I am one who is very happy to see the Confederate Flag finally no longer officially flying over, indeed banned from, U.S. military bases, and our armed forces training forts renamed. For long that flag flew over schools and courthouses throughout the South, and giant monuments to the Confederacy dominated public plazas. Even in largely black cities and communities they stood in the South, looming as intimidating reminders of an ugly past.
I am glad we have gotten past that era, more or less. That doesn’t mean I do not want Confederate history remembered, or that I deny the bravery and even a kind of “patriotism” shown by many non-slave-owning Southern soldiers in the Civil War who believed they were fighting for “freedom” and their own ”states rights.” I don’t demean the personal character or military talents of Robert E. Lee, either…
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Your comment reminded me of the
Uncle Remus stories, which I only half remember, and I did some research on this now mostly forgotten and still for many awkwardly embarrassing literary work of Joel Chandler Harris — a white man writing in the voice of a an old black “freeman” speaking in plantation dialect to a young white boy, telling folk stories and fables.
A Disney Movie was once made based on these once-popular folk stories and rural “animal fables,” which is now withdrawn from circulation. Similarly, for years there was the Chandler House Museum in Atlanta — I don’t know if it still stands — which fell on hard times. Here is a 2006 article about the Museum and the passing into almost — but not quite — “forgotten history” of these stories and its once famous and respected author:
Sixty years ago, Walt Disney turned Joel Chandler Harris' creations into a hit movie. But times changed. Now the film is locked away, and the author's reputation has dimmed.
www.ajc.com
