The South of the Mind: American Imaginings of Rural White Southernness, 1960-1980
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THE SOUTH OF THE MIND: AMERICAN IMAGININGS OF RURAL WHITE SOUTHERNNESS, 1960-1980 ________________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board ________________________________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ________________________________________________________________________ by Zachary J. Lechner May 2012 Examining Committee Members: Bryant Simon, Advisory Chair, History Beth Bailey, History David Farber, History Brian Ward, External Member, University of Manchester, American Studies © Copyright 2012 by Zachary J. Lechner All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT This dissertation argues that in the 1960s and 1970s, a variety of Americans, including television and film producers, journalists, rock ‘n’ roll fans, novelists, counterculturists, presidential candidates, and George Wallace supporters, looked to an imagined rural white South as a repository of supposedly discarded values. In the shadow of the civil rights movement and the South’s increasing modernization, these individuals often perceived such “southern” traits as family-centeredness, closeness to the land, common-sense thinking, manliness, pre-modernity, and authenticity as both a welcome refuge from and an antidote to concerns about “rootlessness” in U.S. society. This sense of rootlessness was grounded in the vague belief that Americans had lost touch with cultural traditionalism. It combined contemporary anxieties about social unrest and government deceit with longer standing worries about suburban blandness, the shift from producerism to consumerism, social anomie, and the increasingly technocratic nature of modern America. My work traces the allure of the rural white South by detailing the region during the 1960s civil rights movement; country-rock music and the South in the countercultural consciousness; the Masculine South(s) of George Wallace, the novel and film Deliverance (1970, 1972), and the film Walking Tall (1973); the contrasting southernness of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band; and the appeal of Jimmy Carter’s iii “healing” southernness during the 1976 presidential campaign. This study expands the scope of historians’ recent investigations into the South’s burgeoning influence in national politics and culture. It directs a much-needed focus to Americans’ perceptions of rural white southernness, and more specifically, to how they formed and utilized these understandings, and what this information reveals about U.S. society and culture. In addition to emphasizing the malleability of race and the southland’s image in national discussions, this dissertation underscores the imagined South’s role as a safe area of contemplation in which Americans could address their conflicted thinking about a variety of national trends, from changing gender roles to evolving family structures to consumer culture, without ever having to resolve any incongruities. Finally, this work employs a new angle for integrating southern history into the national narrative while paying attention to the ways in which post-World War II Americans continued to cling to the idea of southern distinctiveness. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I researched and wrote this dissertation outside of my home institution, so this was at times, perhaps, a more solitary experience than normal. Still, I racked up debts to numerous individuals and institutions, both in Philadelphia and elsewhere. At Temple University, I benefited from a veritable dream team of experts in recent American history. My advisor Bryant Simon was always full of ideas and helped me stay focused on my goals. Beth Bailey encouraged me to think harder about my arguments and to always remember context and what’s at stake. David Farber’s example has made me both a better scholar and a better teacher. I would also like to thank Brian Ward for agreeing to serve as my outside reader and for asking probing questions of my work and Purdue University professors Nancy Gabin and Michael Morrison for providing encouragement and insight as I discovered the kind of history I wanted to write. Having completed this dissertation at a distance, I relied heavily on the input of scholars whom I joined on various conference panels. Maurice Wallace, Matthew Barbee, Grace Hale, Ted Ownby, Bruce Schulman, Joseph Crespino, Allison Graham, and Mark Huddle offered suggestions that frequently challenged my thinking and made the finished dissertation measurably better. v I am incredibly indebted to Kaye Culhane, Access Services Manager at Phillips Library, Aurora (Illinois) University. Kaye encouraged me to stay on track to finish and dutifully tracked down obscure articles that informed every chapter of my dissertation. In the process, she probably learned by accident more about Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band than she could have anticipated or wanted. This project simply would not have been possible without her. The Interlibrary Loan staff at Indian Prairie Public Library in Darien, Illinois, were extremely generous, helping me to gain access to materials in a timely fashion. One of the joys of this project has been interviewing and corresponding with musicians and music fans. Ed King (Lynyrd Skynyrd) and Chris Hillman (The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers) kindly agreed to talk to me about their memories of southern rock and country-rock, respectively, and offered valuable insights. Thanks, too, to the numerous southern rock fans who granted me their time and recollections. Their perspectives were indispensable. The search for the imagined South granted me the opportunity to step into the archives. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation generously awarded me a travel grant that enabled me to spend a week in Ann Arbor conducting research at the Ford Presidential Library. Archivists William McNitt and Stacy Davis were particularly helpful. I would also like to thank the staff of the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, especially Albert Nason, who gave advice on trying to locate the material I needed despite the non-existence of “southernness” as a search term. My fellow graduate students at Temple made my time there more enjoyable and intellectually enriching. They include: Abby Perkiss, Jay Wyatt, Dolores Pfeuffer- vi Scherer, Matt Johnson, Ryan Edgington, and Kate Scott. Drew McKevitt lent his advice on how to best use a questionnaire for research purposes. Thanks to Scott Randolph, my former Purdue colleague, who taught me about being a good graduate student and historian. To my list of supportive people, I add my family, who have always taken an interest in and encouraged my scholarship. Years ago, my parents built entire vacations around my historical interests (thanks to my brother Matt for hanging in there and being appeased by the occasional ballpark visit). My apologies to my dad for excluding any references in the following chapters to what I enjoy believing is his favorite song (even if it is not), Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen.” I thank my brother Marshall, the professional musician of the family, for lending me a greater appreciation of music, which surely influences several sections of this dissertation. The Young family has been a further source of support. It was good to have family in the immediate area while researching and writing. Becky Moline helped me in the earliest stages of the project by graciously allowing me to use her college library privileges. I think that spouses deserve some kind of auxiliary Ph.D. for all of their patience, sacrifice, and assistance. Sarah Young is no exception. She did an incredible amount of work, reading every word of this dissertation, formatting the final version, transcribing interviews, and offering advice. Her occasional “Huh?” and “What do you mean here?” markedly improved the quality of my writing. I can never repay her support and dedication through all these years. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION IMAGINING THE RURAL WHITE SOUTH IN THE 1960s AND 1970s.............................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1. THE MANY FACES OF THE SOUTH: NATIONAL IMAGES OF WHITE SOUTHERNNESS DURING THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA, 1960-1968......................................................................................................1 2. “THIS WORLD FROM THE STANDPOINT OF A ROCKING CHAIR”: COUNTRY-ROCK AND THE SOUTH IN THE COUNTERCULTURAL IMAGINATION...........................................................45 3. “WHEN IN DOUBT, KICK ASS”: THE MASCULINE SOUTH(S) OF GEORGE WALLACE, WALKING TALL , AND DELIVERANCE .................87 4. A TALE OF TWO SOUTHS: THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND’S COUNTERCULTURAL SOUTHERNNESS AND LYNYRD SKYNYRD’S REBEL MACHO.........................................................................130 5. “I RESPECT A GOOD SOUTHERN WHITE MAN”: JIMMY CARTER’S HEALING SOUTHERNNESS AND THE 1976 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN...........................................................................168 EPILOGUE POST-1970s IMAGININGS OF THE RURAL WHITE SOUTH AND “THE DUALITY OF THE AMERICAN THING”...................................206 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................213