In the Mind's Eye

It started with a group of high school students presenting a quilt they'd made as a gift to the Martinsville, West Virginia, city council. It ended with one council member accusing the students of racial insensitivity and reducing some of them to tears. Students from the Piedmont Governor's School made the quilt, and they were trying to explain how each of the squares represented their educational journey. But council woman Sharon Brooks-Hodge was fixated on a black figure on the quilt, calling it offensive to blacks and a "negative image." Even after students explained that it represented them at the start of their journey, she still insisted it was offensive. When questioned about her remarks by a local TV station, Hodge said "I am not one of your locally home grown house negroes. I don't shuffle, I don't tap dance, and I don't take out the garbage."