
QUILT INDEX RECORD
12-8-10548
Where are the records for this quilt housed?
Michigan State University Museum
Who documented this quilt?
Michigan Quilt Project; The Henry Ford Collection; Black Diaspora Quilt History Project
If this quilt is owned by a museum, enter the accession number:
2021.151.1
Essay:
Quiltmaker Thomas Knauer created "Tea and Skittles" in memory of Trayvon Martin and to help call attention to the systemic racism experienced by people of color. Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American high school student, was tragically shot in February 2012 while returning home after buying snacks at a local convenience store in Sanford, Florida, by volunteer neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman. Martin's death heightened the debate over the persistence of racism and racial profiling in the United States. Tea and Skittles quilt. Designed, sewn, and machine-quilted by Thomas Knauer, Clinton, New York, 2016.
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Trayvon Martin's death heightened a debate over the persistence of racism in the United States and in particular over the issue of racial profiling. Trayvon Benjamin Martin was born in Florida on February 5, 1995 to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who divorced four years later. Martin attended public schools in Florida, including the Dr. Michael M. Krop High School in Miami Gardens. His favorite
subject was math. Tall and athletically inclined, the often-quiet Martin was fascinated with airplanes and studying aviation. Yet he had also started to have problems at school, receiving suspensions at different times. In late February 2012, Martin spent his third high school suspension visiting his father and his father's fiancée, Brandy Green, at Green's home in a gated community, The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida. In response to a rash of robberies and burglaries, the residents of the community had established a neighborhood watch in September 2011. George Zimmerman, one of the residents, was selected as the program coordinator. He regularly patrolled the streets and was licensed to carry a firearm. From August 2011 to February 2012, Zimmerman had called police several times to state he had seen individuals whom he had deemed as suspicious. All of the reported figures were Black males. On the evening of February 26, 2012, Zimmerman saw Martin, who was walking home after purchasing Skittles and iced tea. From his SUV, Zimmerman called the police department at 7:11 p.m. to report a "suspicious guy." Trayvon Martin, who had been walking between homes, then began to run when he noticed someone following him. The police dispatcher told Zimmerman not to get out of his car and follow
Martin, with Zimmerman disregarding instructions and pursuing the teen. Martin and Zimmerman--whom it is believed never identified himself as part of a community watch--encountered each other in circumstances that have remained unclear and conflicted. The confrontation ended with Zimmerman shooting the unarmed teenager in the chest. Martin died less than a hundred yards from the door of the townhouse in which he was staying. When an officer arrived on the scene at 7:17 p.m., he found Martin dead and Zimmerman on the ground, bleeding from wounds to the head and face. The officer then took Zimmerman, who claimed he shot Martin in self-defense, into custody. Zimmerman was shortly released with no charges filed, because the police found no evidence to refute Zimmerman's claim of having acted in self-defense. The case quickly became a social media phenomenon and national story, with Zimmerman's critics alleging that racial bias may have motivated his actions. President Barack Obama called for the case to be investigated. He noted that Black men in the United States, including himself, commonly suffered racial profiling. In the following weeks the shooting, as Zimmerman remained uncharged, the shooting drew increasing attention. On March 12 the chief of the Sanford Police Department affirmed that no criminal charge could be filed against Zimmerman, mainly because of the absence of probable cause. A day later, however, a Sanford police investigator assigned to the case recommended that Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter, on the basis that the violent encounter between the two men could have been avoided. Zimmerman remained free, which was seen by many as an injustice, and demonstrations demanding his prosecution for murder were organized in cities across the United States. In April 2012 the governor of Florida, Rick Scott, appointed a special prosecutor for the case, who brought a criminal charge of second-degree murder against Zimmerman. The trial began more than a year later, on June 24, 2013, after the selection of an all-female jury. Zimmerman's trial received intensive media coverage. The prosecution argued that Martin's death resulted from Zimmerman's profiling of him as a criminal and trying to take the law into his own hands. The defense argued that the evidence corroborated Zimmerman's version of the event—namely, that he fired his weapon because Martin was attacking him and that he felt that his life was threatened. Central elements of the incident, however, could not be ascertained. For instance, witnesses disagreed on which of the two men could be heard screaming for help on a recorded call to emergency services. Although the original criminal charge brought against Zimmerman was second-degree murder, the judge also gave the jury the option of convicting him of the lesser charge of manslaughter. In order to find Zimmerman guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter, the jury had to find not only that Zimmerman had caused Martin's death but also that he did not do so in self-defense. The issue of self-defense was linked to Florida's law permitting the use of deadly force to defend oneself against a perceived threat—known as a "stand-your-ground" law—which was central to debate over the shooting. Instructions to the jury referenced the law, but Zimmerman's lawyers ultimately did not invoke Zimmerman's rights under it, because, they argued,
