Streator library to host secret messages of Underground Railroad quilts program

The Streatorland Historical Society and the Streator Public Library are sponsoring Connie Martin to speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 25, about the secret messages in the Underground Railroad quilts.

The presentation will be in the Soderstrom Room at the library, 130 S. Park St.

Martin is the sixth generation of a slave. She brings example quilts and explains the meanings of each message in the quilt.

Martin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Illinois State University and a Master’s of Arts from Aurora University. She is a retired language arts teacher, a 33-year star fitness instructor, and mother of three sons. She tells the stories passed down to her great grandmother Lizzie of how her family survived the Antebellum period through trials and tribulations, and how they used quilts that contained hidden codes and secret messages to assist abolitionists – white and Black – to guide enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad to Canada. During this presentation, Martin shares several different quilt patterns in replica quilts.

Go to the library’s website streatorpubliclibrary.org to reserve a spot to hear Martin because there is limited seating. There is no fee to attend.

Also there will be a quilt show June 19-25 at the library. It will include Underground Railroad quilts that have been made by local quilters. In this display, the special messages found in the quilt blocks will be identified and explained. There will be docents available in the Soderstrom Room at the library. They will be present 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 19, and Thursday, June 20; 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, June 21; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 22; 3 to 6 p.m. Monday, June 24, and Tuesday, June 25.