Opening the Closed Society

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the newsletter of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • Summer 2012 the university of mississippi Opening the Closed Society University Commemorates the 50 Years of Integration In September and October the universi- oir on the Oxford riot from his perspec- ty will commemorate the 50th anniver- tive in the military. sary of James Meredith’s entrance into Numerous campus programs in the university with a series of programs September and October will exam- titled Opening the Closed Society: 50 ine the law, race, the media, and high- Years of Integration at the University er education, some with emphasis on of Mississippi. Many events will come University of Mississippi events and together on Sunday, September 30, and some addressing broader issues. U.S. Monday, October 1, the anniversary Attorney General Eric Holder will dates of armed resistance to Meredith’s speak to the Sally McDonnell Barksdale admission to the university and the Honors College in a public event first day he attended classes. Events on on Thursday, September 27. In early September 30 and October 1 will in- September the Isom Center will host clude a walk across campus, a service U.S. marshals, there will be a public a talk by journalist and activist Imani led by religious leaders, major public walk with numerous alumni, students, Cheers on the role of minority women addresses, music, and the showing of friends, and faculty to express solidar- in the media. There are special exhibi- a new documentary on the events sur- ity with the goals of equality and op- tions developed by Special Collections rounding Meredith’s admission. portunity in education. The walk will in the J.D. Williams Library and by the On Sunday evening, September include music from the University of art department in Meek Hall. 30, a number of religious groups will Mississippi Gospel Choir on the steps The Center for the Study of Southern lead a service entitled “Praise, Prayer, of the Lyceum, and it will end at the Culture will contribute to the commem- Progress: Celebrating 50 Years of Gertrude Ford Center for a major ad- oration through a series of Brown Bag Integration” at the Gertrude Ford dress by Harry Belafonte, a musician talks and other programs. A September Center for the Performing Arts, and a and activist very involved in civil rights 19 lecture by Jackson State’s Robby Walk of Reconciliation will bring to- activities in Mississippi. Luckett will address Margaret Walker gether numerous groups to the steps of Other events on October 1 include a Alexander’s role in civil rights work, the Lyceum to commemorate the an- dedication by the Black Student Union, and on September 26 a talk by Faulkner niversary. Later that evening the Ford a conversation with John Doar, the as- scholar Robert Hamblin, a 1962 student Center will show a new documentary sistant attorney general for civil rights at the University of Mississippi, will dis- film, produced by Matthew Graves of who represented the U.S. government cuss his memories of campus events. On Media and Documentary Projects, on by accompanying James Meredith in October 3 Ellen Meacham will discuss the events of fall 1962. his admission to the university, and a her study of Robert Kennedy’s work in On Monday, October 1, to note that presentation at the Overby Center by James Meredith walked alone or with Henry Gallagher, author of a new mem- continued on page 19 the D i r e c t o r ’ s C o l u m n

Published Quarterly by It is hard to quote the most musical phrase about summer and the South, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture “Summertime and the livin’ is easy,” without starting a long Southern Studies discussion. The University of Mississippi The 1930s Gershwin song from Porgy and Bess, the Dubose Heyward/George Gershwin Telephone: 662-915-5993 opera, raises numerous issues about race, regional identity, gender and parenting, the- Fax: 662-915-5814 E-mail: [email protected] ology, irony, labor, fish, and cotton. We might consider whether we are thinking about www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu the song on stage or a version by Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis or Sam Cooke or Ella www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies Fitzgerald or someone else, and I expect that social media will soon be bringing me other versions. Aside from the music itself, the phrase encourages thinking about the various IN THIS ISSUE meanings of summer and likely the definitions of “livin’” and “easy.” Summer 2012 It should be no secret that college professors have bad habits. One is that, at least 1 Opening the Closed Society: University among ourselves, we tend to talk about our summers in terms of finished projects— Commemorates the 50 Years of Integration 2 Director’s Column how many pages or articles or chapters or documentaries or book projects finished, 3 Living Blues News how many reviews of manuscripts, books, tenure files finalized. In early summer our 3 Blues and the Spirit Symposium Report expectations are high, far higher than the cotton in the song. We look forward to 4 Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture Series the opportunities to concentrate on scholarly work, but we can be uncomfortable 4 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Schedule with the idea that the livin’ is easy. The bad part of that habit is the pressure to write 5 2012 Eudora Welty Awards Winners and, if possible, to write a lot. The good part is that there are things we want to say, 5 Darren Grem Joins SST Faculty 6 2012 Southern Foodways Symposium and summer can give the time, if not always enough time, to say them. Speaker Preview Much of what goes on at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture in the sum- 7 Documentary Focuses on Integration of the mer differs relatively little from the fall and spring. So, one could say that while the University of Mississippi parking is easy, other parts of summertime forge ahead on regular schedules. There are 7 Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern History regular classes. Colleagues taught Southern Studies 101 and 102 classes this summer. 8 Southern Studies Alumni Are Busy Making Music and More There are special classes, like the workshop on foodways oral histories and the Gilder 10 Oxford Conference for the Book News Lehrman Institute class, in which five faculty and staff members led students in an ex- 10 Rare Exhibition of Estelle Faulkner Paintings amination of “Race and Ethnicity in the Modern South.” There are ambitious forms 11 Two Friends of Center, John Pilkington and of outreach like the English department’s Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Sue Hart, Pass Away and the Southern Foodways Alliance’s High on the Hog Field Trip to North Carolina. 12 From Beer Joint to Barbecue Temple: Leo & Susie’s Famous Green Top Bar-B-Que, Dora There are one-time events, like Southern Studies happy hours in Oxford, Jackson, Alabama and New Orleans, and the showing and discussion of a film on 1980s rock musicians. 13 SFA Film News Editing takes no summers off. Living Blues and Gravy require year-round work, 13 SFA Oral History Workshop Grows as does the Center’s new website. And this summer, likely for the last summer for 14 Get on the Southern BBQ Trail! the foreseeable future, there is encyclopedia work. Work on The New Encyclopedia 16 School’s Not Out for Summer: Teachers Learn about Race and Ethnicity of Southern Culture continues, and the final volumes are nearing completion, with 17 Small Town South: A Gammill Gallery plans for the 24th and final volume to be out in May 2013. Early congratulations to Exhibition the editors of that extraordinary project, and to the University of North Carolina 18 Mark Your Calendars! Press. And while the publication date for the Mississippi Encyclopedia is farther in the 18 Center Sponsors New Music Series future, we continue efforts to wrap up that project and send it to the University Press 19 Call for Papers: 2013 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference of Mississippi sometime this year. 20 Southern Studies Alumni in the Media This issue of the Southern Register mentions a number of events coming in the 21 Faulkner’s World: The Photographs of Martin J. fall: the events surrounding the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of James Dain—A Traveling Exhibition Meredith’s admission to the university, the Gilder-Jordan lecture by Grace Hale, the 21 Contributors Southern Foodways Symposium on barbecue, a new concert series, the Brown Bag 22 Reading the South 26 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters presentations, and Gammill Gallery exhibitions. We look forward to all of them and Awards Nominations Being Accepted to new classes and new and returning students. As I write in late summer, I would 27 13th Annual Faulkner Fringe Program also like summertime, whether to enjoy bad habits or good ones, to last a bit longer. Dedicated to Betty Harrington, John Pilkington, and Dean Faulkner Wells

REGISTER STAFF One sad note for Southern Studies this summer is that Zandria Robinson, our col- Editor: James G. Thomas Jr. league and good friend for the last three years, is leaving the University of Mississippi Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee Mailing List Manager: Mary Hartwell Howorth for a position at the University of Memphis.3 The McMullan Assistant Professor of Lithographer: RR Donnelley Magazine Group Southern Studies and Sociology, Zandria taught classes related to the urban South, The University complies with all applicable laws regard- migration, residential segregation, hip-hop, regional identity, and other topics, al- ing affirmative action and equal opportunity in all its activities and programs and does not discriminate against ways combining challenging scholarly inquiry with an extraordinary sense of humor. anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, We’ll miss her, and we’re happy that Memphis is not far away. national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran. Ted Ownby

Page 2 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Living Blues News There are not many blues bands these Sam Cooke, and many others with the days fronted by a horn player. The sounds they needed to give their music horn and the horn section used to play a lift. a prominent role in blues and other I went to the Chicago Blues Festival musical forms. Stars like Louis Jordan last month and had the joy of meeting and Big Jay McNeely were as popu- and seeing our last cover artist, Mud lar as any guitar slinger or piano play- Morganfield, perform. Chicagoans can er. Most blues bands had horn players, be a tough crowd to please if you are even Delta bands and Chicago bands. covering Muddy Waters’s music. There Stars like T-Bone Walker and B.B. King were many in the audience who had carried full horn sections with them seen Waters himself perform. From the when they hit the road—but times side of the stage, I watched the crowd as have changed. Synthesizers and small- Mud broke into a string of his father’s er bands have pushed the horn play- classics. You could see the skepticism as ers out of most bands and off of many he began to play “Mannish Boy,” but it recordings. But there is nothing like faded to pure joy as Mud belted out “I’m real horns to give music a real punch. a man!” By the end of the set the entire On a sad note, just a week before we Imagine how flat Big Joe Turner or B.B. audience, skeptics included, was on its sent this issue to press, we learned of King would sound without the horns feet going wild. the death of featured artist Ernest Lane on their recordings. There are still a Congratulations go out to all of our on July 8. Lane was a wonderful man few holdouts—horn players who still 2012 Living Blues awards winners. and a great musician with an amazing know the punch of brass and reeds can’t Perennial favorites like Buddy Guy, life story to tell. Lane knew this article be touched by anything electronic. Marcia Ball, and Bobby Rush made the was coming, but, sadly, he died without Houston-based bluesman Grady Gaines list once again, but so too did a num- seeing it. is one of those holdouts. Gaines has ber of first-time winners like Lee Allen been honking his sax for over 60 years, Zeno, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, and Brett J. Bonner supplying the likes of Little Richard, Ironing Board Sam. Blues and the Spirit Symposium Report

