Just Another Southern Town: Mary Church Terrell and the Struggle for Racial justice in the Nation's Capital

"Besides, you ain't going North, not the real North. You going to Washington. It's just another southern town." Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

In 1950, five years before Rosa Parks remained seated on a bus, a party of four meet at Thompson's Restaurant in Washington, D.C. The group included  ninety-year-old Mary Church Terrell. Mary wanted to challenge the legality of segregation in the nation's capital, a tricky legal question for a city that in 1874 lost the right to elect their own governance or congressional representation. Anti-discrimination laws had not been enforced in D.C., which was "just another Southern town" under Jim Crow segregation. At an age when most men and women were content to pass the baton to younger hands, Mary took a stand for justice.

Mary was born in 1863, the year of the Emancipation Proclamation, the daughter of former slaves. She had known Fredrick Douglas and died the year of Brown vs. Board of Education, her ninety years spanning Reconstruction to segregation and lynchings to activism and the legal dismantling of segregation. A college graduate, young Mary longed to make a difference. Harvard law graduate Robert H. Terrell pressured her to marry and she finally gave her hand. Mary underwent miscarriages, raised a daughter, and ran the household while juggling a career as a public speaker, reformer, and writer.

Just Another Southern Town by Joan Quigly is a biography of a woman torn between the demands of family and her desire to change the world. It is also the story of race relations in America and in our capital city, a detailed history of the legal battle of the District of Columbia v. John R. Thompson Co, Inc. which in 1953 ended the segregation of restaurants.

I enjoyed learning more about Mary Church Terrell. She was elegant and well dressed, with a "flair for self-promotion." Her marriage was based on intellectual equality, but she and Robert differed in all other ways, including politically. Robert was a joiner, an extrovert, and his government position as the first black American judge required avoiding controversy. Robert was friends with Booker T. Washington; Mary was friends with W. E. DuBois and became radicalized in her older years.

Quigley sets Mary's life in context of her times and highlights her role in the long march towards social equality and justice. The court cases could have been deadly reading in less capable hands. I am glad to have learned more about Mary and about this part of the history of Civil Rights.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Mary Church Terrell on my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet

Just Another Southern Town
by Joan Quigley
Oxford University Press
$29.95 hard cover
Publication Date: February 1, 2016
ISBN:9780199371518

Depression Era Dresden Plate Quilt Top

I found a Depression Era Dresden Plate quilt top at the Royal Oak Flea Market. The seller said,
"Today only, $20." I happened to have $20. So it came home with me!

The 84" x 83" top is hand appliquéd and hand embroidered. The Dresden Plate fabrics look pristine; they were bought new and show no fading or wear. They may be machine pieced as I can not see any hand stitching. The muslin has some yellowing, but it is a good weight and not thin and the thread count is good. The corners of the plate blocks have a lavender appliquéd piece that makes an interesting secondary design.

I discovered that my friend Theresa was also at the flea market and bought a Hexie quilt!

Next door to where I bought my quilt top a lady had two kit quilts on display. She said she had lost the paper with who made the floral bouquet quilt but believed it was dated to 1949.

She had this crib kit quilt which I have seen before. It was for sale for $95. She thought it was from the 1950s.

Quilts were being used as table toppers.

 I liked this two color star quilt because I rarely see a brown and white quilt.

Happy Chinese New Year

I designed and made this dragon quilt for my son when he was in college. I used a shiny metallic look cotton fabric for the background.

Fusible appliqué, machine thread work, machine quilted.

A Woman, Her Dogs, and The Iditirod Trail

The Iditarod is nothing I would ever, ever, ever want to be a part of. I don't like the cold, or discomfort, or pain, or sleep deprivation. I don't like risks and venturing into the unknown. Which is perhaps why I love to read about people who do such amazing things.

I enjoyed reading this book about Moderow's journey from Manhattan Paralegal to twice taking on the hardest journey of 1,000 miles across Alaska, over frozen rivers and through cruel, blasting snow storms. Moderow's love for her dogs is central, even when they jeopardize her win. Each musher is described personally, central figures in the story.

