Cuesta Benberry - The Anyone Can Fly Foundation, Inc.

CUESTA: I don’t think so. I think it was all pieced. I believe it was. But it was awonderful quilt. It was done in California. This was an unusual… It was just the top butin 1914 four churches there in Kansas had sort of a fundraiser and they used this quilt.People would pay to have their signatures embroidered on it.BARBARA: The quilter was copying the signature?CUESTA: Well, she would trace over it. She would write on it, and then she wouldembroider over the line. It was good because, I believe, when this exhibition was held inthis town two of those churches were still in existence. And so that kind of gave thatblack population a history. And they looked for their relatives’ names on here.FAITH: And they looked for some of the work that they no longer had.CUESTA: What happened with this top… The local quilt guild realized it was anhistorical artifact and so they raised money to purchase it. The person who had it was adealer. And then they gave it to the local historical society to preserve. Because all ofthese were early citizens. And, you know what else is important about this quilt top?Many of these people came in from Tulsa. You know when they had the big riot inTulsa? One part of the town, the black part of the town… It was just doing well. Theyhad hotels. They had stores. Nice homes, and everything. And then… We’re talkingthe early part of the 20 th century, around 1914/1913… They had this terrible riot andthose people from… I don’t know whether it was the Ku Klux Klan or just citizens in thewhite area were upset. They went in and they burned the hotels and they burned thebusinesses, and they burned homes and ran them out of town. And some of thesepeople on here, they went to Kansas, left Tulsa, and so it has a double history. Thisquilt of Harriet Tubman and this one…http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?pbd=kentuckytest-a0a2q2-a;http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?pbd=kentuckytest-a0a3e5-aThey’re in Atlanta, at the library there. A group in Marin County, out in California, madethese two quilts. This black philanthropist, Howard Thurman, (He’s dead now)commissioned these quilts to be made and then after he died, then his wife, because hehad close associations with Atlanta, it’s Atlanta University, then it was Atlanta BaptistFemale Seminary.FAITH: Is this one of Harriet Tubman, is that pieced?CUESTA: It’s appliquéd and pieced.FAITH: Not painted?CUESTA: No. Your painting is very unique.page 20