Sit-in

Ed Johnetta Miller, Sit-in, 2016, cotton fabric and cotton batt, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.9, © 2023, Ed Johnetta Miller
Copied Ed Johnetta Miller, Sit-in, 2016, cotton fabric and cotton batt, 36 1⁄2 × 37 3⁄8 in. (92.7 × 94.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.9, © 2023, Ed Johnetta Miller

Artwork Details

Title
Sit-in
Artist
Date
2016
Location
Dimensions
36 1⁄2 × 37 3⁄8 in. (92.7 × 94.9 cm)
Copyright
© 2023, Ed Johnetta Miller
Credit Line
Gift of Fleur S. Bresler
Mediums
Mediums Description
cotton fabric and cotton batt
Classifications
Subjects
  • Occupation — other — reformer
  • African American
  • Figure group
Object Number
2023.40.9
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2023.40.9

Artwork Description

Ed Johnetta Miller 
born 1945, Spartanburg, SC
resides Hartford, CT

Student Sit-In
2016
cotton fabric and cotton batting

Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Ed Johnetta Miller experienced the sit-in movement up close. An elder gave her newspaper clippings which she arranged in an improvisational way and then scanned and transferred to this quilt top. 

The clippings offer glimpses of the college students who came to be known as the Greensboro Four after they staged a sit-in at the segregated lunch counter of Woolworth’s department store in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1960. Their efforts sparked a larger movement that reached fifty-five cities in thirteen states, all listed on the right side of the quilt, and ultimately contributed to the desegregation of public spaces nationwide. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Fleur S. Bresler, 2023.40.9


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