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Wilson a retired Columbus, OH school teacher and consultant, returns to BSC by popular demand three years after her initial lecture and display attracted a capacity audience. She shares her ancestry and knowledge about the quilt signals used by slaves seeking their freedom during the 19th century. The quilts will be on display in the Hebert Gallery/Harris-Jefferson Student Center, February 11-14, and Ms. Wilson will present a slide program and lecture on February 11 at 1 p.m. in the Hebert Gallery. There is no admission charge and the public is encouraged to attend. She will also deliver a lecture and display the quilts at the Greenbrier Community College Center of BSC, February 17-21.
Wilson's appreciation for quilts is part of a family tradition that dates back to the days of slavery in Virginia and South Carolina. She is a descendant of the legendary Ozella McDaniel Williams of Charleston, SC, who was well known for parceling out her knowledge of the quilts from a market in Charleston.
"The quilts were part of an audiovisual system," Wilson explains. "Songs like ‘Steal Away,' and ‘Wade in the Water' would be sung while showing these signs." The signs were graphic portrayals of situations that communicated when conditions either were good or bad for slaves on the move from south to north. Beyond those signals, the number of knots tied into tufted pieces of the quilt material gave fleeing slaves specific dates for safe passage. Untold numbers of slaves used those signals to navigate their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad, she has observed.
Noted African-American historian/artist Brucella Jordan will portray Ida B. Wells, a fearless anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, and women's rights advocate, during a February 12 program beginning at 11 a.m. in the Basic Science Auditorium. Jordan, whose portrayal of Bramwell's Anne Spencer during last year's African-American Heritage Month program at BSC was extremely well received, will provide a rare, "first-hand" insight into the life and times of Wells, one of the nation's most uncompromising defenders of democracy. This program is also open to the public, free of charge.
Additional information regarding BSC's African-American Heritage Month schedule of activities can be obtained by contacting Joan Buchanan, Student Activities Coordinator, at (304) 327-4186, or, on the internet, at www.bluefieldstate.edu/2003news/jan2003-14.html
February 7, 2003
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