MoCoLMP’s Annual Gathering 2025: Leaves of Redemption Quilts

Kentucky quilt

Fifty MoCoLMP members and new friends gathered at the lovely Seekers Church in Takoma Park to learn about slavery and emancipation in 1860s Montgomery County, to talk about what MoCoLMP volunteers have found this year, and to see the fabulous quilts designed by Lynda Tredway for her “The Lynching Trees: Leaves of Redemption” project.

Lynda, wearing a T-shirt with a photo of Ida B. Wells, explained that she is creating a quilt for each of the states where lynchings occured, to represent everyone who has been lynched in America. She uses an image of a leaf or pine needle from each state tree to symbolize each known death by lynching. The quilt shown on the left is for Kentucky. The state tree is the yellow poplar, and there have been 353 documented lynchings in Kentucky, each shown as a leaf on this quilt.

There were 38 documented lynchings in Maryland.

Lynda Tredway discussed how she came to create her quilt project and she conducted the research to identify the names of victims.