Minder Coleman

The residents of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, are direct descendants of the enslaved people who worked the cotton plantations established in 1816 by Joseph Gee. After the Civil War, their ancestors remained on the plantations working as sharecroppers. In the 1930s, the price of cotton fell, and the community faced ruin. As part of its Depression-era intervention, the Federal Government purchased ten thousand acres of the former plantation and provided loans enabling residents to acquire and farm the land formerly worked by their ancestors.

Minder Coleman (Born 1903 Boykin – 1999 Boykin) was President of “Gee’s Bend Farms,” an agricultural co-operative supported by the U.S. Farm Security Administration. She was also Vice President of the Freedom Quilting Bee (founded 1966) and worked there full-time for many years. Her income was often reinvested giving her earnings from quilt sales to the Freedom Quilting Bee, rather than keeping them for herself.

She also made substantial woven pieces, including draperies for the Roosevelt White House. Local lore says that she helped to make a blue-and-white striped cloth used for a suit which President Roosevelt wore and was buried in. As Minder told the story, Roosevelt liked the suit so much that he wrote them a thank-you note. "He wrote us and said, 'Dear Ladies,' just like that. He said, 'Dear Ladies, I enjoyed the material 'cause I'm wearing my suit, and when I die, I hope they'll put it on me.'"

Minder learned to quilt as a child, without formal patterns. She described learning by watching her mother and “drawing her own pattern.” She frequently used recycled fabrics, such as discarded scraps from a cloth factory and flour or fertiliser sacks. Her best-known quilt patterns are Double Wedding Ring and Bricklayer quilts, she also designed a unique pattern that resembled two eggplants joined together. This Bricklayer quilt entitled "Log Cabin—Courthouse Steps", falls into the Housetop / Bricklayer pattern which is a classic Gee's Bend quilt and describes a quilt made up of concentric squares or strips. Coleman started from a central medallion of cloth, around which strips were added at increasing sizes. In traditional Log Cabin blocks, one half is made of dark fabrics and the other half light as in this Coleman quilt from 1940. This particular work is from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation whom Alison Jacques works in partnership with.