Continuing Textile Traditions: The History of the Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy
February 20, 2025
In 1966, local people in the Alberta and Gee’s Bend area of Alabama embarked on a journey to restore and rebuild their local economy through a quilting cooperative. During the late 1950’s through the early 1960’s, this rural town’s families were in the midst of losing their homes, lands and rights to vote. With the help of Father X. Walter, many volunteers, the women of Gee’s Bend, alongside the strong leadership of Estelle Witherspoon, the Bee’s first president, the Freedom Quilting Bee was established.
Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy was created to ensure the heroic, historic, innovative, artistic and incredible odds-beating work of the women of the original FQB isn’t lost to history. The FQB Legacy is dedicated to teaching the community and others how to make art out of love, create a space for entrepreneurs to grow and develop, and a place to remember the impact of the Civil Rights and Voter Rights movements that gave this community its freedom.
The Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy hosts workshops, demonstrations, speaking engagements, panel discussions, seminars, webinars and events throughout the entire year to educate people from around the world on the magical art that is quilting.
Panelists:
Loretta Pettway Bennett is a Gee’s Bend quilter and Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy Board Member. “My mother, her mother, and my aunts sewed the foundation; all I have to do now is thread my own needle.” Like most girls in Gee’s Bend, Loretta learned to quilt from the women around her. Creating quilts was so essential to the women of her family that, “it was implanted in my genes.” She married at 18 and toured the world with her husband, Lovette, who was in the armed forces. Loretta now divides her time between Gee’s Bend and Huntsville. “My mother was a member of the Bee and I am happy to be a board member to bring back to the community this vital and historic organization and resource”.
Gloria Carey is a Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy Board Member and a member of one of the original families of Gee’s Bend. She was born and raised in Boykin (aka Gee’s Bend) Alabama, the great granddaughter of William Carey and the granddaughter of Rachael Carey George. Gloria is the daughter of Annie Carey, and the mother of William Carey and the grandmother of Javin and Sanaia Carey.
Gloria is a product of the Wilcox County school system and a graduate of Alabama A&M University. She has worked for over 30 years as a Criminal Defense Investigator in the Metro Atlanta area, and is currently working her dream job as an Investigator with the Metro Capital Defenders Office in the defense of clients where the death penalty is being sought as the ultimate form of punishment.
Kim Kelly is the Pro Bono Executive Director and consultant to the Board of Directors of the Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy. Kim’s ancestral roots are in Wilcox County, Alabama. Her great grandmother, grandparents, father and uncle are laid to rest at Salem Baptist Church. She has fond childhood memories of visiting her grandparents on their farm in Catherine. She returned to Wilcox County in 2016, initially to check on the property in Catherine she inherited in 1985. While in Alabama she reconnected to the stories, the people, the history and the land. Seeing all of this through the eyes of an adult, a passion was kindled to serve the community as a way to repay and honor the ancestors on whose shoulders she now stands. As a community volunteer, Kim draws on her education and professional experience in the business, legal and judicial communities to provide consultation and assistance to the FQB Legacy’s efforts.