The third biennial Blues and the Jennifer Noble feeling like it, too. It’s our culture, our Spirit Symposium occurred May 18– heritage, but it’s starting not to feel like 19, 2012, at Dominican University in it. I’m seeing black blues artists exclud- River Forest, Illinois, in partnership ed, pushed away, rejected from festi- with Living Blues magazine. This year’s vals around the country and from award theme, “Race, Gender, and the Blues,” nominations and winners.” Other pan- inspired provocative discussion of mu- els considered the issue of cultural sical, cultural, and sociological implica- tourism as well as the impact of hip- tions of traditional blues music. hop on the blues genre. The sympo- On Friday, May 18, attendees enjoyed sium concluded with a performance by an evening of classic Chicago blues with Some of Chicago’s legendary blues di- Living Blues cover artist Sugar Blue at some of Chicago’s legendary blues divas, vas, (l-r) Sharon Lewis, Peaches Staten, Chicago’s famed Rosa’s Lounge. including Deitra Farr, Peaches Staten, Deitra Farr, and Nellie “Tiger” Travis, Video of keynote speakers, pan- Nellie Travis, and Sharon Lewis. The perform during the symposium. els, and the live performance is avail- following afternoon, Zandria Robinson, able online at www.youtube.com/ former University of Mississippi assis- bluesandthespirit. tant professor of sociology and James on the growing marginalization of The Blues Symposium returns to the and Madeleine McMullan Assistant black blues artists, particularly on the University of Mississippi campus next Professor of Southern Studies, deliv- blues festival circuit and on record la- February 21–22, 2013. Details and pro- ered her keynote address, “Gotta Sing bels. Living Blues contributor and mu- gram information will soon appear in on the Beats They Bring Us: Gender, sician Deitra Farr noted in the Chicago Living Blues magazine and be posted at Class, and 21st-Century Blues Women’s Tribune, “Here we are in 2012, and I’m www/livingblues.com. Epistemology.” watching black blues artists being treat- Mark Camarigg Spirited panel discussions centered ed like stepchildren of the blues and

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 3 Center for the Study of Southern Culture

September The University of Mississippi 5 “Short Films about Interesting Mississippians” Rex Jones, Producer-Director Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture Series Media and Documentary Projects University of Mississippi FALL Semester 2012 The Brown Bag Luncheon Series takes place each Wednesday 12 “Foodways among the Jackson, at noon in the Barnard Observatory Lecture Hall during the Mississippi, Homeless” regular academic year. Joseph Ewoodzie, PhD Candidate University of Wisconsin, Madison The Meek School of Journalism Chuck Westmoreland, and New Media Assistant Professor of History 19 “The Margaret Walker Alexander University of Mississippi Delta State University Center” Robert Luckett 10 “‘We’ll Never Turn Back’: Voter 31 “Chinese Whispers: Southern Jackson State University Registration in Mississippi” Reflections in Australia’s Swamps’ A Film Produced by Student Sounds” 26 “Legacies from the Battles of Nonviolent Coordinating Gretchen Wood, Southern Ole Miss: The James Meredith Committee Studies Graduate Student Incident and the 1965 Southern University of Mississippi Literary Festival” 17 “A Preview of the Southern Robert Hamblin, Professor of Foodways Symposium: ‘Barbecue: November English and Director of the An Exploration of Pitmasters, 7 TBA Center for Faulkner Studies Places, Smoke, and Sauce’” Brian Ward Southeast Missouri State Sara Camp Arnold, Editor of Northumbria University University Gravy Southern Foodways Alliance 14 “Native Ground: A Gammill October Gallery Exhibition Talk” 3 “Robert F. Kennedy and 24 “Since 1962: Thinking Rob McDonald, Photographer, Mississippi Freedom Riders, Historically about School Prayer, Professor of English, and Meredith, and Poverty” the Supreme Court, and the Associate Dean Ellen Meacham South” Virginia Military Institute

Exhibition Schedule

June 18–September 7, 2012 September 10–December 15, 2012 Photographs from the Small Town South Native Ground David Wharton Rob McDonald

The Gammill Gallery, located in Barnard Observatory, is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., except for University holidays. Telephone: 662-915-5993.

Page 4 Summer 2012 The Southern Register 2012 Eudora Courtesy Darren Grem Welty Awards Winners Each year the Center for the Study of Southern Culture presents the Eudora Welty Awards to two Mississippi high school students during the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference. The late Frances Patterson of Tupelo, a longtime member of the Center Advisory Committee, established and endowed the awards, which are given for creative writing in either prose or poem form. The prize for first place is $500, and the Darren Grem prize for second place is $250. In addition, each winner also receives a copy of the Literature volume of The New Darren Grem Joins SST Faculty Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. The Center wishes to express a warm welcome to new faculty member Darren E. This year’s first-place winner of the Grem, assistant professor of history and Southern Studies. Grem earned his BA from Eudora Welty Award was Emma Liston Furman University and MA and PhD from the University of Georgia. He has held for her poem “Baby Doves.” Liston recent- postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and Emory University, and he joined the ly graduated from St. Andrew’s Episcopal faculty at the University of Mississippi in the summer of 2012. School in Ridgeland. Regarding the win- Grem’s research interests include religion, business, politics, and popular culture. ning poem, the University of Mississippi He is the author of the forthcoming Corporate Revivals: A Business History of Born- English professors who judged the en- Again America (Oxford University Press), a book that details how evangelicals and tries for the Awards claimed that “Eudora fundamentalists used business leaders, organizations, money, and strategies to ad- Welty would likely have appreciated vance their religious crusades and political ambitions in 20th-century America. The ‘Baby Doves’ because it is on the surface dissertation on which his book is based won the Southern Historical Association’s C. a simple poem about gardening and about Vann Woodward Prize for Best Dissertation and the University of Georgia’s Robert the birds that visit the spray of the sprin- C. Anderson Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Humanities. To date, he has kler system. But the poet intuits—in a published articles examining the “Christian” business practices and activism of fast- way reminiscent of Welty—how deeply food chain Chick-fil-A and the role of religious marketing at Heritage USA, a now- intertwined the activities of everyday life defunct theme park once run by televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. He has are with the affairs of the heart.” also published and given public talks on subjects ranging from Southern music to This year’s second-place win- contemporary politics to globalization. ner was Emma Thompson from the Grem recently taught his first course in Southern Studies, an introductory summer Mississippi School for Mathematics course that explored how “the sacred” has shaped Southern society, music, politics, and Science for her poem “Ghost.” The and literature. In the fall, he will teach a history course on “The South in the 20th judges of the awards stated that “In Century” and a Southern Studies seminar that will focus on the post-1960s South. ‘Ghost,’ the speaker recounts the process of coming to see—to really see— another person whom she has only re- HOT OFF THE PRESS! cently recognized as someone connect- The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture ed to her, someone to whom she has a relationship because of their common Volume 19: Violence Volume 20: Social Class humanity. With sharp use of detail, the Amy Wood, volume editor Larry Griffin and Peggy Hargis, poet traces the gulf between two lives HB117.... $45.00 volume editors and the surprising moment of realiza- Friends ... $41.00 HB118.... $49.95 tion when they come together.” Friends.... $45.00 The Center congratulates both win- PG117.... $24.95 PG118.... $27.95 ners on their success. Friends.... $23.00 Friends.... $25.00 g

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 5 2012 Southern Foodways Symposium Speaker Preview Glenda Guion Susanna Kekkonen The 2012 Southern Foodways Monique Truong Symposium will take place on the UM campus and around Oxford on October 19–21, with a Delta Divertissement in Greenwood and Cleveland on October 18 and 19. The event is already sold out, but podcasts of all of the talks will be available at the University’s iTunes U page immediately after the week- end. We have gathered a wealth of academic, literary, and culinary talent to help us study and celebrate this year’s theme, “Barbecue: An Exploration of Pitmasters, Places, Smoke, and Sauce.” T, the style magazine of the New York In the meantime, meet a few of our Times. Earlier this year she wrote of cel- speakers. ebrating Tet, the Vietnamese lunar New Raised in rural, southeastern North George Singleton Year, with fish sauce–spiked deviled eggs. Carolina, Randall Kenan now teaches Florida-based John Dufresne has pub-

English and creative writing at his alma Miriam Berkley lished four novels, two collections of mater, UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the au- short fiction, and two books of advice thor of one novel, A Visitation of Spirits for aspiring writers. His novels Louisiana (1989), and one collection of short fic- Power and Light (1994) and Love Warps tion, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead the Mind a Little (1997) were both New (1992). Kenan has also published works York Times notable books of the year. of nonfiction on contemporary African He has been known to hop a plane from American culture and on the African Miami to Memphis, rent a car, and drive American author and intellectual James a hundred miles west to DeValls Bluff, Baldwin. In the “North Carolina” en- Arkansas, for a meal at Craig’s Bar-B-Q. try for the 2009 anthology State by State: George Singleton has lived most of his A Panoramic Portrait of America, Kenan life in upstate South Carolina and is best writes of hogs and barbecue: “Whatever known for his four collections of dark- happens in this humble state, as tobac- ly comic short fiction: These People Are co slowly becomes a memory with bank- Us (2001), The Half-Mammals of Dixie ing and bio-tech taking its place at the (2002), Drowning in Gruel (2006), and Matt Otto Workshirts for Madmen (2007). His fifth collection, Stray Decorum, will be pub- Randall Kenan lished by Dzanc Books in September 2012. He enjoys smoking pork shoulders at his home in Easley, South Carolina, center of things, hogs will remain near- with the help of his dog Dooley. est and dearest to our hearts. For better Gustavo Arellano was born in or for worse, pigs are us.” Southern California to Mexican par- Monique Truong is the author of the ents. He has lived in Orange County novels The Book of Salt (2003) and Bitter for most of his life and is the editor of in the Mouth (2010), both of which have the alternative newspaper OC Weekly. strong food themes. Truong was born in Arellano is the author of the long- Vietnam and immigrated to the United running syndicated column “¡Ask a States with her family when she was a Mexican!” in which he “answers any child. She spent time in North Carolina and all questions about America’s spici- and graduated from high school in est and largest minority.” Scribner pub- Houston, Texas. Now a New Yorker, lished his most recent book, Taco USA: Truong chronicles her home cooking How Mexican Food Conquered America, Gustavo Arellano exploits in her “Ravenous” column for earlier this year.