The brutal conditions and privations of the trail, the vagaries of weather and canine willfulness, are described in sure, flowing prose.

Moderow attempted the Iditarod in 2003 and finished on her second try in 2005.

I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Fast Into the Night: A Woman, Her Dogs, and their Journey North on the Iditarod Trail by Debbie Clarke Moderow
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication February 2, 2016
ISBN:13:978054444744

A Marshall Field's 100th Anniversary Handkerchief

I found this handkerchief on eBay. I knew it had a story and I wanted to know what it was. (It dated to the year of my birth--1952!)

The words "The Clock Strikes 100"appear next to a clock face-- a very specific looking clock-- in a field of repeated 100s. Around the border are drawings of buildings, people, and modes of transportation dated 1852, 1901, and 1952.

I goggled the motto and discovered that the clock is the famous Marshall Field clock at their Chicago flagship store. It was installed in 1871 as a beacon to the store which Field envisioned as a meeting place. (Which reminds me of the saying, "Meet Me At the Eagle" for John Wanamaker's in Philadelphia! Another large downtown store with an atrium--and pipe organ! See a souvenir hanky with the Eagle here.) 

The Clock Mender by Norman Rockwell features the Marshall Field Clock; Saturday Evening Post, 1945

You can see photos of the store and the clock here.  The Marshall Field & Company building is a Chicago landmark and is the second largest store in the world. The original building was lost in the great Chicago fire. Marshall Field moved into a new store in 1871. Additions were continuously made until 1914 and it reigned as the largest store in the world, covering 73 acres! 

I found many more Marshall Field 100 years handkerchiefs shared on Handkerchief Heroes.

I had no idea what I was going to learn when I bought this hanky! 

Valentines and Romantic Quilts

For February our local library has a display of vintage valentines and 'romantic' quilts have been hung.

 

 Shirley L. made this vintage handkerchief quilt embellished with machine embroidery.

 My handkerchief/pillowcase/embellished wall hanging.

I used an embroidered pillow case as my surface

I love that handkerchief so much when I saw another I snatched it up!

And my Vintage Rose is there, made from an embroidered doily, vintage quilt pieces, and embellishments.

I have some vintage valentines in my collection. I made turned several images into embroidered patterns; one has handkerchief points in the border. I sell the patterns at Rosemont Needle Arts on Etsy.

Some of my vintage valentine cards:

Quilts Presidential and Patriotic by Sue Reich, Including My John Quincy Adams Contribution!

Sue Reich's book Quilts Presidential and Patriotic is out! In 2015 Sue asked for people to take on making a 24" x 24" quilt for a president to be part of a traveling exhibit of President quilts. I jumped at the chance to do John Quincy Adams, having just read a biography of his wife Catherine Louisa. I proceeded to read books about JQ in preparation, including The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin;  The Stranger and the Statesman by Nina Burleigh about JQ's championing the Smithsonian legacy being used to institute a national museum; and Mr. Adam's Last Crusade by Joseph Wheelan The last was the most exciting, telling of his post-presidential career in congress and his Supreme Court win for the freedom of the Amistad kidnapped Africans. When I read thank you letters to JQ from the Africans I knew I had discovered the 'hook' to make JQ appealing and relevant.

The quilt exhibit has been traveling the country this year and Sue will present a paper at the American Quilt Study Group in September 2016.

John Quincy Adams by N. Bekofske

Quilts Presidential and Patriotic includes the President quilts, information about each president and quilt, including quilt styles of their administration, an artist's statement, and quilts, textiles, and news articles relating to the president's time in office. There is a whopping 330 photographs and illustrations in the 192 page book! I was thrilled when Sue asked to include my original Redwork quilt of the First Ladies, Remember the Ladies. Laura Bush from my quilt is featured on her husband's pages.

Hilary Clinton and Laura Bush from Remember the Ladies by N. Bekofske

Sue is the author of World War I Quilts, World War II Quilts, Quiltings, Frolics, and Bees, and Quilting News of Yesteryear.