John Lewis Quilts Presented by Anacostia BID & The Dap Project for The John Lewis Foundation — 3D Virtual Gallery by "Good Trouble...Louder!" Legacy and Future in Anacostia curated by Rhonda Henderson, developed by Black Meta Agency

Artworks in this gallery

• "He Inspires Us With His Words and Deeds" by O.V. Brantley (2026) — As a lawyer, I am always focused on the power of words. However, John Lewis was a great man because he not only talked the talk. He walked the walk. His words are inspiring, but his unselfish actions inspire us to action. How many of us would risk our life for others? Not many. That is why we honor him. His Words and Deeds Inspire Us is my quilted version on a crossword puzzle. Many African fabrics create the background representing the African Diaspora. The words are the focus of the quilt. They are presented in red to symbolize the blood shed on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Fused applique. Pieced and embellished with scrabble tiles. Machine quilted by Maxine Moore. 51x72
• "Sailing Against the Wind" by Melinda Rushing (2026) — John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He fulfilled many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalized racial segregation in the United States. In 1965, Lewis led the first of three Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. In an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday, state troopers and police attacked the marchers, including Lewis. “I think my whole life has been one of sort of daring, and sort of sailing against the wind instead of just going with the wind.” To me, this quote speaks to both action and inaction. It is the thought of inaction that disturbs me. The thought of saying, “there’s nothing I can do.” Or, the “don’t rock the boat” mentality. This is not his most well-known quote, but it represents his fortitude and determination over his long and continuing struggle for civil rights in this country. We should all be a little more like John Lewis. The quilt is made of 8,580 1/2” squares. It is machine pieced and quilted. 42x51
• "Bridge to Peace" by Aisha Lumumba (2026) — John Lewis lived his life creating a bridge to peace. He was savagely beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He survived it and gave us his all in the fight for freedom and equality. I chose a young John Lewis picture because I think it shows the promise he exhibited early in life and fulfilled later with his dedication. 41x45
• "John Robert Lewis: The Boy from Troy" by Odessa Huff (2026) — My quilt was inspired by the knowledge that an early age, John Lewis preached to the chickens. As a young man his life reflected his love of God and obedience to God's word. Without a church or congregation to shepherd, throughout his life's journey, he was a vessel used by God and lived by example, a life that preached love in his daily work and deeds. The vessels represent his different areas of service to others. The trapunto stuffed vessels are made from ethnic prints appliqued to 12 patchwork squares. Embroidered and machine quilted by Valerie Hunter. 31x49
• Quilt 7 Detail (2026)
• "VOTE" by Brenda Shelby (2026) — I cast my vote for Congressman Lewis many times. My quilt was inspired by his quote, “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.” 13x46
• "Good Trouble is Necessary Trouble" by Joyce Little-Hill (2026) — Our first acquaintance was at Greenbrier Mall during his campaign. I was struck by his humility to serve unselfishly reaching all people. He even honored me with a photo of us together and an extended invitation to meet again. I thought of our introduction often while creating this quilt. In a sea of blight blanketed in a white cotton field of inequality--He weaved and blended himself in the middle of it all by stirring up "Good Trouble", stitching and quilting a cover of change. And yet though he found himself in the middle of it all, he remained surrounded by the borders of his heritage, always true to himself and to his people. Thank you, Congressman Lewis. 20x24
• "Five Lessons" by Brenda Shelby (2026) — While surfing the internet, I came across an article by Rashawn Ray (July 23, 2020) titled “Five Lessons John Lewis taught us about getting in ‘good trouble’.” I found good and trouble in the five lessons in big capital letters. It inspired me to quilt “good trouble and John Lewis’ outline on the quilt. 25x24
• "Inheriting Good Trouble" by Mary Maynard (2026) — John Lewis always took time for children and would talk to them about civil rights. In fact, I heard a story that one time he was talking with some adults and spotted some children nearby. He immediately left the adults and went to talk with the children. Fused applique, and pieced background and border. Machine quilted by Brenda Shelby. The words around the border are: John Lewis says "I want to see young people find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble. Speak up, speak out, and get in the way. Make good trouble.” 23x20
