Outsiders have repeatedly "discovered" southern African American women and their quilts. Farm Security Administration photographer Jack Delano took this picture of a former slave and her quilts in 1941 as part of the New Deal program documenting the plight of Americans during the Great Depression. In the 1960s, civil rights workers in Gee’s Bend noticed quilts made by women in the community and brought them to New York City to sell. In the 1990s, Bill Arnett and his sons began buying and selling quilts from this community. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division

Title: 
Mulatto ex-slave in her house near Greensboro, Alabama
Maker: 
Jack Delano
Dated
1941
Greensboro
Alabama
United States