Page 6 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Dave Woody Documentary Focuses Grace Hale on Integration of the University of Mississippi On October 1, 1962, James Meredith became the first African American student to enroll in the University of Mississippi, amid controversy and violence. The yearlong celebration of that important event began in September 2011 and goes through October 1, 2012, for the official Opening the Closed Society program. The campus will remember this significant occasion with events that will provide tributes and acknowledgments to the opening of what was once a closed society. As a documentary producer at Media and Documentary Projects, Matthew Graves wanted to commemorate the event on film. Graves, who Gilder-Jordan moved to Oxford from Abilene, Texas, seven years ago, was immediately interested in the Meredith story. “I started reading about Ole Miss, and I came across Lecture in that story,” Graves said. “I was really blown away by it. I thought it was an in- Southern History credible story of courage and perseverance, and there are so many different elements to it that I thought were so intriguing.” On October 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Nutt After reading William Doyle’s book An American Insurrection, Graves was in- Auditorium the Center, along with part- spired to make a documentary. “Early on, in one of my first conversations with Andy ners from the University of Mississippi Harper, he asked me what projects was I interested in, and I told him I would love African American studies program, to do something about the integration of the university,” Graves said. “I knew the Center for Civil War Research, and anniversary was coming up, and so I thought it would be a great opportunity to tell Department of History, will host the the story and begin collecting stories from people who were there.” Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern Graves said he wants to hear stories from as many people who were there as History. The 2012 lecturer will be he can—even if they only witnessed a small part of it. “I’ve read many different Grace Hale, who will present “‘So the accounts of the story, but to actually get to talk to the people who were there Whole World Can See’: Documentary and who saw it, there is something special about that, and I really hope that Photography and Film in the Civil comes across in the final film,” Graves said. Rights Era.” This year’s lecture will be Showcased in the film are former students, FBI agents, U.S. Marshals, histo- part of the University’s commemoration rians, and religious figures. “William Doyle’s book really inspired me because of the 50th anniversary of its integration. it’s such a riveting read and showcased the different elements that the story in- Hale is professor of history and volved,” Graves said. “It’s really a profound moment in the history of this cam- American studies at the University of pus and the history of this country.” Virginia and her research is on 20th- He plans to show the 52-minute documentary on Sunday, September 30, and century U.S. cultural history, history of to have an interview station set up for people to share their stories. the U.S. South, documentary film stud- “I do feel a sense of urgency to collect these stories and this history,” Graves ies, and sound studies. She is author of said. “I think it’s important to know our history, to learn from it and to remem- the 2011 book A Nation of Outsiders: ber it. I hope in some way to capture the scope of the story and show how im- How the White Middle-Class Fell in Love portant it was to this university and to this country.” with Rebellion in Postwar America as well as Making Whiteness: The Culture of Rebecca Lauck Cleary Segregation in the South, 1890–1940. Past Gilder-Jordan speakers have been Barbara Fields (March 2011) and David Blight (November 2012). To see Find the Center through Social Media Blight’s lecture on Civil War memory in the civil rights era, visit southern- Keep up with the many events at the Center through social media. Find us on studies.olemiss.edu/2012/02/23/gilder- Facebook at facebook.com/SouthernStudies and on Twitter at @SouthernStudies. jordan-southern-history-lecture-series/. Our Tumblr Blog, southernstudiesatuofm.tumblr.com features the work of The Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Center institute and partner Media and Documentary Projects, as well as that of Southern History is made possible students in the documentary photography and filmmaking classes led by David through the generosity of the Gilder Wharton and Andy Harper. Visit this page regularly to see the diverse creative Foundation, Inc. The series honors and scholarly work of students and faculty. Richard Gilder of New York and his family, as well as his friends Dan and Lou Jordan of Virginia.

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 7 Southern Studies Alumni Are Busy Making Music and More Southern Studies alumni who work Things. Jake Fussell has been playing Southern Studies as Angela Watkins in the arts are doing all sorts of things guitar with Reverend John Wilkins (MA 2005), has been playing in various this summer. Scholarship, documentary in a tour that took them, among oth- settings around Chicago, and BA alum- work, music, and friends came together er places, to the Raumablues festival nus Justin Showah has joined the South in Oxford on July 14. First, in Barnard in Finland. Angela James, known in Memphis String Band for their new re- Observatory, Camilla Aikin (MA 2012) Kate Medley cording, “Old Times There . . .” showed a film she began as part of her A paperback issue of The Chitlin’ MA thesis, “We Didn’t Get Famous: Circuit and the Road to Rock ’n’ Roll by The Story of Southern Underground Preston Lauterbach (MA 2003) came Music, 1978–1990.” Following the film, out this summer. Photographer Kate Camilla and Tim Lee, who was featured Medley (MA 2007) has a show, Southern in the film as a member of the 1980s Food from the Backroads and Byways, band the Windbreakers, discussed the at UNC’s Center for the Study of the film and its subject. Later, the group American South this summer, and Media convened at an Oxford bar called the and Documentary Projects producer-di- Blind Pig for music by Tyler Keith (MA rector Joe York (MA 2005) is complet- 2011) and his two bands, the Preacher’s ing Pride and Joy, a Southern Foodways Kids and the Apostles. Then the Tim Alliance film project for the fall. Melissa Lee 3, with Tim, Susan Bauer Lee, and Bridgman has finished some new pieces Chris Bratta, played well into the night. at Bridgman Pottery in Memphis, and Other musical news from alumni in- people at Cynthia Gerlach’s (MA 1993) cludes several new recordings and tours. Oxford combination of food arts and Tyler Keith and the Apostles have a folk arts, Bottletree Bakery, are breath- new recording coming out this summer ing a bit easier with the end of some ma- called Black Highway. Jimmy Phillips jor street construction. Other Southern (MA 1993) and the Ruminators have Studies photographers, filmmakers, Roadside Produce, Aiken County, S.C., a new CD, Desperate Moon, and have 2009 by Kate Medley. The photo is part chefs, writers, musicians, visual artists, been playing widely, including a steamy of Medley’s exhibition, Southern Food or craftspeople are working at projects July 4th engagement on the University from the Backroads and Byways, which too numerous to count. of Mississippi campus. Dent May (BA is currently hanging at UNC’s Center for Ted Ownby 2007) is touring with his new CD, Do the Study of the American South. Camilla Akin Melissa Bridgman Tyler Keith and the Preacher’s Kids perform at the Blind Pig in Oxford after Camilla Akin’s presentation of her film,We Didn’t Get Famous: The Story of Southern Underground Music, 1978–1990.

New pottery by Southern Studies alum Melissa Bridgman

Page 8 Summer 2012 The Southern Register

Oxford Rare Exhibition of Estelle Conference Faulkner Paintings The University of Mississippi for the Museum is pleased to present its latest exhibition, Paintings by Estelle Faulkner, a col- Book News lection of abstract works, many of which have never Save the date for the 2013 OCB, been seen by an audience. which will take place March 21–23. This exhibition opened on The conference, in its 20th year, July 3, 2012, and will run to will feature several sessions explor- October 6, 2012. The exhi- ing “Writing and the University.” bition is free and open to the The conference website has been public. relaunched, and you can visit www. Estelle Faulkner began oxfordconferenceforthebook.com painting in the 1920s when to learn more about plans over the she lived in China with coming months. her first husband, Cornell Sincere thanks goes to Ron Franklin. When their mar- and Becky Feder of the R&B riage ended in divorce in Feder Foundation for the Beaux 1929, Estelle and her two Arts, which has pledged a gift of children returned to Oxford, $100,000 to the conference over where she then married the next 10 years. This pledge will William Faulkner on June continue the Feder’s long-time 20, 1929. support of this conference and Faulkner had a studio in many other Center programs. The Charlottesville, Virginia, where most of these paintings were produced. She did not Mississippi Arts Commission also like to enter art shows because she believed she was “usually invited because of my recently announced that the con- husband and not because of my artistic abilities.” Of her work, Faulkner comment- ference will receive a MAC grant ed, “My inspiration for painting is a snatch of poetry or a sentence from a book. I do for the 2013 event. Thanks to the not paint from nature.” MAC for important and ongoing The paintings displayed in this exhibition were done between 1960 and 1972. In support! addition to working in oils, Faulkner also painted watercolors. Some of her water- If you wish to join the Feders and colors can be seen on display at Rowan Oak. She commented once, “I used to give the Arts Commission in supporting away most of my paintings. When someone offered to pay for them, I said to myself, the conference, please visit www. ‘Now there’s an idea.’” oxfordconferenceforthebook.com/ Lee Caplin, who shared a studio with Faulkner in 1969 and 1970, commented support. Contributions will ensure that “she had the patina of a real southern lady, spoke with precision and direct- that much of the conference re- ness, a fine vocabulary, not colloquial in approach, but also had an artist’s passion mains free and open to the public, for color and form. Her paintings were of a medium size, organic shapes, and deep and any amount helps in our mis- vibrant color, painted for herself, as an outlet for her vision—not a commercial ori- sion to bring celebrated writers to entation at all.” Oxford. Thanks to those who have The University Museum is grateful to the Summers family for loaning Faulkner’s supported the conference over the paintings for this exhibition and to Lee Caplin for making the loan possible and for years! his enthusiasm and encouragement. Please contact Becca Walton, Bill Griffith, curator of Rowan Oak, said, “This is the first public viewing of her Center associate director for proj- work in Mississippi since she passed away in 1972, and the University Museum is ects and OCB director, with any grateful to have an opportunity to display her work. The paintings are a thrill to questions at [email protected]. see as her use of bright colors and varying design schemes keep the viewer engaged in her fantasy landscapes.” We encourage visitors to stop by the museum to see Paintings by Estelle Faulkner and also to view John Shorb’s Waking and Sleeping, an exhibition inspired by Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, on view through September 1, 2012.

