Other African American quilts, such as this, feature design characteristics folklorists have characterized as European-American, such as uniform repetition, predictability, and formality. Stokes did however, embrace African American imagery in this quilt titled Mammy, which seems to share roots with its contemporary Sunbonnet Sue. Likely based on a commercially published pattern, as documentation projects have identified at least two similar examples—including one made by a white woman—this pattern projects differing messages, depending on the maker’s race.  

Pattern: 
Mammy
Maker: 
Mary Jones and Rosa Stokes
Circa
1940
Made in
Nicodemus
Kansas
United States
90
76.5
IQM
2006.051.0002