August 10 – 12, 2007
These restored messages come from the Quilt History List, an online forum where quilt historians, collectors, researchers, appraisers, and enthusiasts discussed antique quilts and related textiles. The archive dates from 1996 through approximately 2016 and is being restored gradually. Sign up in the form at the bottom of the page if you want to know when a new page is added. Original spelling, opinions, formatting, and inactive links may remain unchanged.
Primary topics of this QHL Digest:
- A Klan-Robes Quilt Sparks a Wide-Ranging Historical Discussion — News of a quilt made from repurposed KKK robes leads to an extended discussion of how such an object should be documented, preserved, or donated to a museum.
- Swastika Symbolism in Quilts Before World War II — A related side discussion traces the swastika’s older, non-Nazi meanings as a traditional quilt and textile motif.
- Members Share Family Histories Connected to the Klan — Several members disclose their own family connections to Klan activity in their communities, adding personal historical context to the discussion.
- Where Should a Klan-Robes Quilt Be Preserved? — The thread turns practical, weighing museum donation and other preservation options, and notes an existing KKK-related quilt already documented in Uncoverings. (see the article on repair, restore, or conserve)
- Recapping an African Heritage and Textiles Museum Lecture — A member recaps a museum lecture on African heritage and textiles attended the previous year. (see the article on quilt museums)
- Testing Old Silk Thread Before Reuse — A brief follow-up on how to test whether decades-old silk thread is still strong enough to use.
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:45:53 -0700 | From: “Alan”
It would seem to me that, whether or not we find the KKK distasteful, that a quilt made from member’s robes would be important. It had never occurred to me that anyone in the KKK quilted. This is very interesting, and if offered, I certainly would add it to my colection.
Alan
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:39:12 -0500 | From: Gaye Ingram
Alan wrote: > It would seem to me that, whether or not we find the KKK distasteful, that a > quilt made from member’s robes would be important. It had never occurred to > me that anyone in the KKK quilted.
Exactly: the quilt indicates the family’s investment in the enterprise and is a revealing part of our history, the region’s history.
These people are far more numerous than we on this list imagine.
So far as I know, scholarship has not pinned down the “typical” Klansman. And reporters who follow national trends treat the group as if they are straight out of “Deliverance.” Since such groups generally represent abiding social and economic discontents that are not being addressed through regular institutions, it would be well if somebody took a more serious look at them, probably. They might be the canaries in the mine.
In the meantime, one of their kinswomen thought highly enough of a retired robe (retired by death?) or robes, to memorialize the association. That means folks in the community considered KKK a worthy endeavor. A lot of folks, probably, because we don’t make quilts hidden away in back rooms. And that a lot of people found this activity acceptable tells us about a specific society in a specific time.
That quilt is precisely like the Masonic quilts which seem to interest quilt historians. Just a different group.
Several years ago a cousin showed me a photograph of her grandmother, my mother’s oldest sister. It was taken in the late twenties or thirties. Big as life, there she was wearing a Klan hat (they look very much like dunce caps) and holding some Klan gear, making a comic pose. From the sun’s shadow, one could see the shadow of the photographer, a man. My aunt was young and the photograph was not taken at my grandmother’s place, but it was clear she was friends with a Klansman. My most pacific, good-natured, loving aunt, who tutored children black and white in a time when that simply was not done. I do not know whether it was the man she married, much disapproved of by her family. But I know that she must have been in college at the time. She came from a deeply religious and an educated family. And yet there she was, making a photograph to remember the moment, a photograph she later did not throw away in shame. That photograph is like the Klan quilt.
It always reminds me why Franklin Roosevelt curried the favor of the Klan in his first election.
To find the local Klan group near you or to locate the nearest declared Hate Group, you may go to the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center. This organization gets mixed reviews and has a few biases of its own, but its count is probably reliable. Go to http://www.splcenter.org/index.jsp
For all of you who, like me, love Prussian Blue, there is an article that might make you rethink your preferences:
“Neo-Nazi Twins Teen Angst
The same week that Lynx and Lamb Gaede took their neo-Nazi pop singing act Prussian Blue to Sweden and Germany this July, a revealing new documentary on the girls and their white supremacist stage mom April debuted on British TV.”
With Falstaff, I sigh, What IS this world coming to?!
gaye
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:27:32 EDT | From: Edwaquilt@
I went there last year and when I arrived there was a lecture about African Heritage and textiles. I found it very interesting and informative. There was a decent group in the audience and the message left to the adults in the audience was to pass on your heritage to your children. Meanwhile I wandered around looking at the quilts and reading the tags about the quilts. This information left many questions about the entire theory. And the lecture in front of the sampler quilt related to the UGRR blocks was most interesting. There were the usual “artist” hangers around taking the owners time, so I didn’t have a chance to talk privately with her. But I decided the only question I would ask if I had a chance was…..”how do you answer your critics”. I thought this would be the most non conformational question I might ask. I was not there to attack but just to see what it was all about. I thought being billed as a history museum was “guilding the lily” sort of idea. Only the most unknowledgable about quilting would see it as that.
Holice
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:55:50 -0400 | From: “Kay Sorensen”
I would test the thread by pulling on it and seeing if you can break it. Storage conditions can also affect the strength or lack there of. I don’t know what you consider old, but I have used some of my grandmother’s silk thread and it still is fine.20 It also could depend on what you use the thread for.
Do you intend to use the ribbons for something or just preserve them?
