveway did the block for our family. Grace was 16 years old at the time and was quite embarrassed to participate in the project, but she had the best script in the family and best sewing abilities, so she was chosen.”
View this quilt on The Quilt Index to read more about it’s history, design and construction. Be sure to use the zoom tool for a detailed view.
Sources:
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2293
Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org