The Art of the Disenfranchised: Harriet Powers’ Quilt Stories

This unit was created by the Joy Village team as part of the 2023 cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. It is designed for facilitation across approximately four-five class periods.

Objectives

Students will…

• Cite evidence of Black disenfranchisement from primary and secondary sources. 
• Identify examples of disenfranchisement in the life of Harriet Powers.
• Analyze various art forms to identify how they function to resist oppressive systems and affirm the disenfranchised.
• Create an art piece that “tells a story” about a contemporary issue of disenfranchisement.

Unit Overview

In this unit, students will explore the themes of disenfranchisement and resistance found in the story of renowned African American quilter Harriet Powers. Our unit activates students’ prior knowledge of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and invites them into the followings essential questions through engagement with several resources from The 1619 Project and other related texts: 

• What is disenfranchisement?
• How did Black Americans experience disenfranchisement in the New South? 
• How was Harriet Powers disenfranchised?
• How have people who have been disenfranchised used art as a tool of resistance?
• What’s the story you want to tell, and why?

Our hope is that by observing the story of Harriet Powers, and other artists who have been disenfranchised, students will come away from this unit able to utilize art-making as a strategy for resistance in the face of oppression and disenfranchisement in their own lives.

Performance Task:

For the culminating project, students will create an art piece that “tells a story” about a contemporary issue of disenfranchisement. Students will first demonstrate their grasp on the unit’s vocabulary by identifying a contemporary example of disenfranchisement. Next, students will apply the strategy of art-making as a tool for resistance that they learned from Harriet Powers, and other disenfranchised artists, by creating their own art piece. Student artwork will be assessed using the 1619 Project Days 4-5 Art Piece Rubric. [.pdf][.docx]

Assessment/Evaluation:

Formative Assessments:

• Day 1 Student Document: 1619 Project Day 1 Student Worksheet: What is Disenfranchisement? [.pdf][.docx]
• Public Service Announcement on Day 1
• 1619 Project Day 2 Analyzing Disenfranchisement in the life of Harriet Powers Worksheet
• 1619 Project Day 3 Disenfranchised Art Inquiry Worksheet [.pdf][.docx]
• 1619 Project Day 3 Disenfranchised Art Inquiry Worksheet [.pdf][.docx]

Summative Assessment:1619 Project Days 4-5 Art Piece Rubric [.pdf][.docx]

Four lessons implemented over one to two weeks that include pacing, texts, teaching materials, and multimedia resources. Download below, or scroll down to review key resources included in the unit plan.

Unit Resources

Georgia Standards: Historical Understandings, Georgia Studies
Standard SS8H7: Evaluate key political, social, and economic changes that occurred in Georgia during the New South Era. b. Analyze how rights were denied to African Americans or Blacks through Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, disenfranchisement, and racial violence, including the 1906 Atlanta Riot.

The following examples capture engagement by eighth grade social studies students from Athens, Georgia who engaged with this unit in fall 2023.

1. Students start the unit by exploring the terms "enfranchisement" and "disenfranchisement" through analysis of excerpts from the The 1619 Project: A New Origin and the first episode of the 1619 Project podcast. By the end of the first lesson, students create visuals capturing their definitions of the term, "disenfranchisement."

2. Next, students read about the history African American quilter Harriet Powers and evaluate evidence of disenfranchisement and resilience in her story and work.

3. Students follow their analysis of work by Harriet Powers by evaluating different ways art has been used throughout history as a form of resistance. Students start by predicting different ways artists have used art to address contemporary issues and then comparing their predictions to art by five artists utilizing different art mediums.

4. At the conclusion of the unit, students reflect on evidence of disenfranchisement as a result of contemporary issues and then create art to communicate those stories. The images below capture students' final pieces