This “Coat of Many Colors” was purchased in the 1980s from the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative in Gee’s Bend, Wilcox County, Alabama. Gee’s Bend has been “discovered” many times. In 1966, Father Francis X Walter approached women from the area with the idea of a quilting cooperative to help support their families. He used his contacts in New York to find buyers and help fund the program.  Gee’s Bend women operated the cooperative under the leadership of local African Americans like Estelle Witherspoon, the Bee’s first president.