I would guess the paper is not acid free and would change it to acid free if my intent was to preserve them. Kay Sorensen
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 19:33:21 -0400 | From: “Sharron K. Evans” <quiltnsharron@>
I was having a most pleasant afternoon today binding a quilt. I had the television on for some background noise. The History Channel was showing a series of programs entitled “Cities of the Underworld”. Now how harmless could that be! They discussed under the cities of Boston and Philadelphia …. and then, Concord, and the subject of the UGRR came up. I’m thinking, “Surely they check their facts”. Then they said it! “Quilts on the clothesline……yada yada yada. Nooooooooo! I’m beginning to think we’re waging a war we just can’t win!
Best regards, Sharron…… ……..mortified north of Houston
From: MargaretFahey@
I understand your point intellectually, barely, but the idea of it has chilled me to my deepest being.
Margaret
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:57:09 -0700 (PDT) | From: Kris Driessen <krisdriessen@>
To answer the question, how did he know the quilt was made with Klan robes – I didn’t ask. But in the course of conversation, he told me that his childhood impression of the Klan was that it was a social organization. They had picnics and family outings, they offered a place for the adults to play cards. He doesn’t recall any hate talk at all.
Granted, he was a child at the time, but still. If you are going to teach hate, you start with the children. There is no Klan in my area (that I know of), so this could be a naive question: could it be that the Klan lost it’s purpose along the way? That would account for why a picture taken in Klan robes was never destroyed.
It’s not so odd to me that Klan robes would have ended up in a quilt. It’s fabric, after all.
Kris
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:11:04 -0500 | From: “Sarah Hough” <dougandsarah1@>
In Uncoverings 2006 there is a very good article about a KKK quilt that was accepted by the Michigan State University Museum.
Just a thought.
Sarah
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:31:41 EDT | From: RAGLADY@
If the Klan’s purpose was ever anything but what it is now recognized for, “losing its way” would be a very generous statement.
Gloria raglady@
krisdriessen@ writes: There is no Klan in my area (that I know of), so this could be a naive question: could it be that the Klan lost it’s purpose along the way?
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:03:14 -0400 | From: Joan Kiplinger <jkip@>
Apparently the Klan has turned political from what I’ve read and heard.. Every so often they get a license or permit to rally in our county seat. Supporter turnout is nil and any crowds they do attract heckle them so badly that within 15 minutes they pack up and go wherever they go. It’s been about 2 years since their last appearance so with national elections coming on, they may attempt another return.
RAGLADY@ wrote:
If the Klan’s purpose was ever anything but what it is now recognized for, “losing its way” would be a very generous statement.
Gloria
>
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:26:04 -0400 | From: “Candace Perry”
It is imperative that it be donated to a museum. Indiana in the 1920s, I believe, was a hotbed of Klan activity, so I would not be at all surprised if it actually came from there. I am sure the Indiana state historical society would be very much interested. This material, however odious it may seem, must be preserved. I would add to Gaye’s interesting post that the Klan was not only interested in the persecution of blacks, but also had great opposition to the influx of Roman Catholics from Italy, Ireland and eastern Europe in the early 20th century….and of course, anyone of the Jewish faith. My grandfather, who otherwise was a fine hardworking man who loved his family, participated in the local PA Klan because of his suspicions about the “foreigners.” His granddaughters later married a Jew and an African American, and now this granddaughter is involved with a Roman Catholic Italian. Poor Pop. He could not win. Candace Perry
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:58:30 -0400 | From: laurel
For anyone still interested in this topic: In the August 6 issue of /The New Yorker/, there’s an article about the disappearance of honeybees.
Laurel Horton
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:56:58 -0400 | From: laurel
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned the article in /Uncoverings/ a couple of years ago about the Ku Klux Klan quilt from Michigan. Museums seek to collect artifacts related to area history, including those associated with less savory aspects.
Laurel Horton
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:07:16 -0700 | From: “Alan”
Thank you Kaye. You went where I was unable to.
Alan
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:09:38 -0700 | From: “Alan”
> I understand your point intellectually, barely, but the idea of it has > chilled me to my deepest being.
I fully understand that feeling. A while back we had discussed swastika quilts and the reaction was similar. Of course, being the old codger I can be, I took a different, more generous stance.
Alan
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:12:42 -0700 | From: “Alan”
Community is based on the interests of a group of people. Blacks, gays, hippies, Jews, Christianity. The KKK having a community makes perfect sense. In a community you do what is normal for you. In the gay community you have extravagantly flamboyant parades once a year. It seems in the KKK you spout hate and make quilts. Quite a counterpoint in my mind.
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:47:07 -0700 (PDT) | From: Stephen Schreurs <schreurs_ss@>
The article Laurel Horton refers to was in 2006 Uncoverings, and is a paper by Marsha MacDowell, Charlotte Quinney, and Mary Worrall. Mary should be credited, especially, for her brave presentation at Seminar of this emotionally difficult topic. In the spirit of sunshine being the best disinfectant, the historical context of a KKK fundraising quilt was examined, considered, and discussed. But I think many concurred that the interests of history were best served by deepening our understanding through these historical artifacts. And, it must be said, that the better understanding does not imply the condoning or excusing of what amounted to domestic racial terrorism. Susan
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:31:44 -0500 | From: “Stephanie Grace Whitson”
The Klan has not lost its way. No Random Act by Dave & Neta Jackson. Murder of a beloved black basketball coach and other minorities by a white supremicist just a few years ago
Stephanie Whitson
But I think many concurred that the interests of history were best served by deepening our understanding through these historical artifacts. And, it must be said, that the better understanding does not imply the condoning or excusing of what amounted to domestic racial terrorism. Susan
This is a thought-provoking subject. My DH was in WWII and still gives presentations about the Battle of the Bulge to schools, scout troops, etc. Among the artifacts he shows, besides army gear like shovels, boots, helmets, K-rations and v-mail, is a flag with the swastika on it. He explains its significance at the time and why the war was fought. He also shows a torn and tattered US flag that flew over one of the islands in the Pacific during the war in that part of the world. Seeing it always brings tears to my eyes.
