In the bicentennial year of 1976, Arcola Pettway remade the American flag using strips of avocado green, brown, and tan corduroy left over from the Freedom Quilting Bee’s contract with Sears, Roebuck and Co. Founded a decade prior, the Bee served as a way for the gifted quilters of Wilcox County to earn a living wage through sewing and to raise funds for the Civil Rights Movement. The weight of the corduroy Pettway used in this quilt would have made anyone who slept under it feel extra protected.