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Stolen Girls | Created by Trish Williams from Peoria, IL.

Stolen Girls

Created by:

Trish Williams from Peoria, IL

Exhibit:

Racism: In the Face of Hate We Resist

Artist Statement:

In July of 1963 in Americus, Georgia, fifteen girls were jailed for challenging segregation laws. Aged 12 to 15, these girls had marched from Friendship Baptist Church to the Martin Theater on Forsyth Street. Instead of forming a line to enter from the back alley as was customary, the marchers attempted to purchase tickets at the front entrance. Law enforcement soon arrived and viciously attacked and arrested the girls. Never formally charged, they were jailed in squalid conditions for forty-five days in the Leesburg Stockade, a Civil War era structure situated in the back woods of Leesburg, Georgia, twenty miles from town. Parents had no knowledge of where authorities were holding their children. Nor were parents aware of their inhumane treatment.

2020
28½" x 25"
Digital altered photo tile printed; machine pieced, and machine quilted with variegated threads.