Digital Snapshots
Hystercine Rankin Quilts & Black Quilting Traditions
Quilt, "Memories of My Father's Death"; 1989
Dublin Core
Title
Quilt, "Memories of My Father's Death"; 1989
Object Name
Needlework--Quilt
Label
This quilt titled "Memories of My Father's Death" was made by renowned quilter Hystercine Rankin (1929-2010). The quilt tells the story of the murder of her father, Denver Gray, by a white man. After telling Roland Freeman the story, he encouraged her to make this story quilt. As related in the book "A Communion of the Spirit," Mrs. Rankin was apprehensive about it since she had never made an appliquéd quilt, but it became a very cathartic experience for her.
Detailed Description
From the Mississippi Department of Archives and History's Historic Objects Collection. A communication textile (cotton) artifact demonstrating needlework artistry. Has several borders with an interior scene. Border colors and patterns, from edge to interior, are: plain beige, plain reddish-brown (border only on long sides), black and red right-triangles, plain gold, plain green, plain reddish-brown, black and red right-triangles framing three interior portions. Top interior panel is a paragraph in dark needlework on plain gold fabric. The middle panel shows a white man with a gun, standing over a bleeding black man laying in a road. There are trees and a cabin next to the white man, and grass below the black man with outlines of tulips along the bottom of the panel. The bottom interior panel is plain gold fabric with dark lettering stitched, and a red and green house on the left and a white church on the right.
Creator
Rankin, Hystercine Gray (1929-2010)
Date
1989
Catalog Number
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT - EDUCATIONAL USE PERMITTED; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Credit: Courtesy of the Mississippi Department of Archives & History
Text Transcription:
On April 2, 1939 at 8 o'clock Farrel [sic] Humphrey kill my father Denver Gray age 33 on Highway 28 near Union Church, Mississippi as long as I live I will never forget that morning. He went out to the spring to get a bucket of water, but he didn't wait to get the water, as I went to dip(?) the water, I heard the 4 shots that killed my father. Wasn't nothing did about it they didn't even arrest him.
As I came back to the house Farrel [sic] Humphrey's son was standing in front of the steps, he said Laula if you want Denver he is in the middle of the road. Mother said lord have mercy, she didn't have any one [sic]to go and pick him up. He stayed there until a log truck came and picked him up and brought him to the house. Mother buried him the next day. Blacks was afraid to come to the funeral.
—————
My Father Left 8 Children.
Earnestine Gray 12
Juanita Gray 11
Hystercine Gray 10
Garie Gray 8
Vera Gray 6
Walter Gray 4
Wilbert Gray 2
Lovie Gray 6wks