• "Good Trouble Bridge for Civil Rights" by Linda Poindexter (2026) — John Lewis was an African American man living in a "White" world. This wall hanging represents that and how he was willing to engage in nonviolent good trouble to make changes during the Civil Rights movement. He knew he was going to jail. Thus, he was a 'colored' man in a 'white world,'...#Good Trouble for Civil Rights. Paint on fabric. Machine outline stitched and quilted. 30x20
• "Remembering Mother Lewis" by Ora Clay (2026) — In his memoir Walking With the Wind, John Lewis said, “Whenever I did go home during the six years I was a member of SNCC, all my mother wanted to know was whether I was ok, whether I was well. We never discussed the marches or the arrests.” You can understand his mother’s concern about his safety. At the end of the Pettus Bridge in 1965, he was beaten by state troopers so badly his skull was fractured. As a result of his Freedom Rider activities, Lewis was imprisoned for 40 days in the notorious Mississippi State Penitentiary. By his own count, Lewis was arrested more than 40 times during his days of civil rights activism. In His Truth is Marching On, the author, Jon Meacham says this about Lewis and his mother: “He may have irritated her, but he was also learning from her, even if he didn’t quite realize it at the time. Her spirit, he remembered was unbreakable. It propelled her through the years, and long afterward Lewis came to see that the character of the woman whose fingers worked and worked and worked foreshadowed what drove her son to march and march and march.” Cotton fabrics, metallic fabric, cotton thread and metallic threads. Silk flower, pearl earring, and button embellishments, raw edge appliqué, machine quilted. 31x38
• "Register and Vote" by Rosalind Newell (2026) — My quilt is based upon a charcoal poster created by artist Kofi Bailey, depicting two strong black hands, one pulling cotton from a boll and the other putting a ballot in a box, with the words “HANDS THAT PICK COTTON NOW CAN PICK OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS” emblazoned at the bottom. John Lewis commissioned the poster when he became the Director of the Voter Education Project based in Atlanta, Georgia in 1970. The Voter Education Project coordinated voter registration campaigns of five noted civil rights organizations: CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and the Urban League. John Lewis’ goal was to get African Americans more involved in politics at all levels. Lewis, along with Julian Bond, took over 10,000 copies of this poster all over the south to motivate disenfranchised African Americans, particularly agricultural workers, to participate in the democratic process. During Mr. Lewis’ tenure at VEP (1970-1977) over 4 million African American voters were registered across in the southern U.S. Mr. Lewis resigned his post at the VEP to run for the U.S. Congressional seat in Atlanta that was vacated as a result of Andrew Young’s appointment as Ambassador to the U.N. My first encounter with Mr. Lewis was at an Ethics presentation he made to my Emory Law School class in 1985. After that, I had the privilege of being impacted by John Lewis on many occasions both formal and serendipitous throughout the years. I am inspired by Mr. Lewis’ steadfast commitment to bettering the lives of others, often at considerable danger to himself. John Lewis is an archetype of a servant leader who gave the best of himself to advance the Civil Rights Movement, the foundation of which is the right to cast your vote and participate in the political system. Machine pieced, embroidered, appliquéd, and professionally quilted by Maxine Moore. Embellished with actual cotton bolls, embroidered constitutional amendments, statutes, and case law. 45x60
• "Register and Vote" by Rosalind Newell (2026) — My quilt is based upon a charcoal poster created by artist Kofi Bailey, depicting two strong black hands, one pulling cotton from a boll and the other putting a ballot in a box, with the words “HANDS THAT PICK COTTON NOW CAN PICK OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS” emblazoned at the bottom. John Lewis commissioned the poster when he became the Director of the Voter Education Project based in Atlanta, Georgia in 1970. The Voter Education Project coordinated voter registration campaigns of five noted civil rights organizations: CORE, NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, and the Urban League. John Lewis’ goal was to get African Americans more involved in politics at all levels. Lewis, along with Julian Bond, took over 10,000 copies of this poster all over the south to motivate