PAUL F WESLEY
Linda Salley
by Cynthia Marone
The quilts Linda Salley creates always tell a story, such as the one she crafted about life in the 1960s. Two years after her retirement in 2003, Linda began teaching fabric, design and creation to a group of women at a senior center. It was here that the quilters became the ones to tell a story to Linda, one that is a hidden history that connects to Boone Farm then and to the African American Museum of Bucks County today.
“Once they learned how to sew and really had it down, they felt comfortable—it took almost a year, maybe a year and a half—talking about their personal lives,” Linda, president and executive director of the African American Museum of Bucks County, said of the group she worked with for a total of three years. “For African Americans, everything is a secret. You have to understand what African Americans went through. Their life is not like your life. They went through some struggles. They have to believe in you. They have to believe that you won’t do anything to hurt them.”
Honored to hear their stories, Linda listened as their tales of traveling from Southern states to Northern ones were relived right in front of her. The women told of their respective escapes from violent racism, such as the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi, segregationist policies and economic exploitation and their searches for safety, stability and work that became known as the Great Migration.
From about 1916 to 1970, more than six million African Americans left their homes behind and Philadelphia, whose African American population grew by 500% from 1910 to 1920, was just one stop during this exodus. “They told me how they left different Southern states because of the killing of African Americans. These were all sharecroppers. They worked farms, and they were always cheated out of their money,”
Linda, whose quilts were shown in the 2014 Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle exhibit “A Selection of Quilts by Linda Salley in Honor of the African American Museum of Bucks County” as a companion to the “For All the World to See: Visual Culture & The Struggle for Civil Rights” exhibit, said. “They found out Boone Farm was hiring. They worked and received regular pay. They saved their money, bought homes, raised their children and gave their children a better life.”
The impact of these oral histories from the group known as Young at Heart reverberate today but also echo through the decades, all the way back to Boone Farm. The county-owned land in Middletown Township that was so crucial to the African American experience in the 20th century is set to become the permanent home of the African American Museum of Bucks County in the 21st century. Linda, a founding member of the mobile museum that launched in 2014, can see its future as clearly as the women in the quilting circle could recall their pasts. “They were trying to find a better life, but there is no documentation of it—a story told by older women sitting around a table sewing. A story must be told, the untold stories of African Americans in Bucks County and beyond, of people with a resilience to live,” Linda said, noting that recording the experiences of everyday people is in addition to the museum’s longtime work of chronicling the achievements and lives of those who are well known.
As the two historic structures on the farm are being prepared, including an ongoing design phase with architect and co-founder of Kelly/Maiello Architects, Emanuel Kelly, Linda sees the museum’s potential. She sees storytelling gatherings, a video room, a library and rotating exhibits. Linda intends to continue the mobile museum’s tours, which have gone to schools, senior centers, businesses, libraries and faith-based organizations, as well as its documentary screenings, art and music presentations, speaker series and more. She also does not see the museum’s pandemic relief program, which partnered with supermarkets and churches to aid families impacted by COVID-19, going away either. “I want the museum to be a key member of the community. It will be a place where everyone can come, a healing place. You are gathering knowledge on a race of people you never knew about. It’s the beginning of healing a nation,” Linda, who added that this is the first African American museum in the county, said. “We are working on a lot of different projects, unifying everyone to feel comfortable to come and join us. That’s our goal.”
Listening and learning are part of the museum’s foundation and both are very familiar to Linda. After all, they are integral to the work of educators. Linda, a 45-year Levittown resident who was born and raised in Queens, N.Y., earned a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from the College of New Rochelle in New York. She embarked on a career as an educator in New York and as an administrator with the New York City Board of Education before her retirement 18 years ago. It was shortly after that that she began teaching. “Am I teacher at heart? Yes,” she said.
Linda said, “I love fashion. During the ’60s, I loved sewing and making clothes. That was my thing.” Linda, who has been married to husband Alonzo for 50 years and has four children and 10 grandchildren said, “I would make these elaborate dashikis and everybody wanted one. I told my father, ‘Oh, I’ll be a model, then I’m going to design clothes and I’ll have my own shop.’ He looked at me like, ‘Are you crazy? I’m not sending you to school to do that!’”
With her designer’s eye it is no surprise her favorite artifact at the museum is the elaborate jewelry from various African tribes that had been created for wedding celebrations. The jewelry gives museum audiences a glimpse into the rich history, artistry and culture of Africa, as many of the museum’s artifacts do, but the jewelry in particular has given Linda insight into her own past. “It kind of helped me understand why, as a people, we always adorn ourselves with elaborate clothing, hats and jewelry. I remember on Sundays how my parents would get all dressed up with beautiful clothing and jewelry. I said, ‘Oh, so it was always in our nature to wear elaborate clothing,’” Linda has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Langhorne for 14 years where she is the financial secretary and a member of the choir.
The museum has two ongoing exhibits of its “Building on the Dream: From Africa to Bucks County.” One is hosted by The Parry Mansion Museum, 45 S. Main St., in New Hope, while the other is at the Bucks County Visitor Center, 3207 Street Road, in Bensalem. Different artifacts are on display at each, but the message, mission and meaning are the same: to pay tribute to the lives, culture, accomplishments and contributions of African Americans in Bucks County and beyond from their roots in Africa to today. “It’s our history,” Linda said. “Every day there’s history—every day—with stories that need to be told.”
The African American History Museum of Bucks County is accepting donations via mail at 215 E. Richardson Ave., Langhorne, PA 19047, and online at www.infoaambc.org/donate. All donations are tax-deductible.