UNDERGROUND RAILROAD QUILT PRESENTATION – Reverend Andy Mockridge - 9 AM ON SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2022

9:00 AM - Underground Railroad Quilt Presentation – Reverend Andy Mockridge - My Interest in the Underground Railroad and How this Quilt Block Sampler Came to Be   “It was an honor to be called by Arron Haynes in 2021 and asked if I would like to be a member of the Lafayette County Juneteenth Planning Committee. As soon as we got off the phone an idea popped into my head: I could make a quilt for the 2022 Juneteenth celebration. The design that kept surfacing in my mind was of a quilt block sampler containing many of the quilt blocks used in coded-quilts during the 1800’s. The purpose of these quilts and their embedded codes was to aid enslaved persons in their escape and flight to freedom via the Underground Railroad.           For me, this quilt block sampler represents an opportunity to educate people about: the ingenuity and courage of those who made the Underground Railroad possible and those who utilized it; the dangers and challenges of attempting to escape the bonds of slavery; and, how critical the Underground Railroad was to freeing thousands of enslaved people.”