disenfranchised African Americans, particularly agricultural workers, to participate in the democratic process. During Mr. Lewis’ tenure at VEP (1970-1977) over 4 million African American voters were registered across in the southern U.S. Mr. Lewis resigned his post at the VEP to run for the U.S. Congressional seat in Atlanta that was vacated as a result of Andrew Young’s appointment as Ambassador to the U.N. My first encounter with Mr. Lewis was at an Ethics presentation he made to my Emory Law School class in 1985. After that, I had the privilege of being impacted by John Lewis on many occasions both formal and serendipitous throughout the years. I am inspired by Mr. Lewis’ steadfast commitment to bettering the lives of others, often at considerable danger to himself. John Lewis is an archetype of a servant leader who gave the best of himself to advance the Civil Rights Movement, the foundation of which is the right to cast your vote and participate in the political system. Machine pieced, embroidered, appliquéd, and professionally quilted by Maxine Moore. Embellished with actual cotton bolls, embroidered constitutional amendments, statutes, and case law. 45x60
• "Let's Get Into Good Trouble" by Janice Daniel (2026) — John Lewis was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a Freedom Rider, lead the demonstration known as "Bloody Sunday", and was a politician in Congress. His face reminds us to get in Good Trouble by activating with the community and to always vote. 46x58
• Quilt 16 Detail (2026)
• "John Lewis, American Hero" by Toni Presha (2026) — An American hero, John Lewis spent 37 days in jail as a freedom rider for Mississippi's civil rights. My quilt was inspired by that period in his life. 50x55
• "The Boy From Troy: Preacher to the Least of Us" by Jackie Jackson-Harvey (2026) — My quilt was created to capture the essence of a young John Robert Lewis as he practiced his “preaching” on the chickens his parents had put him in charge of, foreshadowing his path to the pulpit in service to mankind. Upon hearing Congressman Lewis recount, in person and in print, how he would pretend the chickens were his congregants, I was touched to learn how seriously one so young took on this responsibility. So dedicated and attached he became to the chickens he nurtured, he gave them names and performed baptisms and funerals for them. And when his mother chose one for the evening meal, young John refused to eat dinner and ran from the table in tears. In my mind’s eye, I imagine the chickadees of his Rhode Island reds, and the full breasted Sussex, Big Belle, scratching a trail to Selma, Alabama, ahead of the throng of civil rights activists as they prepared to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, on that fateful Bloody Sunday, in 1965, on their social justice march for the least of us. He stayed the course and finished his race. From the hen house in Troy, Alabama, to the people’s house in Washington, D.C., Congressman John Lewis surely earned an untroubled heavenly rest in God’s house. Cotton, machine embroidery, glued on popcorn kernels. Hand and machine appliquéd. Machine thread painted. 36x36
• "American Hero" by Marva Swanson (2026) — He grew up on his family’s farm as an Alabama sharecropper and attended segregated public schools. He became one of the most courageous persons in the Civil Rights Movement. He stood in the fields in rural Alabama preaching to the chickens. He dedicated his life to protecting human rights. He displayed a sense of ethics and morality. He was elected to Congress November 1986. He was an American hero.
• "Zipping Up Racism" by Elaine Foster (2026) — Although the name Edmund Pettus remains on the bridge today, this is my sole effort to erase away racist symbols of our past and zip into a more tolerant and diverse future. Machine and hand stitching and inspired by the late Civil Rights foot soldier John Lewis. While designing this quilt I deviated from the traditional quilting style and moved towards a more pictorial, scrap quilt method. 41x45
• "Light" by Tanya Heldman (2026) — People of the caliber of John Lewis are very rare. While he had the incredible strength and determination to fight like hell for social justice, he also was hopeful, kind, loving and empathic beyond measure. The world is a better place because of him. Very few of us will ever accomplish anything remotely near what John Lewis did, but he is forever a reminder that we all can do our part. I used the technique of paper piecing to construct my quilt. The background is made up primarily of small scraps in neutral colors. I used black and dark grey scraps for the quote. 49x58
• "John Lewis" by Toni Presha (2026) — When you hear the words good trouble you think of John Lewis as he battled voting right civil rights and human rights. 45x53
