Lewis collected quilts, which he "loved," said O.V.
Brantley, co-founder of the Atlanta Quilt Festival.

'Good Trouble Quilts': Civil Rights Memorial Center
exhibit celebrates John Lewis

[link removed]

Rhonda Sonnenberg     Read the full piece here

[link removed]

Friend,

John Lewis - civil rights icon, 17-term Georgia congressman,
orator, preacher, author and one of the nation's most formidable
and unwavering fighters for racial justice - was a man of
action.

In the indelible, era-defining newspaper photographs we remember of
him in the 1960s, he is the 21-year-old co-founder of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

[link removed]

; a Freedom Rider
[link removed]

; the youngest speaker at the March on Washington

[link removed]

; a courageous leader of hundreds of voting rights marchers across the
Edmund Pettus Bridge
[link removed]

on a day that almost became his last. We remember the brutal photos

[link removed]

of Lewis being mercilessly beaten during protests and the police mug
shots

[link removed]

after his arrests time and again during his long quest to secure
freedom and civil rights for Black people.

In the quieter moments of his life, Lewis, who died of cancer in 2020
at the age of 80, collected quilts, which he "loved," said
O.V. Brantley, co-founder of the Atlanta Quilt Festival
[link removed]

, now in its 15th year.

In the festival's first-ever, traveling exhibit

[link removed]

, named "Good Trouble Quilts - Celebrating the Life and
Legacy of Congressman John Lewis," about 30 original art quilts
will be displayed at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Civil
Rights Memorial Center
[link removed]

(CRMC) from today through April 3.

The opening of the exhibit, sponsored in part by the SPLC, coincides
with Jubilee
[link removed]

weekend celebrated in Montgomery and Selma from March 2 through March
5 to commemorate the beating Lewis and other activists endured while
marching for voting rights on what is known as "Bloody Sunday
[link removed]

," on March 7, 1965.

Today, the SPLC will hold a wreath-laying ceremony at the Civil Rights
Memorial in honor of Lewis as part of the organization's Jubilee
celebration.

"John Lewis is a beloved individual throughout the country, but
he grew up here [44 miles from Montgomery], and was very intentional
to bring people to the CRMC," said Tafeni English-Relf

[link removed]

, director of the CRMC and the SPLC's new Alabama state office.

Lewis led a nearly annual Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage
[link removed]

to Alabama, sponsored by the Faith and Politics Institute
[link removed]

, including a visit to the CRMC. Delegations of legislators on the
pilgrimage saw places that were significant in the movement in
Alabama.

"Because of the relationship the CRMC had with him, we are
continuing to honor him," English-Relf said. "The quilts
show the artists' perspective of who he was, built around him
and his legacy in Alabama and his representation in Georgia."

Read More

[link removed]

Sincerely,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.

Friend, will you make a gift to help the SPLC fight for
justice and equity in courts and combat white supremacy?

 

Donate

[link removed]



--
Unsubscribe [link removed] | Privacy Policy [link removed] | Contact Us [link removed]

Southern Poverty Law Center
400 Washington Avenue
Montgomery, AL 36104
334.956.8200 // splcenter.org
[link removed]
Copyright 2022