An episode in The Alabama Experience documentary series
Suggested grade levels: 9-12. Younger students may have some interest in the program, too, especially if they are studying Alabama history, folk art, or music. This program was produced by Carolyn Hales (chales@cpt.ua.edu ).
This program will be appropriate for many history, marketing, and economics classes.
Program length: 26:40 (To show this program in two segments stop the tape at 12:28 into the program when the woman on screen says "We have more work than we had to do.")
This program shows how the Freedom Quilting Bee changed the fabric of life in Alabama's Black Belt. In 1966, the beautiful, bold quilts made by the rural, uneducated women in Wilcox County became very popular among New York designers. For more than two decades the cooperative grew as the quilts were sold across the nation in fashionable department stores. The women became effective organizers and entrepreneurs. Their contacts with large retailers paid big dividends. But as the cooperative grew, the workers had to turn away from making traditional quilts and concentrate on items they could produce more quickly and with greater quality control.
Today the workers at the Freedom Quilting Bee are finding it difficult to compete with foreign laborers who work for pennies an hour.
Viewers will learn about problems people encounter when they try to start up a new business. They'll see some of the challenges people in impoverished areas encounter when they try to work for a better life. Viewers will also learn about Alabama's Black Belt and its role in the Civil Rights Movement.
Black Belt: A region across Central Alabama so called for its rich, dark soil. When cotton was king, plantations thrived. Much of the area has been poor for most of this century. Cooperative: A business that's owned equally by the co-op members. Instead of working for a wage guaranteed by the owner, members share any profits they may get--and shoulder the losses.
Have students look for the answers to these questions as they watch the tape.
1. How did the idea for the Freedom Quilting Bee come about? (Francis Walter, an Episcopal priest working in the Black Belt, saw quilts hanging on a line and thought they would sell in the North.)
2. Why was it so important to the quilters to have a sewing center, instead of continuing to work at home? (It helped them create uniform products and increased productivity and quality control. It also increased their sense of self-worth to have a formal place of business.)
3. Explain to students that quilts were a vital necessity in a rural area, where people didn't have the luxury of going to the mall and buying a blanket when they were cold. Ask students to think of other crafts country people used to practice. (Shoeing horses for transportation, canning, preserving, smoking meat, blacksmithing, churning butter, etc.) Ask if they think we do activities today that our children won't have to do.
4. Students may ask why these people don't use blankets instead of quilts. Explain that there was no money to buy such an item, and a quilt could be made of scraps of material from worn-out clothes, flour sacks, etc. Is there anything we make today out of pieces of something else? (How about leftovers? Or a television special at the end of the season that shows favorite moments from previous shows. And perhaps you could explain your class is a collection of people with unique talents and interests.)
5. The quilters saw their cooperative as a part of their struggle for civil rights. How did the Freedom Quilting Bee complement the goals of the Civil Rights Movement? (The economic power it gave them provided a kind of freedom and independence they had not known before.)
6. Make a quilt in your class. Have students bring scraps of material from home and stitch the pieces together in class. Perhaps you can use this "quilt" as a curtain over a window in the room or a placemat on one of your counters. (If you don't want to sew you could also have students bring in matchbook covers and tape them together for a colorful and interesting design.)
7. Are there local quilters at work at a nursing home or church? Have them come to school to demonstrate their craft and tell how they learned it. Or take a field trip and visit them where they work. Point out to the students the intricate time-consuming work. Also explain that it's a task that's much more pleasant when you have others working with you--the work goes faster and you can visit with your friends.
8. Members of the Freedom Quilting Bee came up with colorful, descriptive names for their designs: Grandmother's Dream, Pine Burr, Chestnut Bud, Pig in a Pen, Double Wedding Ring, Coat of Many Colors, Monkey Wrench, Sunshine and Shadows, for example. Pause the videotape when quilts are shown and ask the students if any of these names fit the quilt on the screen. Also, give younger students the name of a pattern and have them draw what they think it might look like.
Here's a special exercise that will require the help of two other teachers and classes. It will demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of operating a cooperative instead of a traditional business organization.
1. Have your students draw a picture of a quilt--it needn't be bigger than a sheet of paper. (If your class made a quilt as described in #6, use that.)
2. Select one person in your class to be the "boss." This person will NOT be a member of their cooperative if one is formed.
3. Tell your students that you think there's another class in the school that is willing to give each of them $10 for the quilt.
4. Then tell them you don't know exactly which class is willing to buy the quilt, but you've narrowed it down to three. Because of fierce competition explain they'll only get one try to sell the quilt.
5. Next, explain that the "boss" student DOES know which class wants to buy their quilt. The boss will sell for your class, but he'll only give your students $5 each for the quilt. (He'll keep the difference, making a profit of $5 for every worker.)
6. So, let your class debate and vote on this issue: should they form a cooperative, where they have one chance in three to sell the quilt for $10 each? Or should they "hire on" with the boss for the guaranteed wage of $5?
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