• "John Lewis" by Pat Batine (2026) — It was my honor and privilege to make a John Lewis quilt. John Lewis put his life on the line for all of us. He went to jail for all of us. His legacy will live on forever. I saw Mr. Lewis at Shannon Mall years ago and he stopped and talked to me like he knew me, I will never forget that day. I started this quilt with a tee shirt with a picture of John Lewis and several of his famous saying. I added only a few of the many things he did in his lifetime, there are just too many to count. Photos printed on fabric. Free motion quilted. 43x31
• John Lewis" by Pat Batine (2026) — It was my honor and privilege to make a John Lewis quilt. John Lewis put his life on the line for all of us. He went to jail for all of us. His legacy will live on forever. I saw Mr. Lewis at Shannon Mall years ago and he stopped and talked to me like he knew me, I will never forget that day. I started this quilt with a tee shirt with a picture of John Lewis and several of his famous saying. I added only a few of the many things he did in his lifetime, there are just too many to count. Photos printed on fabric. Free motion quilted. 43x31
• Quilt 24 Detail (2026)
• "John Lewis Drum Major For Justice" by Linda Asbury (2026) — The quilt I designed includes a quote by John Lewis. “If not us then who? If not now, then when?” Congressman Lewis frequently talked about the urgency of now and how each one of us needs to be actively involved in the struggle for civil rights. He encouraged us not to ever get discouraged. I was impressed by his gentleness of spirit, kindness and phenomenal leadership. Mixed media. 10x10
• Quilt 26 Detail (2026)
• "Good Trouble" by Lillie Fowler Singleton (2026) — To get the feel of how I wanted to make a quilt to honor John Lewis I looked at several of his pictures on the Internet. The thing that struck my interest were the strings that they used to hang the plaques around his neck displaying his prison number. The look on his face was not one of shamefulness but of a distinct pride. The trouble he was in was for a good cause. The strings held his badge of courage! I used almost 1100 two-inch squares to make this quilt. Some might say it would be a lot of trouble to put this many small squares
together, but I call it a "Good Trouble" to honor a great man. 62x73
• "Well Deserved Medal" by Brenda Shelby (2026) — After searching for pictures of Congressman Lewis, I knew that the picture of him receiving the Medal of Freedom was the quilt I wanted to make. I am glad that I could also include President Barack Obama. 22x22
• Quilt 28 Full (2026)
• Quilt 29 Detail (2026)
• Quilt 30 Detail (2026)
• "Good Trouble Library" by O.V. Brantley (2026) — I love books. I wanted to honor the books Congressman Lewis wrote as I imagined some of the books that inspired him. Cotton fabric. Paper pieced. Embellished with printed words and embroidery. Machine quilted by Maxine Moore. 38x51
• "One Family" by Cindy Feathers (2026) — This piece is my tribute to Congressman John Lewis who dedicated his life to unifying people and working tirelessly for equal rights and freedoms for all. With the difficulties the country and the world face today, now more than ever, we need to live his words "one people ...one family". Congressman Lewis continues to inspire us to take seriously our responsibility to each other to affect positive change. Cotton, polyester, paint, marker. Hand and machine stitched. 28x35
• "Don't Suppress my Voice" by Yvonne Little (2026) — John Lewis was an icon of the Civil rights movement. He served the nation and the southwest Atlanta community diligently throughout his life. My quilts Secure your Vote and Voter Suppression are inspired by his lifelong mission of securing and protecting the vote. Cotton with a John Lewis quote and a variety of Voter suppression headlines appliqued and quilted with red and blue star buttons. 20x24
• "Remembering John Lewis" by Vicki Lord (2026) — I lived in Selma, Alabama in 1973 and it was there, in the shadow of the Edmund Pettis Bridge, that I learned about John Lewis and the Freedom March. For me that bridge is a symbol of John Lewis and his call to change. Fused appliqué. 30x19
• Quilt 34 Detail (2026)
• "The Boy from Troy" by Peggy Martin (2026) — John Lewis exemplified the quote, “A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him” – David Brinkley. John Lewis was my hero. Throughout his life he walked tall, fought against segregation, fought for voting rights, and never wavered in his commitment to the American people. Hand pieced and quilted using significant pictures of John Lewis’ life and using the fabric photo transfer process. Machine quilted by Maxine Moore. 50x50

About the creator

"Good Trouble...Louder!" Legacy and Future in Anacostia curated by Rhonda Henderson, developed by Black Meta Agency on Galerra