Emily Dean g

Page 10 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Two Friends of Center, John Pilkington and Sue Hart, Pass Away The Center lost two good friends over the past two months, John As a scholar, Pilkington published numerous articles in Pilkington and Sue Hart. Both will be long remembered for their professional journals and served with regional and nation- roles in shaping the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. al academic organizations. His work includes The Heart of Yoknapatawpha, a study of Faulkner’s novels about his fictional county, books on novelists Francis Marion Crawford and Henry Blake Fuller, and a biographical and critical study of Southern literary renaissance leader and Mississippi native During his 33-year teaching career at the University of Stark Young. He had earlier published a two-volume collec- Mississippi, John Pilkington influenced hundreds of students, tion of Young’s correspondence, Stark Young: A Life in the Arts, inspired faculty colleagues, and filled key leadership roles. which earned the prestigious Jules F. Landry Award and was Following his retirement in 1985, he continued his early mis- nominated for the J. Franklin Jameson Prize. sion of raising funds and friendsg to help make the university li- Elaine Pugh brary the best that it can be. Pilkington, 93, distinguished professor emeritus of English, died Monday, June 4, 2012, at his home in Oxford. “It’s hard to imagine Ole Miss without John Pilkington,” said Chancellor Emeritus Robert Khayat. Bruce Newman / Pilkington was professor of American literature in the Sue Hart, a longtime Center staff member Department of English from 1952 to 1985. He taught one of and friend the first university courses devoted solely to William Faulkner and was a moving force in establishing the annual Faulkner & Oxford EAGLE Yoknapatawpha Conference. He designed many new classes, g directed many doctoral dissertations and master’s theses, and developed and taught correspondence courses, for which he won a major award from the National University Extension Association. When Pilkington joined the University of Mississippi faculty soon after completing his master’s and doctoral degrees at Harvard, he was alarmed at the state of the library, and he wast- ed no time in seeking ways to remedy the situation. He was honored for his service in 2009, with dedication of the library’s John Pilkington Study Room, a project that was spearheaded by Dean of Libraries Julia Rholes and several of his longtime friends. “All the university library staff are saddened by Dr. Pilkington’s Mary Lillian “Sue” Hart, retired staff member of the Center passing,” Rholes said. “He was a steadfast champion of the li- for the Study of Southern Culture, died Saturday, July 21, braries. As a scholar and teacher, Dr. Pilkington believed that 2012, in Oxford. Beginning in 1979, Hart was research li- you could not have a great university without a strong library brarian and publications editor at the Center for the Study of collection, and as president of the Friends of the Libraries, he Southern Culture until her retirement in 1995. She edited the worked tirelessly for years to help build our collections.” Southern Register, coedited The Blues: A Bibliographical Guide, compiled “Sports in the South: A Selective Bibliography” for Harry Briscoe John Pilkington at the dedication Southern Exposure, and was an important part of numerous of the Pilkington Reading Room other Center projects. on the second floor of the J.D. She had the initial idea for the Encyclopedia of Southern Williams Library on April 25, 2009 Culture and served as an associate editor of the one-volume edition, published in 1989. Charles Reagan Wilson, general editor of the new 24-volume edition, describes her as “an in- valuable member of the original encyclopedia team, bringing the careful and precise eye of the librarian, and an iconoclas- tic spirit, to our work.” In retirement Hart continued to be a voracious reader and an enthusiastic participant in discussions about sports, especially the Atlanta Braves, and politics. She also loved going to the UM campus for lectures, exhibitions, and musical events at the Ford Center.

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 11 From Beer Joint to Barbecue Temple: Leo & Susie’s Famous Green Top Bar-B-Que, Dora, Alabama

In 1951 Green Top Bar-B-Que opened its doors on the new Highway 78 in Dora, Alabama. Offering cold beer and a jukebox packed with dance tunes, the Green Top was an oasis in a desert of dry counties. Twenty-two years later, coalminer Leo Headrick bought the Green Top from its original owners. He wanted to get out of the mines and start a second career working with his wife. Susie let the roadhouse clientele have their fun, but she focused on the food. Eventually the Green Top became known for its barbecue, cooked in pits out back. Leo passed away in 1997. Their son, Richard, took over the business, and Susie still checks in on the Green Top every day.

••• Susie Headrick

The following is as told to Amy C. Amy C. Evans Evans by Susie Headrick, September 26, 2006: some people in there that would still around. And then about seven o’clock be drinking, and a lot of times we’d at night, I go back and sit and talk to My name is Susie Headrick, and I was dance. Sometimes I’d sing with him, different people. born in 1922 in Sipsey, Alabama. Leo but most of the time I was too busy Through the years I’ve had a lot of and I met in high school. He was a trying to keep everything going. good friends there. It’s been hard work, football player and I was a cheerlead- When we first came down here, peo- but it’s like I told them, if I hadn’t er, but I didn’t date Leo then. We got ple were bad to break in. There’s a lit- gone into the restaurant business, I’d married in 1942. My husband made tle building behind the Green Top, so have to be on welfare now. I never two good decisions in his life, and the we put us a bed in that and we would have gotten rich, but I do have a good first one was marrying me and then night watch—sleep out there and go living. And it’s fun at my age. There the next one was buying the Green home in the morning. But then we are people that went there when they Top. decided that was too much trouble, were young, and their mouths will fly But when we first bought it, well, and we decided to buy a trailer and open—they’re so excited to see me at it was kind of rough, and some peo- put it behind the restaurant. I liked my age. And they hug me and give me ple called it a beer joint. I never did living here because I could always go a peck on the cheek, and it’s just a joy want them to call it a beer joint. out there and check on things. If they to know that you’ve had that many My husband, he worked on the day needed anything, I could take care of friends in your lifetime. shift, and our son, Richard, and I that. And I like it now. I usually go worked at night, and sometimes I’d by when I’m going to the bank and have to straighten people out. And leave them their change for the day, Over the past decade, the SFA’s oral his- on Thursday nights we’d have a big and then when I come back from the tory initiative, led by Amy C. Evans, has crowd from Jasper, and they’d sing and bank, I always take the deposit books collected 600 “stories behind the food.” dance. My husband, he always sang a back there and look around. I get Approximately 100 of these stories make lot, especially when he had him sev- me a Sprite and come home and eat up the Southern BBQ Trail, of which this eral drinks. We had a jukebox, and af- lunch. And I usually cook for me and oral history is a part. ter we’d close the grill up, there’d be Richard or anybody else that drops

Page 12 Summer 2012 The Southern Register

SFA Film SFA Oral History News Workshop Grows The second annual Oral History Workshop, led by SFA oral historian Amy C. Evans, Joe York’s latest short film,Asleep grew in students and support this year. In May, 12 students from Georgia, Michigan, in the Wood, premiered at the Big Texas, New York, California, Mississippi, and Louisiana spent four days in Oxford at Apple Barbecue Block Party in SFA World Headquarters, learning all about the art of the interview, as well as how to New York City in June. This film process and archive files. Students accompanied Amy into the field to record an inter- introduces viewers to Kentuckian view with Doug Davis of Yokna(patawpha) Bottoms Farm and collaborated on an au- Julian van Winkle III, who distills dio slideshow using the files they collected in the field. Old Rip Van Winkle bourbons in Again this year, through the generous support of SFA member Edward Lee of the tradition of his grandfather, Louisville, Kentucky, the SFA was able to offer two minority scholarships to students Julian “Pappy” van Winkle. You attending the workshop. This year’s recipients were Kimber Thomas, a Mississippi can watch the film online at www. native pursuing her PhD in Afro-American Studies at UCLA, and Lan Truong, a southernfoodways.org. plant science major at CUNY, Lehman College, Bronx, New York. Pride and Joy, directed, shot, and With funds donated by SFA members Lex and Ann Alexander of Chapel Hill, edited by Joe York and produced by North Carolina, the SFA was able to add another oral history kit to our stable of John T. Edge and Andy Harper, is equipment and better serve the workshop group. This new fieldwork kit will also be the Southern Foodways Alliance’s shared with colleagues around the region who help the SFA to collect the stories be- first feature-length film. The hour- hind the food. long documentary builds on York’s An outgrowth of this year’s workshop is the possibility of offering an intermediate work over the past six years, re- workshop to previous participants as an opportunity to discuss their personal field- visiting previous film subjects and work—work they do using the tools and tips they learned in the first workshop. The introducing a host of new ones. SFA hopes to add this offering to the calendar during the winter intersession. Stay Pride and Joy makes its public tele- tuned for details. vision debut on South Carolina Alliance Southern Foodways Left to right: Amy C. Evans Educational Television in the (SFA), Larrysha Jones spring of 2013. (Georgia), Kelly Landrieu (Louisiana), Rachel Derusha (Michigan), Tashina Emery (Michigan), Kimber Thomas (California), Mark Paternostro (Louisiana), Sherri Sheu (Texas), Sandra Davidson (Texas), Lan Truong (New York), Kathleen Turner

g (Mississippi). Seated: Naya Jones (Texas). Not pictured: Nick Roland (Texas)