After a presentation to the scouts, he was brought to task by the parents saying it was inappropriate to show the flag. He was dumbfounded. How will kids know what is happening in their world if they don’t know their history, including symbols, as abhorrent as they may be. How can they recognize evil if it presents itself again?
I concur with Susan about the quilt being kept by a museum and being used in a way to further understand a part of American history including some we’re not too proud of today.
Carol Grace
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:37:54 -0500 | From: “Stephanie Grace Whitson”
Fascinating stuff, Gaye. I think we are all dealing with a current day question about “hate groups” as well. Don’t we all hope and pray (and perhaps know) Muslim Americans who are not “as they seem” in the media. . . but rather are family oriented people we consider our friends. Discovering family history linked to KKK, we think the same. “not my friends.” And it may be so. I have a dear older friend who once discovered KKK robes behind a dresser in an unused bedroom in her parents home. She never knew who’s they were. . . had no clue. The world can be a wondrous and frightening place. And, oh, The tales our quilts could tell if only they could talk. . . Stephanie Whitson Higgins
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:40:31 -0500 | From: “Stephanie Grace Whitson”
I think Julia was at a ball when her intended danced with another girl. In a fit of temper, Julia decided to walk home alone, not mindful of the slush at her feet. She got a chill, contracted pneumonia. . .and died of thin shoes.
But yes, your point is well taken. . .as to what was meant by the person who put that on the tombstone. I believe there may be more than a “hint” of bitterness.
Stephanie
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:43:14 -0500 | From: “Stephanie Grace Whitson”
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Today our fears are of illegals and, instead of Catholics, Muslims. (Not debating here, just
observing social history). I hope someday my grandchildren look back on these days of unrest and wonder what the heck everyone was so worried about. Please, Lord. Stephanie Whitson Higgins
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:44:23 -0500 | From: “Stephanie Grace Whitson”
But when swastika quilts were being made. .. the symbol didn’t mean Hitler. Or am I wrong about that? STephanie Whitson Higgins
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:50:59 -0400 | From: “Candace Perry”
The fact of the matter is — in this obsession with PC-ness we can’t have honest discussions about anything. My children are bi-racial, and I told them about their great grandfather’s activities…not that I wanted them to hate him or feel ashamed, but rather understand that certain attitudes arise from the times in which we live. All we can do is hope to not perpetuate the attitudes. And to understand the often subtle distinctions between good and bad, which are sometimes, to those who may traffic in generalities, hard to grasp. Candace Perry
From: Mitzioakes@
You are 100% correct – that symbol goes way back before Adolf! Mitzi from Vermont
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:10:08 -0500 | From: Gaye Ingram
Kris wrote: > could it be that > the Klan lost it’s purpose along the way? That would account for > why a picture taken in Klan robes was never destroyed.
Interesting question, Kris, because it raises another: What was/is the purpose of the KKK?
The KKK was founded by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest in Pulaski, TN after the CW. Its original purpose was law-and-order in the insane world of reconstruction. It bears note that nothing got reconstructed except the institution of slavery. The formerly enslaved were simply turned loose with their illiteracy and lack of experience and high-minded promises. And those very promises—failed—created anger and frustration. The Abolitionists and others who had condemned the system and demanded instant emancipation did not arrive to set up schools and job training and employment bureaus. In a South utterly destroyed, with the group of young men that would have provided leadership decimated, this group was just one more problem, along with a five-year drought, destroyed seed and farm implements, vanished livestock, and in many cases, destroyed towns, cities, and homes. Chaos prevailed. The Klan was conceived, acc. To Andrew Lytle, Forrest’s biographer, to promote local enforcement of laws and to insure some order. In that bleak time, it seems actually to have a reasonable purpose.
I am unconvinced it had any such purpose in the 20th century. In Louisiana, there were no Klan picnics and similar public occasions. I do not know that the men who murdered black people in nearby states in the 1960’s and early 1970’s were KKK. If they were not, they missed a good chance. In Louisiana, David Duke’s initial adherents were blue-collar, uneducated, ill-paid, and disaffected people who had become radicalized in the chaos of the sixties and marginalized by affirmative action procedures and a degraded public school system.
To say the Klan exists is one thing. To say that FDR had to make peace with it is one thing. To suggest it had any good purpose in the 20th century is another. Like many hate groups, it is a symptom of social and economic problems. A sore that needs attending to.
I suspect the photo of my aunt was not destroyed because she married the man to whom that robe belonged. And I suspect that is why he was so unpopular among family members. In a family of independent-minded, educated women, he was regarded as Neanderthal bully. That photo made me think my aunts were right.
