Safe Travels: Negotiating Southern Landscapes and History
Posted: Friday, January 16, 2009
by Walter Rhett
Charleston Perlo
Painting of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which travels through the mountains of the South
(reprinted under fair use for educational purpose)
Forward progress has also been made in selecting diverse coaches and coordinators in football--a sport considered to be a southern shrine. In Mississippi and South Carolina, colleges formerly separated by race now play each other on the football field as in-state rivals. Until a few weeks ago, the South had 67% of the African-American NCAA Division I BCS coaches-2 of 3, at Houston and Miami. In fact, University of Richmond's Mike London, in his first year as a head coach, won the Division II national championship in December (against Montana), bringing the Spiders their first national championship in any sport. And Charlie Strong's Florida defense held a team averaging 60 points in its last six games to 14 points. A young, African-American defensive back from Florida State is turning down a chance at the NFL draft to accept a Rhodes scholarship and study at Oxford in England. Now that's a skills upgrade!
Across the South, race or ethnicity has been significantly reduced as a factor in hiring and leadership. The breaking down of social barriers opened doors of opportunity, and people of all backgrounds now cheer its proven success.
Pride of the Southland, University of Tennesse's Marching Band (fair use)
So strike up the band! Here's a roundup of people and places, past and present, to cheer about, found in the South, adding a unique flavor to America.
One of the world's best woman chess players is a 24 year-old Russian wife and mother who lives in Key Biscayne, Florida, who changes a mean diaper went she's not pushing a chess piece. Only the tenth woman in the world to earn the rank of international grandmaster, Alexandra Kosteniuk's web site receives 10,000 hits monthly.
The Chess Queen, only one of ten women grandmasters
Want to have fun cheaply while enjoying the quintessential life style of Southern experience? Come to St. George, SC, a small town county seat off an I-95 exit for the annual World Grits Festival in April. St. George is the proclaimed grits capital of the world, having the highest per capital consumption in the US (some say the world). Complete with a 5K and tens of tables for the three days of grits dinners, the festival really makes its splash with the grits "roll." Contestants dive into a giant vat filled with grits and stuff them into their shirts and pants, cover their arms and faces and hair to see who can get the largest amount grits by weight to "stick to their ribs." Weighed before and after, the winner is the unchallenged champion for a year. There is "rolling in the grits" contest for children in training. The contest welcomes boys and girls.
(fair use)
Fortified by a weekend's intake of grits travel on to North Carolina, to the top of Roan Mountain, in the southern Appalachian mountains. Described as a place of "mystery, wild beauty, and legend," the bald summit of Roan is home to one of the world's most beautiful displays of Catawba rhododendron, which grow above 5,000 feet and bloom from late May to early June. The sight of these relatives of the azalea blooming en masse is a glory that connects earth and sunshine to soul
Born in Mobile, Alabama, Fred Wesley, whose name was called out by James Brown on some of America's most famous funk records now lives in a small town in Clarendon County, SC (off I-95)-when he's not globe-hopping to Europe to play with his band in jazz festivals. Fred Wesley's trombone playing (he worked with the Turners, Ike and Tina; Hank Ballard, and George Clinton in Funkadelic) is rooted in jazz, even though his most famous solo is the syncopated trombone funk heard on the James Brown seminal recording of "Cold Sweat." Catch Fred close to home, in the April 4 th concert of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra (a 20 piece big band), a concert devoted to the music of one of America's royal musicians, Count Basie.
Herbert A. DeCosta was a Charlestonian who headed a historic preservation construction firm that restored and preserved many historic buildings throughout the South, including many listed in the prestigeous National Register of Historic Places. Among the most noted of those is the Alonzo Herndon mansion, a 15 room beaux arts mansion build by Atlanta's black craftsmen and completed for Herndon and his wife, Adrienne, who died soon after it was finished in 1910. A former slave and sharecropper, Herndon rose to become Atlanta's largest black property owner and Atlanta's first black millionaire. Also a former barber, his haircutting shops had marble floors and chandeliers. His house is considered the one of the most significant African-American historic homes in America and is open for tours. An architectural point of focus are the carved lion heads posts at the beginning of the staircase in the entry foyer.
