Curated by Tomasita Louviere-Ligons and Sharon Mooney

Texas Folklife virtually exhibits a curated collection of quilts created by Quilt Friends Collective, comprised of African American quilters from across Texas, Ohio, and Florida. The quilts are intended to educate, celebrate and recognize some of the African American suffragists who influenced and contributed greatly to the suffrage efforts to gain the right to vote for ALL women with the ratification of the 19th Amendment though they remained disenfranchised until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Though African American women organized, fought, and marched for the right to vote alongside the women attributed to the 19th Amendment, women like Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton, and Alice Paul, the accounts of influence and contribution of women like Ida B Wells, Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth were largely ignored and not credited in the written history of Woman’s Suffrage. Currently, there are ongoing efforts to correct the record to include the contribution of African American suffragists. This exhibit is one such effort. 

This exhibit marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving some women the right to vote and celebrate Women’s History Month, whose theme this year is Valiant Women of the Vote.  

This exhibit will be available to view online starting February 19th. The link will be posted on our website on the launch day at www.texasfolklife.org.

This exhibition has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This exhibit is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department. This program is also supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and Texas Commission on the Arts. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibit do not necessarily reflect those of the Texas Commission on the Arts, The City of Austin Cultural Arts Division of the Economic Development Department, and the National Endowment for the Arts.