gaye
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:07:39 -0400 | From: “Lucinda Cawley” <lrcawley@>
There’s still time to see the Chester County quilts at the Historical Society in West Chester, PA. If you will be within 100 miles of Philadelphia before Sept. 16 don’t miss it. I went back last Sunday and spent even longer than I had on my first visit reveling in the most amazing aggregation of turkey reds I’ve ever seen. They’ve put the Pennock quilt away and in its place are two silk quilts: a Baby Blocks dated 1875 and an 1857 quilting sampler in bronze and black silk made by Anna Mary Brinton (1843-1918)–13 when she made the quilt! There’s a small gallery of mostly silk quilts, but they aren’t my favorites so you’ll have to go see them for yourself. I spent most of my time with the 1840-1860 friendship quilts that cause me to move very slowly and smile vaguely at anyone who crosses my path. Last time I was so dazzled by the quilts that I didn’t notice the directions for Chester County Soldiers’ Socks printed in advance of the Phila. Sanitary Fair in 1864. The ladies of Chester County were urged “to distinguish from all others, let the ribbing at the top be red, white and blue, one inch of each color.” The blocks in several of the quilts were red and blue (except for the signature square) with green sashing and no borders–an unusual color
combination. Speaking of unusual fabrics, the 1843 Caesar’s Crown had one with an apple green background printed with yellow, red and blue ditsies. Another block had a black chain and brown ribbon printed on a chrome yellow ground. There is much more to see at CCHS, clocks, furniture, paintings and a series of alcoves built around paneling, fireplaces etc. from local houses. A tiny girl on her father’s shoulders exclaimed “Look at the beautiful blue room.” Cinda on the much cooler Eastern Shore
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:47:27 -0400 | From: “Shari Spires” <skspires@>
I found out from my father that my grandfather was a member of the KKK in the Chicago area during the depression era. I was shocked to learn this as Grandpa was such a gentle and fair individual. But, apparently the KKK had a resurgence during the Great Depression when people were desparate for work. I can remember my grandfather saying that the Catholics gave all the jobs to other Catholics and the Polish gave all the jobs to the Polish and so on.
I can see how desperate people might turn to something like that when they had families to feed. Nothing about the KKK was ever discovered in my grandparents effects and none of my other cousins knew anything about it.
When I worked as a reporter in Florida from the 70’s to 90’s our paper was often the target of KKK demonstrations. I covered a few of their issues. Once, to my surprise , I found one of our pressmen at a conclave in full regalia.
I agree there needs to be more documentation of the role this org. has played through our history. Shari in NC —– >
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:26:17 -0400 | From: “Sharron K. Evans” <quiltnsharron@>
> But when swastika quilts were being made. .. the symbol didn’t mean Hitler. > Or am I wrong about that? > STephanie Whitson Higgins
I’m currently reading a reproduction of Ruby McKim’s book, “101 Patchwork Patterns“. She talks about the swastika quilts and I kept thinking how her words did not sound ominous or negative. It dawned on me about halfway through the book that Ruby originally wrote this book in 1931. In it she refers to the swastika as an “ancient symbol of good luck”. She had no idea what it would come to represent.
Best regards, Sharron……. …………in sunny Spring, TX
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:56:05 EDT | From: RAGLADY@
If Lytle gave credit to Gen. Forrest as being the founder of the KKK, he must have used a little bit of “author’s license”. At least according to the special report I’ve been reading by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
http://www.iupui.edu/~aao/kkk.html And one by the ADL: http://tinyurl.com/2fyfv8
<quote> But in the late 1860’s white Southern voices against the Klan were in the minority. One of the Klan’s greatest strengths during this period was the large number of editors, ministers, former Confederate officers and political leaders who hid behind its sheets and guided its actions.
Among them, none was more widely respected in the South than the Klan’s reputed leader, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a legendary Confederate cavalry officer who settled in Tennessee and apparently joined the Klan fairly soon after it began to make a name for itself. Forrest became the Klan’s first imperial wizard, and in 1867 and 1868 he was its chief missionary, traveling over the South establishing new chapters and quietly advising its new members.
The ugly side of the Ku Klux Klan, the mutilations and floggings, lynching and shootings, began to spread across the South in 1868, and any words of caution that may have been expressed at the Nashville meeting were submerged beneath a stream of bloody deeds. <endquote>
Questionable is the widespread perception that the KKK was made up largely of illiterate, low-life, lower class miscreants from the southern states, although certainly those also made up the KKK “communities”. After the KKK’s birth, semi-death and resurrection after WWW1, the Klan spread into northern , central, mid-Atlantic and northeastern states as well as regenerating in the southern states (from the SPLC article and other sources).
Whatever innocuous beginnings the KKK may have had, they disappeared within six months and their bloody, murderous, terrorism spread with a focus on blacks, but also on N-lovers/sympathizers, Jews, Catholics, homosexuals and any ethnic group or persons that didn’t fit the common WASP profile of KKK members.
There are other stories and examples of KKK quilts (among them the MSU holding), Google search: http://www.google.com/search?hlen&ieISO-8859-1&qKKK+quilts But IMO to equate quilting as being a traditional part of the KKK “community” based on perhaps a few quilts attributed to some unknown quilter(s) using KKK robes/gowns/etc. would be stretching things a bit, much unlike the annual nationally known gay pride parade and other similar events.
One “hit” that came up on one of my G-searcher which I found interesting was the The Penumbra Theatre Company Quilt article. Not because of the small snippet about the KKK, but all of the other information about black art used in textiles and other mediums.
Gloria raglady@
writes: To Andrew Lytle, Forrest’s biographer, to promote local enforcement of laws and to insure some order. In that bleak time, it seems actually to have a reasonable purpose.
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:32:04 -0700 (PDT) | From: Mary Anne R <sewmuch63@>
— Jccullencrew@ wrote: …a flag with the swastika on it. He explains its significance at the time and why the war was fought. After a presentation to the scouts, he was brought to task by the parents saying it was inappropriate to show the flag. He was dumbfounded. How will kids know what is happening in their world if they don’t know their history, including symbols, as abhorrent as they may be. How can they recognize evil if it presents itself again?
Exactly! Who was it that said ‘those who don’t study history are condemned to relive it?’