MEMBERSHIP

name

company

address

city state zip

telephone fax

email Please make checks payable to the Southern Foodways Alliance and mail them to the J $50 student J $75 individual J $100 family Center for the Study of Southern Culture University, MS 38677. J $200 nonprofit institution J $500 corporation

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, VISIT US AT OUR WEBSITE: www.southernfoodways.com or call Julie Pickett, SFA office manager, 662.915.5993 or via e-mail at [email protected]

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 13 Get on the Southern BBQ Trail! In this, the SFA’s year of all things bar- long before smoked raccoon became a Mississippi River, there’s probably 50 or becue, we invite you to hit the Southern J&N tradition. About his grandparents, so churches in this area, and the large BBQ Trail. Barry says, “This is all they do. They majority of them will have a big barbe- Since 2005 we’ve collected more eat and live barbecue. They’re here six cue,” Jerry says proudly. than 100 oral history interviews from days a week from seven o’clock to sev- nine states that are all about the culture en o’clock, so there ain’t much life other Mississippi of ’cue. We’ve visited with pitmasters than barbecue for them.” and restaurant owners, wood purvey- Mississippians joke that the best barbecue ors and hog processors, and more. This Georgia in the state can be found in Memphis. summer, we added loads of new oral his- True, it’s hard to put a finger on the pulse tory interviews from across the South: We have stories about Brunswick stew. of Mississippi’s barbecue tradition, if it has Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North We have stories from an all-female- one. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t Carolina, and South Carolina. operated joint in Chamblee. And we great stories. The late Deke Baskin of Take a little time to meet some of the have some incredible interviews from Oxford was a celebrated barbecue man. people who have shared their stories the family behind Fresh Air Bar-B- One of his first jobs was washing dishes with us. Que in Jackson. Hear about the restau- at a fraternity house on the campus of the Grab a napkin and go! rant that Joel Watkins, a veterinarian, University of Mississippi. At the time, opened in 1929 to serve the rabbits and there was a fraternity tradition of cooking Alabama goats he raised and barbecued on the a whole hog on football weekends when weekends. Watkins never cooked pork. Ole Miss would play Arkansas (their We trace the history of Alabama’s unique George “Toots” Caston brought in the team mascot is a hog), and that’s how white sauce. We have stories from hogs when he bought the place in 1952. Deke learned to barbecue. But Deke also Golden Rule Bar-B-Q, Alabama’s oldest Hear tell of the original pit that could grew up in a community that held large restaurant continually in operation, open hold 19 whole hogs, the 25-gallon cast- picnics to celebrate holidays and fami- since 1891. But you won’t want to miss iron pots for cooking Brunswick stew, ly reunions. A traditional food for these our interview with Dale Pettit of Top Hat and the family coleslaw recipe—which kinds of gatherings in north Mississippi Barbecue in Blount Springs. The place didn’t appear on the menu until the was barbecued goat. Deke recalls in his opened in 1952, and Dale’s father, Wilbur, 1980s. Today, the third generation of interview, “Family reunions and, you a bread deliveryman, bought it in 1967. the Caston family is at the helm, and know, the Fourth of July was a big thing. The sauce recipe cost him extra. Dale they are proud of what their grandfa- In the old days we had blues harmonica, took the reins from his father in 1971 and ther created. As George Barber, one of you know, and good times—and the goat. has been the pitmaster ever since. He pre- Toot’s grandsons puts it, “It’s something You had to have a goat there.” As Deke fers to do things the old-fashioned way: [our grandfather] instilled in us as chil- became skilled at cooking hogs, he added “When people like me stop barbecuing dren growing up, to have pride in what goat to his repertoire. He operated a series the old way, it will die. And people that you did and to do the best job you could of restaurants in and around Oxford, the don’t try it while they have the opportu- do at anything, no matter what it was.” last of which closed in 2005. Deke passed nity will be sorry because one day it won’t away in 2011. be here anymore.” Kentucky North Carolina Arkansas “In western Kentucky, when we talk about barbecue, it’s mutton, and lots of We have plenty of stories about North Craig’s in De Vall’s Bluff and McLard’s it,” says Jerry Thompson of Morganfield. Carolina barbecue, eastern and west- in Hot Springs are the icons of Arkansas Jerry participates in St. Anne’s Catholic ern. But we don’t want to start any ’cue. We collected those stories. But Church’s annual barbecue, a tradition fights. Instead, we would like for you to we also have an interview with Barry in that part of the state. According to think about where barbecue comes from. Vaughan of J&N Barbecue in Bono. Jerry, church barbecues started dur- Nahunta Pork Center, located outside Barry’s grandparents, Jim and Nora ing the Great Depression as a way for rural Pikeville, uses “everything but the Vaughan, opened the place in 1996, but the community to come together and hair” and claims the title of “America’s they had a side business smoking meats for each family to share what they had. largest pork display.” Mack Pierce for community gatherings for years. Some families brought sheep. Some opened the retail business in 1975, after Barry does most of the barbecuing these families brought wood. Some fami- decades of buying and slaughtering pigs days, smoking everything from ribs to lies brought corn. Together, they had for local farmers and grocers. Pierce’s butts. He also smokes wild game—tur- a big barbecue, and the tradition con- son and grandson, Larry and Brandon, key, deer, and even raccoons—for local tinues today. “These churches, I mean, now oversee the processing of up to 150 hunters. Jim and Nora have attended in the whole western Kentucky from hogs a day. Nahunta also provides whole “coon suppers” all their lives, so it wasn’t Owensboro to the Tennessee line to the hogs to pit-cooked barbecue landmarks

Page 14 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Denny Culbert Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que, Holly Hill, South Carolina

Wilber’s in Goldsboro and Allen & Son Tennessee There are all kinds of barbecue stories to in Chapel Hill. “Young people will come be found in Texas. One of them comes in, some of them have never been out Dry-rub ribs in Memphis. Whole hog from Richard Lopez, who makes all on a farm. They don’t know what a pig is in the rural counties just a stone’s throw kinds of barbecue. Richard is the third- or they don’t know what a pig looks like, from the big city. There’s a lot of barbe- generation owner of the Gonzales Food until they walk in the building and see cue in Tennessee, but there aren’t many Market in Gonzales. Richard grew up in that pig head sitting there in the meat people like Flora Payne. Flora operates Gonzales, working in the market along- case: this is real, this is where my food Payne’s Bar-B-Q in Memphis. She never side numerous cousins and extended comes from,” says Larry. thought she’d run a barbecue restaurant. family members. When his father decid- But when her husband, Horton Payne, ed to retire, Richard, who spent 20 years passed away in 1984, Flora, along with working for the corporate grocery chain South Carolina Horton’s mother, cofounder Emily Payne, Albertson’s, was eager to continue a fam- took the reins of the restaurant. Flora and ily tradition. Because of the family’s ded- Mustard. German immigrants. Whole her son, Ron, have maintained all of the ication to the business, Gonzales Food hog. We have the stories. But we also flourishes that Horton and Emily Payne Market is well respected for all it makes: have some stories from the pits—sto- made special. The pork shoulders are still brisket, ribs, pork. But the place is even ries from the people who sit up at night turned over hickory coals in a recessed pit better known for its sausage, which is still babysitting hogs. Douglas Oliver, the set into the wall. The mild sauce simmers made fresh, by hand, in the back of the pitmaster at Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que in all afternoon on the stove. The hotter va- shop. It’s made following the 50-year- Holly Hill, grew up on a farm down the riety is dispensed via an old liquid soap old recipe that Richard’s grandfather ob- road and started working there not long bottle. The coleslaw has a mustard base; tained from an old friend, Fermin Cantu, after it opened in 1977. Hired as a meat it’s a recipe that Emily perfected. And the when he decided to open the place in cutter, Oliver trained under legend- smoked bologna is a local favorite. When 1958. Today, the market is operated by ary pitmaster Chalmon Smalls. Now a asked what makes her barbecue special, multiple generations of the Lopez fami- veteran of the pits, Oliver works from Flora, says, “You can perfect something in ly. As Richard says, “What we were mak- mid-afternoon until just after sunrise. 36 years. I pray over this food.” ing in 1958, we’re making today. Without Between firing the hogs with oak and these people, the tradition and the suc- hickory coals every 35 minutes, he en- Texas cess would never have happened.” joys the night’s bucolic silence. “This is what I like,” he says. “Quiet.” Brisket. Sausage. Beef ribs. Barbacoa.

