“Access Delayed” exhibit shows off work inspired by African American suffragettes

The “Access Delayed: African-American Suffragists’ Courageous Influence on the 19^th Amendment,” exhibition, curated by Tomasita Louviere-Ligons and Sharon Mooney, came to Houston as part of the International Quilt Festival at the George R. Brown Convention Center from Oct. 25 through Oct. 31. The quilts in the exhibition featured African American women who played important roles in winning the right to vote — from Sojourner Truth to Stacy Abrams.

The quilts in the exhibit were created by African American quilters from across Texas, Ohio and Florida.

Mooney said that around the anniversary of the ratification of the 19^th amendment she and Louviere-Ligons kept seeing exhibits about suffragettes, but none of them focused on African Americans. Working with history professors, they put together a list of African-American suffragettes and looked for quilters who could quickly produce the quality of quilts they wanted.

It got its first virtual showing in February, sponsored by Texas Folk Life in Austin. The Houston Festival was be the first time the quilts were shown live.

When Gathers was first invited to contribute, she was interested, but declined, saying she didn’t have time. Once she got home and the pandemic hit, she started having Zoom conversations with the organizers.

“I listened to the other ladies who are really proficient quilters talk about their projects,” Gathers said.

Gathers’ quilt, “Fearless,” tells the story of Maggie Lena Walker and Gathers’ great-grandmother, Eliza Cowen.

Gathers now lives in Palm Bay, Florida, but she spent more than 30 years teaching quilting to inner city middle schoolers in New York where they made quilts for the homeless. She now creates pictorial or abstract quilts that are based on stories from American history. She is also a genealogist, author and audiobook narrator, all of which inspired her Access Delayed quilt.

Gathers recently published a novel, “The Secrets of Hattie Brown,” about her grandmother who died in 1931 in North Carolina. She’d spent more than 30 years researching Hattie’s life and the life of Hattie’s mother, Eliza Cowen.

Cowen was a midwife and a member of Maggie Lena Walker’s Secret Order of Saint Luke. It sparked Gathers to learn more about Walker. She first learned that the Secret Order of Saint Luke was an African American benevolent organization that helped the sick and elderly in Richmond. Walker joined when she was 14.

Walker, who was born to enslaved parents, became one of the foremost female business leaders in the United States. In 1903, she became the first woman to charter a bank. She encouraged African Americans to found their own institutions and take control of their economic power. Walker was a civil rights activist who organized the first Richmond branch of the NAACP, led a city-wide boycott against segregated streetcars and promoted women’s suffrage and voter registration drives.

The bottom half of Gathers’ quilt features photos of Walker and Cowen with a winding road between them. “The Wizard of Oz” with its Yellow Brick Road was published contemporaneously with the lives of Cowen and Walker.

“I created a yellow brick road showing the footprints of Maggie Walker leading the way for my great grandmother,” Gathers said. “I put Maggie’s steps first and then showed my great grandmother joining the walk so that their footsteps are in sync.”

She used fabric paint for the road and then at the end of the road she put the Adinkra symbol from Ghana, which symbolizes fearlessness.

“Both of these ladies bravely faced many challenges and setbacks in order to achieve greatness,” Gathers wrote in her artist statement about the quilt.

Gathers, who has traveled to Africa many times, cut up clothing and textiles from Africa that she has worn and used them to create the patterns of the quilt.

“I named my quilt Fearless,” Gathers said. “Both of these women had to have fear because they lived in a climate that was very fearful for people of color. They had to confront their fears to become fearless and fight for the things they cared about, the things they believed in and the things they were willing to die for.”

Selected other quilts included:

• “The Laws” by Sharon Mooney that reproduce not only voting laws from 1864 forward, but a copy of one of the literacy tests that African Americans were made to pass before they could vote.
• “Ain’t I a Woman” by Mooney features Sojourner Truth and the famous speech she made at the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, considered by many to be the most famous abolitionist and women’s rights speeches in American history.

• “Mary Ann Shadd Cary” by Deborah A. Moore Harris features the anti-slavery activist and journalist who wrote “It is better to wear out than to rust out.”
• “Texas Queens” by Laura Cashmore pays homage to the African American women from Texas who fought for the right to vote and the social and civic clubs to which they belonged.
• “Good Trouble” by Rhonda Masters which features Stacy Abrams of Georgia who fought against voter suppression in her state and helped to elect Joe Biden.

“Access Delayed” was one of 26 special exhibits from around the world at the International Quilt Show. This year’s show debuted a judged show in which a total of $52,750 in cash prizes were given. The Best of Show award went to Sachiko Chiba of Japan for her 80 by 80-inch quilt “Rondo.” One of the six Master awards went to a quilt focusing on African American women earning the right to vote—“Sharing the Moment” by Hollis Chatelain.