Mary Anne
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:24:12 -0700 | From: “Alan”
> But when swastika quilts were being made. .. the symbol didn’t mean
> Hitler. > Or am I wrong about that?
You are correct. The swastika was not originally a symbol of evil. Rather, it was a symbol of peace. I got the following from the web:
The Original Meaning
The word “swastika” comes from the Sanskrit svastika – “su” meaning “good,” “asti” meaning “to be,” and “ka” as a suffix.
Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.
Even in the early twentieth century, the swastika was still a symbol with positive connotations. For instance, the swastika was a common decoration that often adorned cigarette cases, postcards, coins, and buildings. During World War I, the swastika could even be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division and on the Finnish air force until after World War II.
A Change in Meaning
In the 1800s, countries around Germany were growing much larger, forming empires; yet Germany was not a unified country until 1871. To counter the feeling of vulnerability and the stigma of youth, German nationalists in the mid-nineteenth century began to use the swastika, because it had ancient Aryan/Indian origins, to represent a long Germanic/Aryan history.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the swastika could be found on nationalist German volkisch periodicals and was the official emblem of the German Gymnasts’ League.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the swastika was a common symbol of German nationalism and could be found in a multitude of places such as the emblem for the Wandervogel, a German youth movement; on Joerg Lanz von Liebenfels’ antisemitic periodical Ostara; on various Freikorps units; and as an emblem of the Thule Society.
Hitler and the Nazis
In 1920, Adolf Hitler decided that the Nazi Party needed its own insignia and flag. For Hitler, the new flag had to be “a symbol of our own struggle” as well as “highly effective as a poster.” (Mein Kampf, pg. 495)
On August 7, 1920, at the Salzburg Congress, this flag became the official emblem of the Nazi Party.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler described the Nazis’ new flag: “In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic.” (pg. 496-497)
Because of the Nazis’ flag, the swastika soon became a symbol of hate, antisemitism, violence, death, and murder.
What Does the Swastika Mean Now?
There is a great debate as to what the swastika means now. For 3,000 years, the swastika meant life and good luck. But because of the Nazis, it has also taken on a meaning of death and hate.
These conflicting meanings are causing problems in today’s society. For Buddhists and Hindus, the swastika is a very religious symbol that is
commonly used. Chirag Badlani shares a story about one time when he went to make some photocopies of some Hindu Gods for his temple. While standing in line to pay for the photocopies, some people behind him in line noticed that one of the pictures had a swastika. They called him a Nazi.
Unfortunately, the Nazis were so effective at their use of the swastika emblem, that many do not even know any other meaning for the swastika. Can there be two completely opposite meanings for one symbol?
In ancient times, the direction of the swastika was interchangeable as can be seen on an ancient Chinese silk drawing.
Some cultures in the past had differentiated between the clockwise swastika and the counter-clockwise sauvastika. In these cultures the swastika symbolized health and life while the sauvastika took on a mystical meaning of bad-luck or misfortune.
But since the Nazis use of the swastika, some people are trying to differentiate the two meanings of the swastika by varying its direction – trying to make the clockwise, Nazi version of the swastika mean hate and death while the counter-clockwise version would hold the ancient meaning of the symbol, life and good-luck.
Alan
From: AG32040@
Central FL. is still an active K.K.K. center according to articles in
newspapers and the A.D.L.,etc. The quilt should be in a museum near it’s origin for people to learn about an era of intolerance that still exsists. Amy G.
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:41:35 -0400 | From: <parsnips1@>
Thanks, Laurel. Its great to see important topics like this published outside of farm and garden magazines. The article is online. Pat
> For anyone still interested in this topic: In the August 6 issue of /The > New Yorker/, there’s an article about the disappearance of honeybees. > > Laurel Horton
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:38:30 -0500 | From: Gaye Ingram
Shari wrote:20 > I can see how desperate people might turn to something like that when the y > had families to feed.
This is my point about the importance of a quilt or other memorabilia of KK K or any other group: they tell us things political histories often oversimplify. I maintain these groups often really are the canaries in the mines: they reveal symptoms of social malaises the majority often suppresses.20
We are learning how common these were now and will learn more as that generation passes away. Yet AQSG membership has been abuzz in recent years with quilts made by women to honor men’s organizations. There has been the theory that by making such a quilt, women were participating in the “public sphere.” While feminist criticism has called the “separate spheres” theory into question, at the very least women were honoring some male activity in which they no doubt found merit and, probably more importantly, honoring a specific man through the use of things important to him. In that regard, I see no difference in a KKK quilt and a quilt made to honor a Freemason or a Gay Pride quilt. All are social statements made by minority groups, two by minorities that feel threatened.
Candace noted the PC factor and the way it often precludes open discussions . Every generation has its own PC dictionary, though few have been so open an d unabashed as ours. The material object stands on its own, suggesting a context in time and place and attitude and there for each generation to rea d anew.
As most who know and have contributed to the Southern Poverty Law Center ar e aware, that entity is not immune either to PC or error or what often appear s like a hate list of its own. Its rhetoric suggests the less than disinterested voice with which they speak. As one who once contributed to the Center’s work, I always reserve my judgment about the opinions it espouses. Its data on KKK is the most reliable part of the site.
Like Shari, to appreciate the existence and rise of the KKK, I believe one must place it in context. It is not Southern pride or personal bias that makes me suggest we take a long look at Reconstruction. People, black and white, literally starved to death in the American South after the Civil War . Reading letters and journals from this period is often almost overwhelming Across the South, Lincoln’s death was viewed with genuine alarm. History showed that alarm to be valid.