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 15 School’s Not Out for Summer: Teachers Learn about Race and Ethnicity Teachers were the ones “get- tour of Clarksdale, discussing how ting schooled” in June at the to study issues of race and ethnic- University of Mississippi, learning ity through oral histories, restau- about religion, urban problems, rants, and specific dishes. Skipper and racial interactions. “Race and also led a tour of historic sites in Ethnicity in the Modern South,” Holly Springs, and Wharton took a one-week seminar for teachers students on a bus tour to think hosted by the Gilder Lehrman about the small-town South. Institute of American History, or “The Gilder Lehrman Institute GLI, was conducted at the Center of American History is thrilled to

for the Study of Southern Culture. UM photo by Nathan Latil be a partner with the Center for The partnership between CSSC At the Gilder Lehrman Institute teacher the Study of Southern Culture,” and GLI is not a new one, although this seminar, Kees van Minnen (right) of the said Lois MacMillan, a teacher in is the first time the university has hosted Netherlands discusses race and ethnicity Medford, Oregon, and a GLI seminar this particular institute. in the modern South with Chris Evans of coordinator. “This has been structured Ted Ownby, CSSC director, said he San Jose, California. differently than the other seminars, and was honored that the Center was chosen each day has been built around a differ- to host the seminar because the Gilder ent discipline. It’s helped break the pre- Lehrman Institute has a great vision for vious perceptions that teachers have the study of American history and can Reagan Wilson, Cook Chair of histo- about the South.” recruit extraordinary participants. “We ry and professor of Southern Studies; Audrey Northway, a 10th- and 12th- designed the seminar to think about a Barbara Harris Combs, assistant professor grade teacher at Greely High School in changing South—a multiethnic, mod- of sociology and Southern Studies; David Cumberland, Maine, attended the sem- ern South—both because for many peo- Wharton, assistant professor of Southern inar to learn how to think historically. ple it may be an understudied topic and Studies; Jodi Skipper, assistant professor “I felt as though I had a black hole as also because it allows the kind of mul- of anthropology and Southern Studies; far as the South was concerned, and I tiple perspectives our faculty members and Amy C. Evans, oral historian for the wanted to be a more knowledgeable and are especially good at studying,” Ownby Southern Foodways Alliance. aware teacher,” Northway said. “I felt it said. “Studying historical tourism, for ex- “I enjoyed the extended exposure to was my professional responsibility.” ample, means studying both what hap- Charles Reagan Wilson because he is a The person who traveled the far- pened in history and what encourages towering figure in his field,” said Alan thest was Kees van Minnen, from people to visit historic sites and even Maclachlan, who teaches 11th-grade the Roosevelt Study Center in the how they define things as historically in- honors American history at Mandeville Netherlands. “I’m a historian who de- teresting. In studying contemporary re- High School in Mandeville, Louisiana. veloped an interest in the U.S. South ligion or foodways or urban and rural “Each day has been a new adventure.” about five years ago, and this is exactly neighborhoods we are trying to ask some For Maclachlan it was important to be the topic I am interested in studying,” new questions about what the South is on the Oxford campus. “You can read he said. This was van Minnen’s fourth becoming and how to study it.” about a place, but it’s not the same as visit to the CSSC, and he has also been Topics included how the South has being there yourself,” he said. “There is to the Institute of Southern Studies changed through urbanization and sub- no substitute for immersion in a place.” at the University of South Carolina urbanization; the migrations of Latin During Evans’s lecture to the 20 and the Center for the Study of the Americans, Southeast Asians, and oth- teachers, she provided background American South at the University of er groups; responses to the civil rights on the scholarship of the Southern North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “I have movement; and other developments Foodways Alliance and her work as an already scheduled another weeklong since the 1970s. The interdisciplinary oral historian, giving advice on how to visit to the University of Mississippi in seminar discussed history and identi- collect voices, sounds, and stories. “I October,” van Minnen said. “I realized ty, especially how various groups in the think oral histories have become more how little I knew about this specific re- South identify with different under- popular because the equipment is more gion, and I think the best thing to do is standings of history. accessible and easier to use,” Evans said. go to a place and speak to the scholars The days were divided into lec- “People like talking about themselves there. I wanted to learn about the post– tures, films, field trips to religious sites and are really generous with their time Civil War, contemporary South.” in Oxford and Lafayette County, and and their stories, which is always amaz- tours of Clarksdale and Holly Springs. ing to me.” Rebecca Lauck Cleary Instructors included Ownby; Charles Evans led the group on a foodways

Page 16 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Small Town South: A Gammill Gallery Exhibition This fall the Center’s director of documentary studies and assistant professor of Southern Studies, David Wharton, will publish a new book, Small Town South, a collection of over 100 photographs that, as Rob Amberg, author of Sodom Laurel Album and The New Road, states, “reveal many layers of small-town life, giving us timeless glimpses of locales we want to know better.” These photographs are part of a Gammill Gallery exhibition until mid-September. In his artist’s statement, Wharton discusses his work and the pieces in the collection. He says, “I’ve been pho- tographing the rural and small-town South ever since coming to Mississippi in 1999. I’ve made pictures of both the social landscape (the things people do) and the cultural landscape (the plac- Batesville, Mississippi, 2010 es people make in the process of doing what they do). The images in this ex- Originally a community of secondary importance, Batesville quickly outstripped its clos- hibition belong to the latter category. est rival, a Tallahatchie River port now known as Old Panola, when the Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad laid tracks through the middle of town. Batesville is named after an They are essentially landscape photo- employee of the railroad. graphs made in small-town spaces. I often think of them as ‘townscapes.’ They reflect both the community’s past—all is always headed off into the future. In and considerably more is yet to come. that has accumulated prior to now— many ways, they are like vacant stage In the meantime—in a present artifi- as well as a momentary present, which sets, where much has already transpired cially preserved by photography—they hint at some of the beliefs and events that caused that present to appear as it did. And they make us wonder about the future.”

Moundville, Alabama, 2011 Moundville was pseudonymously referred to as Cookstown in the classic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) by Walker Evans and James Agee. The three sharecropping families whom Evans Opelousas, Louisiana, 2009 photographed and Agee wrote about lived Opelousas is the hometown of musician Clifton Chenier (1925–1987) and chef Paul approximately seven miles southeast of Prudhomme (b. 1940). Moundville.

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 17 Center Sponsors Mark Your New Music Series Calendars! Caroline Herring will be the first performer and Randall Bramblett the second at a new concert series debuting on August 17, 2012 campus this fall. In a partnership between the Center for the Orientation for New Study of Southern Culture and the Gertrude Ford Center Southern Studies MA Students for the Performing Arts, concerts will take place at the Ford September 5, 2012 Center’s Studio Theater, which has a capacity of about 150 2012–13 Brown Bag Lectures begin people. The series envisions intimate events with solo per- (See full schedule on page 4) formers or duets. The concerts will take place early in the evening, with the first two performances scheduled for 6:00. September 16–17, 2012 Tickets will be available through the University of Mississippi Stir the Pot, Nashville box office and at the door. Hosted by Tandy Wilson and The first concert, Wednesday, October 3, at 6:00, will fea- Tyler Brown and featuring ture Caroline Herring, a Canton, Mississippi, native and chefs John Shook and Vinny Dotolo, University of Mississippi graduate with a 1998 MA degree in of Animal, Los Angeles, California Southern Studies. Herring is a singer-songwriter especially well September 30–October 1, 2012 known in Oxford for her role in founding Thacker Mountain Commemoration of James Meredith Radio. She has made numerous successful recordings, most re- and the Desegregation of the cently, Camilla, which comes out this summer on Signature University of Mississippi Sounds Records. Caroline has played all sorts of settings, from October 3, 2012 singing “Tales of the Islander” in Ocean Springs and singing CSSC Concert Series as part of the Cecil Sharp Project in England to performing on Featuring Caroline Herring Thacker Mountain Radio and during the Center’s Music of the Gertrude Ford Center for the Performing Arts South Symposium. Her music combines a unique voice, multiple musical influences, and creative responses to historical October 7–8, 2012 and contemporary issues. Stir the Pot at Poole’s Diner Randall Bramblett will perform on Tuesday, November Featuring Jamie Bissonette of Coppa and Toro 13, also at 6:00. Bramblett is a Georgia native who since the Raleigh, North Carolina 1970s has been playing keyboards and other instruments with October 10, 2012 Traffic, Sea Level, the Allman Brothers Band, and numer- Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern History ous other bands. Growing up with James Brown as a hero, Grace Elizabeth Hale, Lecturer Bramblett writes and plays music that cuts across multiple University of Mississippi genres. In recent years Bramblett has been making his own recordings, and he has a new recording called Now It’s Tomorrow October 18–21, 2012 on New West Records. He will be doing a solo show, singing 15th Southern Foodways Symposium and playing keyboard. Oxford, Mississippi “We see this series as one more setting for enjoying live mu- October 25, 2012 sic in Oxford,” said Center director Ted Ownby. “The ear- Cora Norman Lecture ly evening setting will be perfect for some people’s sched- Sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council ules, and it won’t conflict with other musical events that take Cora Norman, Lecturer place later at night in downtown Oxford. Most important, the University of Mississippi Studio Stage will allow people to get close to the musicians November 13, 2012 and to hear the music really clearly. Some musicians in the CSSC Concert Series series may want to talk or answer questions, and this setting Featuring Randall Bramblett gives them that opportunity. We’re looking forward to the Gertrude Ford Center for the Performing Arts shows by Caroline and Randall, and we look forward to seeing where this series might take us.” February 21–23, 2013 The concert series will receive funding from the R&B Feder Porter Fortune, Jr. History Symposium Foundation for the Beaux-Arts. March 17–20, 2013 Mississippi Delta Literary Tour March 21–23, 2013 Oxford Conference for the Book