The Herndon Home (fair use)
Herbert DeCosta who restored the Herndon mansion was the grandson of Ellen and William Craft. Married as slaves, living on separate plantations, after William saved a sum of money from his work as a mechanic, Ellen (aged 22) and William (24) conceived a plan that involved a counterintuitive public escape requiring a thousand miles of travel. In a daring and bold masquerade, the fair-skinned Ellen disguised herself as a young white male, traveling with his slave attendant (William). From Macon, Georgia, they made their way by train to Savannah, booked passage on a steamship to Charleston and checked into a leading hotel for the night. Continuing on by ship to Wilmington, they caught the train to Baltimore, changed trains and arrived in Philadelphia Christmas Sunday. They later lectured in England to Anti-Slavery Societies and published a book recounting their escape (available online).
The easy familarity of Kentucky's Henry Clay's name has faded in recent years as history has become less a part of the discourse of public life. But many of the old school recall this statesman first elected to the US senate at age 29, who sought at every turn to work out compromises that bridged the bitter contentions of states north and south. Clay, who was once Speaker of the US House of Representatives, also served as Secretary of State, and turned down at appointment to the US Supreme Court. A statesman involved in every national issue in his times, Henry Clay had the courage to stand firm before prevailing trends. He weathered vicious prolonged attacks against his character and nevertheless sought national compromises to reduce the partisan sectarianism that after his death divided the country and sent it to war. His home, Ashland, in Lexington, KY is open to the public.
Ashland, Henry Clay's home
The South, even during slavery, as cruel and inhuman as the system was, had heroic individuals, black and white, male and female, who contributed to America's story. The dark chapters were all the more enlightening for the record it left and for what that record tells us about human gifts and the unbounded inner power of the timeless will.
Notes: I'll be in DC net week, blogging from the inaugural. Share your questions, ideas, issues, requests on the comment or message board now so I can literally be your eyes and ears. Think of me as your first hand source on the ground.
And for those at home, here's the link to my free Obama e-book, with over 100 photo pages. Download it; you might find yourself in a picture! Link: www.lulu.com/content/5282127 .
Safe travels.
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Top-level comments on this article: (10 total)hi walter,reading this article was like going on vacation, one i would like to experience. so many interesting facts, and history. thank you for sharing this with us. the bottom link (picture) is broken, on my computer anyway.my best regards,seu thomThanks, Sue. Any requests for inaugural info/sharing? I'm open to input/suggestions/ideas . . .Walt
Walter, Wonderful article! I was able to 'taste' it, 'see' it, 'hear' it and 'feel' it.Thanks for adding to a Yankee's better appreciation of the South. By the way, you guys really are more hospitable than we Northern folk!
Wow! Great pictures! I loved the highway painting! I wish someone would photograph my recipes to the quality displayed here.Great job!
I love this part of our nation. We would move in a flash if this economy were right. hey keep writing I love your pociture se;lction, especially the scenes and houses.
Hi Walter, thanks for a good article of and about the south. People still like to criticize us because of the past segregation and slavery, but the south has made greater strides than any other sector in coming out of those things. I acknowledge that there was a lot more to come out of, but not all of us were happy with it when it was like that.
All of these glorious Southern facts and I didn't know a one of 'um! And me born and bred in the Bible Belt of American. I'm ashamed of myself.Thanks for all the wonderful information. I guess I just need to get out more. Huh?Have a great week, Walter.Sandra
Hello Walter,Love to learn (or relearn). The houses remind me the plantations in Virginia. The Blue Ridge parkway brings back many wonderful camping memories. Thanks.Kathy
Thanks for the amazing tour--your hired :-)Very well done! I felt like I was on a tour bus.
One spelling mistake: inhuman (should be inhumane)The article would have benefited from smaller paragraphs to break up the blocks. The article didn't cover anything about safe travel and very little about negotiating the area. It's simply a history article. I expected more of the former and therefore found the article did not fulfill its promise. Good article from a history standpoint, however.
Walter,Another greatly appreciated article. You share some very positive and informative facts.Thanks for sharing it with us!
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