There was no Marshall Plan for the South in the wake of the Civil War. Ther e was no plan for equipping the newly freed black men and women for life in a democratic republic and a capitalistic society. The resulting desperate situation is far more complex than the SPLC and most histories suggest.
History books view he last fifty years of the 19th century are viewed as sunny, the rise of a middle-class nation. That conception in no way include s the American South, which suffered bitterly during and after that time. Thi s region was, after all, not a white region. Indeed, it was the only region i n the nation in which the number of Negroes often exceeded the number of Caucasians in districts. And by far the majority of this new group of citizens was ignorant and innocent. Slave narratives reveal that many expected freedom to bring instant prosperity, which it alone could not do i n America. Add to that the huge Scots-Irish migrant population that also ofte n lacked education, and you have a volatile situation.
By failing to use its unprecedented national wealth to provide the newly free–and indeed all citizens in the ravaged land–with the tools for success, the federal government consigned the black southerner to another kind of slavery, the slavery of the unskilled outsider. It guaranteed poverty across the region.
The South has been the site of KKK depredations more often simply because i t is the section of the nation where black and white people live side-by-side and where the black population has been large enough actually to threaten lower income whites. Having traveled through the sections of Ohio and Indiana that have such large KKK populations, I have never understood what sustains them, for I see in those regions only white European faces.
It has become clichE9 that the Treaty of Versailles created the Third Reich and WW II. I’ve wondered why American historians never seem to have considered the possibility that a failed and inadequate Reconstruction created the era of Jim Crow and the ensuing strife of the sixties.
Perhaps another age than ours will look at the KKK quilts and see what we cannot see in them. That is why we should preserve them.
Gaye Ingram
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 19:01:48 -0700 (PDT) | From: Stephen Schreurs <schreurs_ss@>
“I see no difference in a KKK quilt and a quilt made to honor a Freemason or a Gay Pride quilt. All are social statements made by minority groups, two by minorities that feel threatened.”
Gaye, perhaps I misunderstand you. I agree that the Klan probably served a social as well as political function, and that quilts honoring the organization or an individual might well have been made…but I DO see a difference between KKK and Gay Pride and other minority organizations. A minority organization seeks visibility and a vision of justice in order to be full participants in civil society. KKK, at core, seems to me to have been trying to form a “fraternal” bond between some in order to find the means to exclude others, perceived as unworthy. Naturally, the greatest poverty is the poverty of spirit which comes of the fear that there is not enough (food, money, jobs) to go around. In the postwar South, and in the depression, that fear was certainly based on real conditions – but the goal, still, was to assert continuing dominance and entitlement to power. No doubt there were leaders who played up the threat of the numbers of “them” – but I think the underlying appeal was in reaffirming white supremacy as some kind of natural order of things.
Can it be possible, that as human beings, we keep casting our pearls before the myths we might have wished were true? And then find we have become part of something despicable? Say it ain’t so.
That would mean we might have to keep relearning the lessons. Darn. Susan
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:17:15 -0400 | From: “Shari Spires” <skspires@>
Gaye, I really appreciate your comments. They are so inciteful and always tied to a larger sphere of history. Shari in NC
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:54:31 -0500 | From: Gaye Ingram
In a thoughtful post, Susan wrote questioning my statement ” I see no difference in a KKK quilt and a quilt made to honor a Freemason or a Gay Pride quilt. All are social statements made by minority groups, at least two by minorities that feel threatened.” Because her statement is closely reasoned and thus not easily edited, I refer any who are interested in the topic to it.
In making that statement, I am not making a value judgment of any one of the three organizations. Nor am I equating or even considering their moral content. I refer to their value as historical statements. That women made these quilts suggests to me that a particular community in a particular time considered the organizations they represented as somehow worthy. That is why I hope this recent KKK quilt stays where it was made, presumably in Indiana.
Susan notes: “I DO see a difference between KKK and Gay Pride and other minority organizations. A minority organization seeks visibility and a vision of justice in order to be full participants in civil society. KKK, at core, seems to me to have been trying to form a “fraternal” bond between some in order to find the means to exclude others, perceived as unworthy.”
Again, the moral merit of these organizations was not central to my point. Viewed as quasi-political organizations, these strike me as more similar than dissimilar. All have agendas that appear to run counter in critical ways to more orthodox or generally accepted agendas. All, it seems to me, are striving for political power. And in each case, their holding that power will lessen the power of any whose views are inconsistent with that specific group’s. In each case the organization perceives its own goals as just and worthy, the views of those who oppose it as unworthy. That, perhaps, is one of the problems with political solutions. They get lost in abstractions.
> Can it be possible, that as human beings, we keep casting our pearls before the myths we might have wished were true? And then find we have become part > of something despicable? Say it ain’t so.
Susan, I wish I could. I’ve spent a lifetime wanting to be able to say it ain’t so.
My own experience has taught me to distrust political solutions to spiritual problems. I think it works the other way around.
It is relatively easy to entice or coerce a number of people to sign on with a cause politically. Any cause. It is much harder to instill in a number of people genuine humility and charity of the sort that permits one to see in one’s neighbor a vision of himself and recognizes the intellectual limitations of both neighbor and self. That kind of equality is the only kind that can guarantee political justice, in my view.
And it’s the kind that happens one person at a time. Yet, I suspect it is the only basis for any other kind of equality.
Because I personally believe man is deeply flawed and incapable of fully understanding himself or others or of comprehending Truth in its entirety, I envision no utopias.
