Mounds and Mosaics - June 2016

While teaching a workshop at the Weavers Guild of St Louis, I stayed with weaver/teacher/author John Mullarkey and Dean Klinkenberg, otherwise known as the Mississippi Valley Traveler. What a treat to encounter a love of textiles and history in the same household. When teaching an out-of-area workshop I always hope for a field trip to local sights, and John was gracious enough to make that happen. One outing was to Cahokia Mounds, where the Mississippian people had constructed  more than 120 earthen mounds, one of which is the largest prehistoric earthen work in the Americas. Here we are standing in front of it!

Another day we went to the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, which has some of the most beautiful mosaics I have ever seen. You can see more of the mosaics HERE.

But this archdiocese is about much more than pretty mosaics. During our tour I learned about Archbishop Joseph Ritter's commitment to the civil rights movement in St Louis and beyond. In 1946, his first year in St. Louis, he instructed all pastors in the archdiocese to end racial segregation in the parochial schools. (The U.S. Supreme Court would not take the same action with the nation's public schools until 1954.) He also asked the human rights commission under the Archdiocese of St. Louis to answer Martin Luther King's call for participation in the second Selma march following the "Bloody Sunday" attack of demonstrators by Alabama state troopers. Two mornings later, a chartered plane headed to Selma with a contingent of 50 faith-based leaders.

For those who are interested, HERE is an interview with Sister Antonia Ebo, who participated in the second Selma march and HERE is background information on Charles Vatterott, who chartered the airplane.

And yes, this entry is more about history than textiles, but on occasion that's what you get from the history teacher's daughter...