Stitched Into the Fabric: Quilts Honor Lives Lost to Police Violence

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By Norman Dotson Published: December 14, 2021

Stitched Into the Fabric: Quilts Honor Lives Lost to Police Violence

Gloria Green-McCray, the younger sister of James Earl Green, who along with Phillip Lafayette Gibbs were killed by Mississippi Highway Patrolmen in 1970 on the campus of Jackson State, reacts to viewing a section of one of two hand crafted quilts adorned with more than 115 cross-stitched portraits honoring African Americans who lost their lives to racial violence, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, on the university's campus in Jackson, Miss. The quilts are part of the Stitch Their Name Memorial Project, on display at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

In Summary

The quilting project has made dozens of portraits to honor those who have died to police violence and have started to compile together a large quilt to tell stories through its threading.

A group of stitchers honors the lives of Black individuals lost with new project they hope will bring greater awareness of historic racist past of the nation through quilts.

The Stitch Their Names Memorial Project consist of close to 100 stitchers from across the country who hand-stitch portraits of Black individuals who have died showcasing who they were in life. The project’s aim to bring the family of victims some sort of peace in their loss.

They hope to create a space to have a conversation about the impact from police violence and the dangers of hate crimes to families, specifically in the Black community.

In an Associated Press report, a Mississippi mother reminisces about her slain 17-year-old son, James Earl Green, a hopeful athlete who dreamt one day he would become an Olympic runner.

The report paints a picture of a grieving mother, Myrtle Green-Burton, who hangs tight to her child’s tracksuit as a memento to what could have been. His sister, Gloria Green-McCray, said she had to take the suit away from her because it began to dry rot.

Earl Green and 21-year-old Jackson State student Phillip Lafayette Gibbs were fatally shot on Jackson State’s campus in a violent police response to a protest in 1970. According to the AP, Green was walking through campus leaving his grocery store job. There were 12 others injured in the protest, and no officers were charged.

In Eugene, Oregon, a high school math teacher, Holli Johannes, started the project in July of 2020 and enlisted the help of more than 75 stitchers to put together portraits of the victims in different personalized ways. These pictures are either a head shot or a full body portrait of the deceased, including their names.

Handmade quilts are a large part of the Black culture that stores history in needle and thread form in patches of fabric which embodies that time. It has often been used as a family tree, tracking different relatives through mementos woven together to create this tapestry of time.

Stitch Their Names Memorial Project website offer biographies of each person here.