Yet I have seen enough examples of individual spiritual growth, of individuals who come to see themselves in their neighbors—including their neighbors’ tendency toward occasional blindness or myopia—that I have hope for individuals. Personally I do not believe we ever fully overcome our selfishness in this world. But considering the distance from where we start, any progress is to be cherished and viewed as promising.
That you and I, apparently differing in some of our particular visions, can entertain the idea that we might hold only part of the truth and that we might learn more from one another—that we can question ourselves and turn an idea inside out, strikes me as hopeful.
For several years I taught in a classroom from which I could look in the distance and see second- and third-graders at play. Talk about raw power plays and mean-spirited politics, I saw it in those children at play. So when my high schoolers entered the classroom and began to talk about “our” problems as human beings, I believed in progress.
gaye
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 05:08:21 -0700 (PDT) | From: Stephen Schreurs <schreurs_ss@>
Gaye, thank you for the complement of your reply. I suspect that our respective points of view might be more close than we expect! Probably something to explore over a good meal…..or several! Let’s see…corn bread, with and without sugar, Boston baked beans, something creole, something with curry, ….chiles….dim sum…..jerk chicken…..kielbasa….kosher deli….
Susan
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:50:52 EDT | From: Palampore@
1) Did anyone call the man and get a description of this quilt? 2) Is it made of silk or cotton robes? Are portions of the robe still in it that look like a garment? Or is it just white fabric that was said to come from robes? 3) I need someone to answer my question about felt being used to write on textiles. It actually ties into this conversation. Do you know of any fraternal organizations that made quilts/blankets and then stitched on felt letters of their group name? In the early to mid-1900’s? 4) KKK outfits were not just homemade. They were made by companies who made band uniforms, majorette uniforms, etc. I once did conservation on a silk cape of a grand whatever and it had the label in it from a store that made these types of items. I need to find those notes….. It was about 15 years ago when I did the work. I only did it for the historical value. At first I refused to do the work and then was convinced that it was HISTORY that we didn’t need to repeat. But it still gave me the creeps. Lynn Lancaster Gorges Historic Textiles Studio New Bern, NC
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:45:20 -0400 | From: Mary Worrall <worrall@>
Recent discussions have mentioned the KKK quilt in the collection of the Michigan State University Museum. I wanted to share some information about the quilt.
The quilt was made in 1926 in Chicora, Michigan as a fundraising quilt for the Klan. The quilt consists of pieced blocks in a pattern that mimics a Klan crosswheel design. The pieced blocks are set alternately with blocks containing signatures. Research found that the names represent the majority of Chicora’s citizens at the time the quilt was made. There is also an embroidered block that says “Chicora K.K.K.K. 1926” and a block with an embroidered figure of a hooded Klansman. An image of the quilt can be found on the Quilt Index at http://www.quiltindex.org/kkk.php .
The quilt is currently on exhibit at the museum. This is the text that accompanies the quilt:
“In 1987, Loma Bell Rowe Mudget gave away some of her belongings to family members. She knew that her nephew Karl, a high school teacher,
was interested in family and local history and presented him with a bag, inside of which were two items Karl had never seen before: a family bible and the K.K.K. quilt. Loma told Karl that she had inherited the quilt from her father, also Karl’s grandfather, Frank, when he had died in 1960. As an educator and historian, Karl was determined to find out more about it. Karl brought the quilt to the attention of historians specializing in state and local history and importantly, Karl interviewed elder family members about the quilt.
Karl discovered that his paternal aunt, Grace Rowe Way, at age sixteen, had been enlisted, much to her embarrassment but because she
had fine handwriting and sewing skills, to stitch names onto the quilt. Way recalled that each person paid 10 cents to have their name
stitched on a block and when the quilt was completed, members of the local Klan entered a raffle to win it. Karl’s grandfather, Frank Rowe, held the winning ticket.”
“The K.K.K. Fundraising Quilt: A Primary Resource for Research and Education
This quilt, done in the Redwork style, is a significant example of how textiles are important documents of history and how objects of material culture provide primary source data for describing, analyzing, and understanding aspects of human history. The materials,
construction, design, pictorial imagery, signatures, the oral histories and related ephemera, and even condition of this quilt hold
clues that strengthen and expand our understanding of quiltmaking, of
Klan activity, and of the social and cultural history of a particular
community at a particular point in time.
Whether or not they intended to do so, members and supporters of the Ku Klux Klan in one Michigan community created–in this Redwork textile–an artifact that continues to be a testimony to their beliefs, relationships, and actions. In an age where we continue to struggle with local, national, and global issues of tolerance, social
justice, and human rights, this artifact can help us understand the roots of fear and intolerance and to serve as a powerful reminder not
to perpetuate the mistakes of the past.”
We are in the process of adding a question and answer booklet to the exhibit that includes additional information about Klan history, the community the quilt was created in, the quilt’s design, why the quilt
was donated to the museum, and why a quilt such as this would be preserved by the museum. We are also working with a number of university classes and a community reading program (http://www.onebook.@/) to include the quilt in lesson plans and programs. This unsettling and disturbing quilt is being used as a
teaching tool and to open discussions about diversity and tolerance.
Mary Worrall
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 22:27:58 -0700 | From: “Marilyn Withrow”
Ouch!!! To quote Gaye — for whom I have the deepest respect, and I suppose that’s why her statement — “That quilt is precisely like the Masonic quilts which seem to interest quilt historians. Just a different group”– stunned me so. What a painful statement to make — painful at least for me and probably for anyone else who is now or ever has been associated with the Masonic Order. Obviously Gaye has little or no knowledge about the Masonic Order or other orders affiliated with the Masons when she compares them to the KKK. The KKK was a hate group against blacks and other groups. The Masonic Order is based on Christianity, and certainly not on dislike or hatred of any other groups. All the functions of this group are Bible-based, and many good works are done in the communities where Lodges are located, as well as national and international charitable activities. Just think of the Shriners Hospitals, if nothing else. To be a Shriner, one must first be a Mason.