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Call for Papers Mississippi. On October 10 the Gilder- Jordan Lecture in Southern History, jointly sponsored by the Center, African American studies program, Center for Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Civil War Research, and Department of “Faulkner and the Black Literatures of the Americas” History, will feature Grace Hale of the University of Virginia, discussing her July 21–25, 2013 research on documentary work on civ- A quarter century ago the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference tackled the il rights issues in the 1960s and 1970s. issue of “Faulkner and Race.” In 2013 the 40th annual conference seeks to The title of her lecture is “‘So the build on and complicate this earlier work by exploring the relationships be- Whole World Can See’: Documentary tween Faulkner’s oeuvre and a hemispheric corpus of black writing, with a par- Photography and Film in the Civil ticular emphasis on African American literature and intellectual production, Rights Era.” from slave narrative to the contemporary era of Toni Morrison, Ishmael Reed, Planning for these events began some John Edgar Wideman, Maryse Conde, Charles Johnson, Gloria Naylor, David time ago, when Chancellor Dan Jones Bradley, Randall Kenan, Edouard Glissant, Erna Brodber, Jesmyn Ward, Edwige appointed a committee of staff and Danticat, and so many others. We hope to chart the lines of engagement, dia- faculty, chaired by African American logue, and reciprocal resonance between Faulkner and this vital body of litera- Studies Program director Charles Ross, ture. Who are Faulkner’s most significant black precursors, his formative black to consider how the university should literary and cultural influences? Who are his principal black cohorts, national take note of the anniversary. The re- and international? And who are his most formidable black successors and lit- sulting series of programs began in erary heirs? What common problems can we identify in these bodies of work, 2011. Major events sponsored by or and what common—or, indeed, instructively divergent—approaches to those connected to the Opening the Closed problems and strategies (discursive, figural, technical) do we find for dealing Society initiative during the 2011– with them? How has black literary production in the Americas affected how we 2012 school year included a keynote read Faulkner’s work today? (How) does Faulkner’s oeuvre pose different chal- lecture by Myrlie Evers-Williams; a pro- lenges, rewards, and threats for black women writers than for their male coun- gram commemorating the life of James terparts—and what about the legacy of black women’s literature for him? How Silver on the occasion of the nam- might this sort of comparative inquiry clarify or illuminate the ways in which ing of Silver Pond; the Gilder-Jordan writers of the Americas grapple with the impact of slavery and the plantation, Lecture, “American Oracle: The Civil colonialism, nationalism and empire, racial violence and terror, race mixing, War in the Civil Rights Era and Our poverty and underdevelopment, Jim Crow, migration and diaspora, the civil Own Time” by David W. Blight; a well- rights movement, and the role of the writer in collective life? How might it attended lecture by William Doyle, au- honor what Albert Murray identified as the fundamentally miscegenated qual- thor of The Battle of Oxford; and a pre- ity of American (national and hemispheric) literature, culture, and life? sentation by Children’s Defense Fund We especially encourage full panel proposals for 75-minute conference ses- founder Marian Wright Edelman. sions. Such proposals should include a one-page overview of the session topic or theme, followed by two-page abstracts for each of the panel papers to be included. We also welcome individually submitted two-page abstracts for 20-min- For times, locations, and other up- ute panel papers and individually submitted manuscripts for 40-minute plenary to-date information on Opening papers. Panel papers consist of approximately 2,500 words and will be consid- the Closed Society events, please ered by the conference program committee for possible inclusion in the confer- check www.olemiss.edu/50years. ence volume published by the University Press of Mississippi. Plenary papers, which should be prepared using the 16th edition of the University of Chicago Manual of Style as a guide, consist of approximately 5,000–6,000 words and will appear in the published volume. Session proposals and panel paper abstracts must be submitted by January Save the 31, 2013, preferably through e-mail attachment. For plenary papers, three print copies of the manuscript must be submitted by January 31, 2013. Authors whose plenary papers are selected for presentation at the conference will re- Date! ceive a conference registration waiver. All manuscripts, proposals, abstracts, and inquiries should be addressed to Jay Watson, Department of English, The March 17–20, 2013 University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-1848. E-mail: jwatson@ole- Mississippi Delta Literary Tour miss.edu. Decisions for all submissions will be made by March 15, 2013. March 21–23, 2013 Oxford Conference for the Book

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 19 Southern Studies Alumni in the Media Courtesy Anne Mueller In our age of social media and blog- governance that is accountable to the ging, one could say that most of us are public.” involved in the media. Some, though, Here in Oxford, Ellen Meacham (MA are media professionals. While many 2003) teaches journalism at the Meek Southern Studies alumni are using their School of Journalism at the University writing, editing, photography, and film- of Mississippi. She is well into a proj- making skills to support school and uni- ect on Robert Kennedy and Mississippi versity programs, corporations, political civil rights issues, a topic she will be efforts, and nonprofits, some are in the discussing at a Southern Studies Brown traditionally defined media—newspa- Bag event on Wednesday, October 3. pers, television, radio, and magazines. Anne Mueller and her son, Max Mills And here at the Center, John T. Edge John Frierson (BA 1999) covers (MA 2002) has a monthly column, sports for Chattanooga Times Free Press, Jimmy Thomas “United Tastes,” in the New York Times, covering the University of Tennessee and his work often appears in Garden at Chattanooga Moccasins. John seems & Gun, Oxford American, Saveur, and likely to be rare among sports journal- other publications. ists in that his biography page at the One of the many jobs Mary Margaret Times Free Press mentions his love for Miller White (MA 2007) does at the reading William Faulkner. Wesley Loy Mississippi Arts Commission is inter- (MA 1996) is a reporter in Anchorage, viewing people for MPB’s Mississippi Alaska, with special emphasis on cov- Arts Hour radio program. Three alum- ering commercial fishing. He has cov- ni, Nelson Griffin, Jesse Wright, and ered all sorts of Alaska stories, from oil Camilla Aikin, have worked on the to sports to Sarah Palin. Jesse Wright Center’s Sounds of the South radio (MA 2010) is a news reporter for the spots, and many others (recently Eric Clarksdale Press Register. Feldman, Matthieu Dessier, and Jake Ford O’Connell (MA 2005) is the Fussell) have worked with Highway 61. managing director of Civic Forum Numerous students and alumni (re- Strategies, and he frequently appears cently Melanie Young, Amy Ulmer, on Fox News and other media outlets and Mark Coltrain) have written for as a political commentator and writes Mary Margaret Miller White Living Blues. And several of the student for Politico’s The Arena, among oth- editors at Emory University’s online er publications. Ford was cofound- publication Southern Spaces, includ- er of ProjectVirginia, an effort to mo- ing Franky Abbott, Mary Battle, and bilize younger voters for the Virginia 1998 and for Delta Magazine since Alan Pike, have been Southern Studies Republican Party through social media. 2003. Since her work opposing the alumni. Paige Porter Fischer (MA 1998) lives Proposition 26 in Mississippi last year, Several students, like Cathryn Stout, and writes in San Francisco. After grad- when she became a frequent interview Steve Cheseborough, Lynn McKnight, uating in Southern Studies she started subject in state and national media, she and Jimmy Thomas, came to Southern writing entertainment features for the has become an occasional blogger for Studies after working in journalism, Jackson Clarion-Ledger and switched to the National Partnership for Women and other alumni, like Sally Graham at Coastal Living magazine before moving & Families. Anne Mueller (MA 2003) CNN, Sarah Torian at Southern Changes, on to a position as West Coast editor for is development director for The Lens, a Lauchlin Fields at the Vicksburg Times, Better Homes and Gardens. New Orleans publication whose “mis- and Hicks Wogan at the Newseum, Others work in the media in roles sion is to education, engage, and em- spent considerable time in the media other than writers or commentators. power readers with information and after finishing the program. Cristen Hemmins (MA 1996) has sold analysis necessary for them to advo- advertising for Oxford American since cate for a more transparent and just Ted Ownby

We would love to keep in closer touch with our friends. Two easy ways include: 1. Facebook users, please “Like” the Center 2. Send us your e-mail addresses. The easiest way for us to for the Study of Southern Culture. Being a contact you, and one of the easiest ways for you to contribute Facebook Friend of the Center brings you as a Friend of the Center, is through an annual e-mail mes- news large and small, announcements, job sage. Please send your e-mail address to [email protected]. ads, and occasional gossip.

Page 20 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Faulkner’s World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain—A Traveling Exhibition

The photographs of Martin Dain pro- University Press of Mississippi, is avail- vide a unique journey into the world of able with the exhibition. Oxford author William Faulkner. Taken between 1961 Larry Brown wrote the foreword for the and 1963, Dain’s photographs portray book. Tom Rankin, editor of the book Faulkner at home as well as provide a and curator of the exhibition, wrote the comprehensive look at the people and introduction, which examines Dain’s cultural traditions that inspired him. This life and career as a photographer. Also collection provides an extraordinary win- included is the DVD “Are You Walkin’ dow through which to view community with Me?” Sister Thea Bowman, William history and from which to reflect on cul- Faulkner, and African American Culture, ture and change in Oxford and the sur- produced by Lisa N. Howorth. rounding area. As the exhibition discuss- Faulkner’s World is on display at the es and interprets the legacy of William Lafayette County and Oxford Public Faulkner, it also provides an opportunity Library in July and August and at to prompt community dialogue. the Lee County Library in Tupelo in The exhibition opened at the September and October. The exhibi- University of Mississippi in 1997 and tion then travels to Natchez in January– traveled for two years as part of the February of 2013, Magee in March– Faulkner Centennial Celebration, had World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain April of 2013, Collierville, Tennessee, an encore tour in 2007 in conjunction was curated and produced by the Center in May–June, and Baton Rouge in with the Mississippi Reads project ad- for the Study of Southern Culture. The November–December. ministered through the Mississippi exhibition has 36 16" x 20" black-and- Persons interested in scheduling the Library Commission, and is once again white photographs and 4 text panels, traveling exhibition of Dain photo- available, this time for libraries, muse- presented in 24" by 30" frames. graphs should contact Mary Hartwell ums, and cultural centers in Mississippi A book of the Dain photographs, Howorth by e-mail (mheh@olemiss and surrounding states. Faulkner’s published by the Center and the .edu) or telephone (662-915-5993).