he did not have the option to retreat anyway. On July 13, 2013, after more than 16 hours of deliberation, the jury declared Zimmerman not guilty. The verdict triggered mostly peaceful protests in several American cities. The day after the verdict was delivered, the NAACP posted a petition formally requesting the Justice Department to open a civil rights case against George Zimmerman. Within hours, 130,000 people had signed the petition. A nationwide poll conducted for The Washington Post and ABC News found sharp divisions along racial and political lines over the shooting and over the jury's verdict. Nearly 90% of African Americans called the shooting unjustified, compared to 33% of whites; and some 62% of Democrats disapproved of the verdict, compared to 20% of Republicans. A Pew Research Center poll also found large differences in reactions to the trial verdict according to age. The majority of Americans younger than 30 expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict (53% to 29%), while the reaction was reversed for those age 65 and older (50% satisfied versus 33% dissatisfied). During and following the trial, Facebook users started posting the phrase "Black lives matter," which would inspire the Black Lives Matter movement, a decentralized political and social movement protesting against incidents of police brutality and all
racially motivated violence against Blacks. During the three years following Trayvon Martin's death, the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigated Zimmerman on civil rights charges. In February 2015, the DOJ concluded there was not sufficient evidence that Zimmerman intentionally violated the civil rights of Martin, saying the Zimmerman case did not meet the "high standard" for a federal hate crime prosecution. No additional charges were filed.1
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter
; https://www.britannica.com/event/shooting-of-Trayvon-Martin
; https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/trayvon-martin.
This is a:
Finished quilt
Quilt's title:
Tea and Skittles
How wide is the quilt?
40"
How long is the quilt?
48"
Shape of edge:
Straight
Describe the quilt's layout:
Pictorial
Piecing techniques used to make the quilt top:
Machine Piecing
How are the layers held together?
Machine quilting
Describe the quilting designs used:
non-computerized) by Rachael Dorr in Bronxville, NY.
Quilt's condition:
Excellent/like new
When was the quilt finished?
2016
Time period:
2000-2025
Why was the quilt made?
Memorial; Mourning
Quilt is presently used as:
Museum collection
Where the quilt was made, city:
Clinton
Where the quilt was made, state:
New York (NY)
Where the quilt was made, country:
United States
Biography of the quiltmaker?
Thomas Knauer (born October 3, 1972) spent his childhood years in a number of places, but considers the Detroit area (Bloomfield Hills) home since he spent his high school years there. Knauer earned a BA in Studio Arts from Kenyon College in 1994, an MFA in Sculpture
from Ohio University in 1998, and an MFA in Print/Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2002. Thomas Knauer was a professor of art and design at Drake University and the State University of New York before turning to quilting in 2010. Knauer has designed fabrics for several leading manufacturers, including six fabric collections for Andover Fabrics. His quilts have been exhibited in quilt shows and museums across the country, including the International Quilt Study Center & Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and the Quilt Festival in Houston. His work focuses on issues of social justice and violence. Knauer is the author of Why We Quilt, as well as two previous books, including The Quilt Design Coloring Workbook.
Tea and Skittles was inspired not only by the senseless killing of Trayvon Martin, but also by the fact that people made Trayvon Martin shooting targets to profit off of his death. The idea of taking the image of a seventeen-year-old boy and making his death a rallying cry for stand your ground laws made me ill. Thus this quilt. In using applique to reproduce that shooting target onto a baby quilt I wanted to juxtapose the intimacy of the quilt format against the brutality of Trayvon's killing, in essence making his death an intimate reality. Further, the quilt is quilted with excerpted text from Trayvon's obituary, one in which his family showed remarkable grace in the face of their horrific loss. My goal for this piece is to draw together the intimate and the abhorrent into a single object, disallowing any breathing space for the viewer. I want the pain of Trayvon's murder to felt closely, and to be remembered in perpetuity.
---Thomas Knauer, August 26, 2021
Quilt top made by:
Knauer, Thomas
Quilted by:
Knauer, Thomas
Quiltmaker's ethnic background/tribal affiliation:
African American
Quilt owner's name:
The Henry Ford
Source of the information on this quilt:
Museum employee
Ownership of this quilt is:
Public Museum, Library, or Institution
Quilt owner's city:
Dearborn
Quilt owner's county:
Wayne
Quilt owner's state:
Michigan (MI)
Quilt owner's country:
United States
Access and copyright information:
Restricted
Copyright holder:
The Henry Ford, all rights reserved.
When was the form filled out?
2024-08-05
Who photographed this quilt?
Photos courtesy of The Henry Ford.
Details
Cite this Quilt
Knauer, Thoma. Tea and Skittles. 2016. From Michigan State University Museum, Michigan Quilt Project; The Henry Ford Collection; Black Diaspora Quilt History Project. Published in The Quilt Index, https://quiltindex.org/view/?type=fullrec&kid=12-8-10548. Accessed: 06/15/25
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