Quilts Of African American Freedom Fighters

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Mariah Wolfel (0:27)

Hey Chicago, I'm Mariah Wolfel, and this is In the Loop.

Be sure to listen all the way through the podcast for a breakdown of the day's top local stories. But first, we talked about an exhibit up now at the Chicago Cultural Center. It's called Freedom Fighters. It's an exhibit of beautiful quilts honoring Black veterans whose struggles for freedom extend beyond the battlefield. At the table with me was Dorothy Burge, artist and quilter behind the show. Dorothy started by describing the quilts for us.

Dorothy Burge (1:05)

I created a series of quilts about African American veterans, and I wanted to have people to know their history. So I started with Harriet Tubman because she was in the Civil War. I also talked about the veterans who were not allowed to be veterans and be soldiers before World War II.

And so there's Josephine Baker, and there is Joseph McNeil, there is, so there are six quilts that are up right now, and they're all telling the story of what it was like to be an African American veteran in the United States.

Mariah Wolfel (1:50)

And I want to talk a little bit more about who you included in this exhibit, but could you describe what these quilts physically look like?

Dorothy Burge (1:58)

Well, Harriet Tubman is 10 feet tall, and that was important to me, that I show who she was, and the fact that she really freed so many people, that it was important, and the fact that she was a nurse and a cook in the Civil War. That was really important to me.

The people from Fort Hood, they, in 1968, they were being sent to Chicago to stop the protests in Chicago because of the Democratic National Convention, and they refused. And because they refused, some of them were kicked out of the military. All of them served three to six months in prison, and their money was taken from them. Two-thirds of the funds that they received was taken from them.

Mariah Wolfel (2:56)

Of course, they refused to participate in what became an extremely violent and aggressive squashing of protests outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Dorothy Burge (3:06)

Exactly. And so they said that people had the right to protest, and that they were not going to come here and stop the protesting.

Mariah Wolfel (3:17)

Certainly feels relevant to today. I mean, the quilts are centered in the Cultural Center's Grand Army of the Republic Hall.

Tell us about that space and what it feels like to see your quilts celebrating these icons in this very grand hall in the middle of downtown Chicago.

Dorothy Burge (3:35)

I was really excited when they invited me to do the quilts. And so when I went down there, I took a look at where they would be.

And then I created six quilts, and I brought them down to the Cultural Center, and they hung them up in different places. And the way they hung them is really, really important. And they did a great job, and I'm very, very happy as I walk in. And I've been there maybe once a week since it's been up in October. And I'm watching people walk around and look at the quilts and take photos. And then I start asking them questions like, do you know who this is? And they would say no.

And then I would talk about the history of the people that I did.

Mariah Wolfel (4:26)

Wow, what a treat. So it's almost interactive with you, the artist, yourself.

I think anyone going to an exhibit would be lucky to kind of interact with the person behind it. Is this just something you're doing in your own time? Or was that a formal request of the Cultural Center? Or is that just something you decided to do?

Dorothy Burge (4:47)

It's just something I decided to do. So I came down and I went into the exhibit, and I saw people walking around, and I was like, hmm, I should ask them questions about these quilts. And so I did. And they were like, no, we don't know who that is. We've never heard of this person. You know, so this has been very interesting. And I think it's really important that I did African American veterans, because I think people need to know the history. And I think our history is being eliminated, especially in the schools.

Yeah.

Mariah Wolfel (5:25)

Your brothers are veterans.

Dorothy Burge (5:27)