In Greensboro, Alabama, murmurs fill a shotgun-house-turned-art-gallery. Long tables at the Safe House Black History Museum are covered with vibrant fabric squares and brightly colored embroidery thread as seasoned quilters, their hands steady and experienced, guide beginners through the intricate process of hand stitching. Participants choose a name from a printed list and mark each letter in faint chalk as a guide. Small stitches, carefully made, bring a person once forgotten into view. Nena. Big Viney. Suffrona. When finished, quilters write their name on the list, linking the past with the future. The atmosphere is one of reverence and reflection, augmented by the location’s significance: it is the historic site where Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. took refuge from the Ku Klux Klan, just weeks before his assassination in 1968. Quilters sing spirituals, providing a gentle soundtrack for their thoughtful work, and flanked by finished quilts, the room is a tapestry of generations learning from one another, blending creativity and community. The quilts that emerge from these workshops are not just works of art but potent symbols of remembrance and unity.
Sew Their Names, a series of exhibitions and public programs across the state, is a partnership between the Mt. Willing Quilters of the Lowndes County Community Life Center, The Hopewell Project and The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University’s Museum in Motion. Sew Their Names honors the lives of enslaved members of Alabama’s Baptist Churches as recorded in the archives of Samford University by stitching commemorative quilts. In the absence of official records for these individuals, these are the only documents of their existence.
Sew Their Name attendees look on as a workshop leader discusses Yvonne Wells’ quilt, “Worshippers at Mr. Willing Church.”
Randi Evans, PhD, The Jule’s assistant director of education, engagement and learning, connected with the organizers as a part of The Jule’s Museum in Motion, a service and outreach initiative to impact the lives of Alabamians. Through community partnerships, Museum in Motion elevates the artistry and culture of Alabama, builds vital social connections and increases arts access. Initially conceived as part of a Tiger Giving Day project, Museum in Motion has grown to include pop-up engagements at farmers’ markets and festivals, long-term engagements with public schools and community-focused exhibitions like Sew Their Names.
In November 2024, Sew Their Names traveled to Hale County and featured an exhibition of commemorative quilts made by Southern quiltmakers Wini McQueen and Yvonne Wells, hosted by Project Horseshoe Farms; a quilt trail featuring quilts by the Mt. Willing Quilters hosted by community partners the Newbern Library, Safe House Black History Museum and Sumac Cottage; and drop-in quilting sessions with the Mt. Willing Quilters where community members contributed to the project through continuing to help stitch the names collected.
“What’s been so moving about working on Sew Their Names, is the way participants are eager to contribute to the project. Although many of the names featured on the quilts are pulled from archives, participants are also encouraged to stitch the names of family members they know of who were enslaved. Many are moved by this opportunity to honor ancestors they never knew in person, but whose presence and legacy have impacted them nonetheless.” In addition to museum staff, student guides have actively participated in the workshops. Naomi Taylor, a graduating senior majoring in Global Studies in the College of Human Sciences, chose to stitch “Nena” for her block. “It is most similar to my family nickname, Nina,” Taylor said. “The Sew Their Names project has really deepened my understanding of how history and culture can be preserved through art and community engagement.”
“It’s a reminder of how something as simple as sewing can bring awareness to the legacy of those who often go unrecognized,” she added. “This experience has reinforced my passion for using nonprofit work as a tool for social change, and I plan to continue contributing by elevating voices that need to be heard.”
The exhibition traveled in April to the annual Project Threadways Symposium, a national conference held annually in Florence, bringing together scholars, activists and artists to explore the intersections of history, community, and power through the lens of fashion and textiles.
Workshop attendees stitch a name into fabric.
Within the “Food, Clothing, and Shelter” conference theme, participants contributed additional blocks at a workshop again led by the Mt. Willing Quilters. Sew Their Names will travel to at least one other Alabama museum before the exhibition comes to Auburn in Spring 2026, featuring other art as activism from Hale County.
The Jule will bring Sew Their Names to Auburn for exhibition and as the focus of Auburn Studio Project for the 2025-26 academic year. In partnership with the City of Auburn, local seventh-grade studio art students will participate in the Sew Their Names project, picking and sewing names of their own to continue the commemoration of lost Alabamians and the history of regional artmaking.
“Through the rich legacy of quilting in Alabama, Sew Their Names allows people to come together through a shared creative act to address painful histories and lay the pathway for healing,” Evans said. “Community art projects such as this can help people find common ground and work together to create something bigger than the individual.”