The only possible link would be that Masonic or Shriners or Eastern Star or Demolay or Rainbow Girls or Jobs Daughters (all groups affiliated with the Masons) also made quilts, usually to commemorate a special occasion, and are of interest to those involved in that particular Lodge as well as of interest to quilt historians. I am in the process right now of repairing a quilt which was made for my cousin who is a national officer in the Order of the Eastern Star, and I am proud to be doing that for him. Yes, him — the Eastern Star is primarily for the women of the Masons, but Masons are also welcome and hold high offices in that group. My cousin is a Past Worthy Patron many times over.
I’m probably going to be in big trouble for this, but I just couldn’t let that statement stand without some clarification.
Marilyn Maddalena Withrow Past Worthy Matron, Order of the Eastern Star, and proud to be a member of a family where every male but one is now or was a member of the Masonic Order.
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:10:44 -0400 | From: “Greta VanDenBerg-Nestle” <maquilter@>
Stephanie,
As previously posted, you are correct. The swastika has a long history prior to WWII and in Victorian times was a symbol of good luck. I have seen many quilts c. 1900 with the symbol and have often considered adding one to my collection; however, my DH is not at all in favor of the idea because of what the symbol has come to represent. My father and his brothers served in the US Navy in WWII and my family, both maternal and fraternal, originates in The Netherlands. I had family in Holland in WWII and I have heard first-hand accounts of those years.
I respect my DH and my family’s feelings about the symbol and while I see the Victorian era pieces for the good luck charms they were meant to be, I will probably never have a swastika quilt in my collection. Still, the swastika like the KKK and other distasteful things we would rather forget are a part of history. I believe the best place for the aforementioned KKK quilt would be a museum especially if one near where the family who owned it lived because it is a part of that community’s history; a safe place where the history can hopefully be told without bias to educate.
Where I live in PA is very close to what I have learned is a ‘hotbed’ of KKK activity just across the state line. That community is primarily white and I have been told the KKK residents there intend to keep it that way to the best of their ability. I believe that is why the KKK is so prevalent in sections of the north like Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The KKK is not gone any more than the Nazi’s. These groups are a part of our past and our present – we can only hope for them to someday not be a part of the future.
Mary Ann’s quote is exactly correct, “Those who don’t study history are condemned to relive it.”
Greta VanDenBerg-Nestle PS – Cornbread needs sugar!
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:17:18 -0400 | From: “Greta VanDenBerg-Nestle” <maquilter@>
Marilyn,
I did not hear Gaye compare the organizations themselves. I understood her statement to refer only to ‘the quilts’ representing social and political organizations being a part of a collective group.
What Gaye said is, “I see no difference in a KKK quilt and a quilt made to honor a Freemason or a Gay Pride quilt. All are social statements made by minority groups….”
Clearly the organizations represented by ‘the quilts’ are as different as they can possibly be.
Greta VanDenBerg-Nestle
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 10:57:45 EDT | From: RAGLADY@
You can definitely add Michigan to those states as well……
Egads, although I’ve know this for some time, I was astonished and dismayed to discover that the “national” headquarters for one faction of the KKK is no more than 5 minutes from my home in Fraser, MI. Despite the headline on the following, Fraser, MI is not in western MI, it is in the southeastern part of Michigan. It’s a small “bedroom community” where income is above the national average, about 20 min.. northeast of Detroit. http://www.mediamouse.org/resources/right.php?orgId5
The Far Right in West Michigan: Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan has a long history of activity in the Midwest and in Michigan (in the 1970s Klansmen in Michigan used bombs to destroy school buses in order to prevent desegregation) and is probably the most well-known racist organization in the United States.
However, since the 1980s the Klan’s influence has declined as it has split into different factions while failing to attract the interest of younger racists. Still, the Ku Klux Klan’s various splinter groups have remained active in varying capacities, with Michigan being home to chapters of The Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Imperial Klans of America, United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. Of these groups, Michigan is the national headquarters for the United
Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Fraser, Michigan.
Activities in Michigan Midland, Michigan Klan member Randy Gray spoke at an August 4, 2007 white supremacist event in Kalamazoo. Phil Lawson of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, claims that his group is growing in Michigan due to popular discontent over immigration in an interview in the Oakland Free Press.
An interview with Proposal 2 supporter and financier Ward Connerly shows Connerly saying “God bless them” regarding the support of the Ku Klux Klan in the anti-affirmative action campaign. In October of 2006, the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan distributed literature supporting the passage of Proposal 2.
During the summer of 2006, Michigan Klan organizer Randy Gray spoke at the Klan’s 50th Anniversary (Knights Party faction) on the use of public access television as a recruiting and organizing tool and airs a show called “This is the Klan” on public access television in Midland, Michigan.
In 2004, the Mystic Knights of the Ku Klux Klan organized members to collect signatures for the anti-affirmative action Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (Proposal 2).
In the 1990s there were a number of Klan rallies in Michigan, in Grand Rapids in 1995, in Ann Arbor in 1996 and 1998, in Kalamazoo in 1998, Ironwood in 1997, and Lansing in 1994, as well as the Klan associated NordicFest in Traverse City in 1997.
Gloria raglady@
maquilter@ writes: I believe that is why the KKK is so prevalent in sections of the north like Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