CONTRIBUTORS

Sara Camp Arnold is the content Mobilization in Depression Era New and articles on Tennessee Williams manager for the Southern Foodways Orleans. and other modern dramatists. Alliance and is the editor of the SFA’s Angela Jill Cooley is a postdoctor- Ted Ownby, director of the Center, newsletter, Gravy. al fellow and visiting assistant pro- holds a joint appointment in Southern Brett J. Bonner is the editor of Living fessor at the Center for the Study of Studies and history. Blues magazine. Southern Culture. She completed a Elaine Pugh is the assistant direc- Mark Camarigg is the publications PhD at the University of Alabama last tor of hometowns for Media and manager of Living Blues magazine. year and is writing a book manuscript Public Relations at the University of that explores urban food culture in the Mississippi. Rebecca Lauck Cleary is a commu- 20th century South. nications specialist in the Office of Joey Thompson is a musician and Media and Public Relations at the Emily Dean is the program coordina- second-year Southern Studies gradu- University of Mississippi. She re- tor for the University of Mississippi ate student. Museum. ceived a BA in Journalism from the Mary Thompson is a board member University in 1997. Amy C. Evans is the oral historian of the Mississippi Institute of Arts Michele Grigsby Coffey is a visit- for the Southern Foodways Alliance. and Letters. She lives in Clarksdale, ing assistant professor in Southern Colby H. Kullman is professor of Mississippi. Studies. Her PhD is in history, and her English, emeritus, at the University of Becca Walton is the Center’s associate current project is entitled Proving Our Mississippi. Among his publications director for projects. She has an MA in Manhood: Black Power and Political are Theatre Companies of the World Southern Studies.

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 21 Reading the South

The Gorilla Man and the who holds a PhD in English from Empress of Steak: A New Harvard University, often relies on his Orleans Family Memoir. scholar’s eye to put the various pieces of his family’s past into perspective. By Randy Fertel. Not only does he do his research— Jackson: University Press of such as searching the city’s archives for his parents’ divorce records to con- Mississippi, 2011. 293 pages. front some bitter accusations—he also $28.00 cloth. relies on the common literary tropes of his trade to help define those indi- Randy Fertel’s The Gorilla Man and the viduals closest to him. For example, Empress of Steak is a family memoir into he refers to his mother’s longtime re- which any foodie can enjoy sinking his tainer, Earner Sylvain, as both a “trick- teeth. Fertel’s account of his parents—a ster,” the cunning character of African father who once ran for mayor of New American literature who always out- Orleans on a promise to buy a gorilla wits his opponent, and “the weird sis- for the zoo and a mother who founded ters in the Scottish play,” homage to Ruth’s Chris Steak House—is at times Macbeth’s three witches who serve to touchingly poignant, preposterously “stir the pot.” Fertel’s use of literary comical, and brutally honest. Among analogy helps to flesh out the charac- other things, Fertel reveals that the fine was the only candidate in history who ters of those closest to him. dining dynasty for which his family is had kept all his campaign promises, Perhaps the greatest contribution known was built upon the hard feelings even though he’d lost.” Fertel’s memoir makes to Southern of former executives and family mem- When the story turns to Randy Studies is its personal history of bers as much as it was built upon the Fertel’s mother, Ruth Fertel, the narra- New Orleans, the city both his par- hard work of its founder and employees. tive inevitably evolves into a delicious ents loved. Fertel takes readers on a This family memoir starts with the culinary memoir of the sizzling steaks journey through the 20th century in story of his father, Rodney Fertel, who served at the restaurant she purchased this legendary town. He follows New at age 21 received a bequest from his as a single mother of two, the creamed Orleans from the early days of jazz, grandmother’s estate ensuring that, spinach recipe she adopted from her which developed around the neigh- according to his son, “he never had Uncle Martin, and the crawfish bisque borhood where his immigrant grand- to work” for a living. Rodney’s inher- stewed for days by her longtime servant. parents operated a pawnshop, through itance seemed to represent a mixed Fertel describes his mother as a com- the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, blessing that allowed him to indulge petitive woman whose hard work and when the Ruth U. Fertel Foundation in his passions for horses and travel strong will enabled her to rise to the helped to revitalize the city’s school but never find any permanent con- top of the fine-dining world in a city system in part by implementing Alice nections during his life, especially in devoted to the art. In a 34-year period, Waters’s Edible Schoolyard program. the often-distant relationship with Ruth turned a $24,000 investment in Throughout this period, Fertel his son. Throughout his life, however, one small steak house into a company shares glimpses of the complex ra- Rodney was most remembered for his worth over $100,000,000 with almost cial interactions that had driven New eccentricities, such as his obsession 100 restaurants (now over 130 world- Orleans society for much of its history with gorillas. In 1969 Rodney con- wide). Along the way, however, she and that often influenced his parents’ ducted an unsuccessful mayoral cam- surrounded herself with some question- lives. He explains his father’s commit- paign dressed in a safari outfit and ac- able, from her son’s perspective, busi- ment to the New Orleans Athletic companied by a man dressed as a go- ness partners and encouraged litigation Club in part as retribution for his rilla to represent the only plank in his that often pitted Ruth against her own Jewish family’s inability, despite their platform. After his defeat, Rodney family (including the author). wealth, to join the town’s more exclu- purchased two gorillas for the city’s In confronting his admittedly mixed sive “blueblood” clubs. In 1965, the zoo anyway, “announc[ing] that he emotions toward his parents, Fertel, year that Ruth Fertel purchased the

Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Page 22 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Reading the South continued

original Chris Steak House, he recalls Parks herself with organizational skills his mother’s reaction to a white cus- and building a network of activists tomer who, despite passage the previ- committed to the assertion of respect ous year of the civil rights act outlaw- and dignity for black women’s bodies, ing restaurant discrimination, threat- which McGuire argues was the prima- ened to boycott the restaurant if she ry issue for those women who made the served a black customer. Ruth’s re- Montgomery Bus Boycott successful. sponse to the wealthy white oilman? McGuire then moves into what is “There’s the door.” less-charted civil rights history terri- If this entertaining and reveal- tory, exploring the use of sexual ter- ing read has a shortcoming, it is that rorism within the tumultuous period Fertel does not make more of these in- starting in 1956 and moving through stances to better illuminate the com- the 1960s as the Ku Klux Klan, plicated set of racial and ethnic hier- White Citizens’ Council, and other archies that constituted New Orleans virulent white supremacist organi- society in the 20th century. zations fought to maintain segregation. Even in this particularly violent Angela Jill Cooley period, McGuire’s research uncov- ers black women refusing to accept vides her readers with a brief synopsis their victimization silently, speak- At the Dark End of the of African American women speak- ing out against their rapists to propel Street: Black Women, Rape, ing out about interracial rape. Here additional activism. Most compel- and Resistance—A New she uses examples ranging from slave ling is her examination of Betty Jean narratives to well-known activists Owens, an African American college History of the Civil Rights spanning the late 19th through the student. Following her gang rape in Movement from Rosa Parks 20th century, including Ida B. Wells, Tallahassee, Florida, in 1959, Owens to the Rise of Black Power. Fannie Barrier Williams, Anna Julia testified against her rapists, gaining By Danielle L. McGuire. Cooper, and Fannie Lou Hamer. national attention in the process. From this firm historical footing, she McGuire argues that Owens’s will- New York: Vintage Books, turns to her own original and de- ingness to testify led to rape con- 2010. 396 pages. $16.95 cloth. tailed research of the political mo- victions against white men who had bilization surrounding the rape testi- brutalized black women in three oth- monies of several African American er Southern states in that year alone. With At the Dark End of the Street, women from 1944 to 1975. In the The well-worn history of Mississippi, Danielle McGuire creates a compel- process, she adds a valuable layer to particularly during Freedom Summer, ling narrative of the civil rights move- a more complex understanding of the and the protests in Selma, Alabama, ment in which the voices and actions traditional civil rights movement. in 1965 are also interestingly reexam- of African American women are cen- McGuire begins her analysis with ined in McGuire’s work. Here she ar- tral. Throughout the work McGuire the 1944 gang rape of Recy Taylor, a gues that historians have frequently examines the lack of protection af- young, black sharecropper and moth- overlooked an important sexual ele- forded to black women from sexual er, in Abbeville, Alabama. When ment in the attempts to resist the ac- exploitation by white men, coupled Taylor spoke out against her rap- tivists who assembled at these key mo- with the double standard of the use ists, the National Association for ments in the civil rights movement. of the safeguard of white woman- the Advancement Colored People While historians have documented hood to justify violence against black (NAACP) in Montgomery responded the rhetoric of outside agitators at- men. She contends this often violent by sending an investigator, Rosa Parks. tempting to bring communist destruc- and always hypocritical sexual reali- Eleven years before the Montgomery tion to the segregated Southern way ty created an environment in which Bus Boycott, Parks organized a diverse of life, McGuire contends that resis- African American women “regular- coalition to secure legal justice for tance was also rooted in a commit- ly denounced their sexual misuse” Taylor as part of a broader statement ment to antimiscegenation that led to to call for larger political mobiliza- about the protection of black woman- numerous accusations against white tion. Establishing her work within hood. McGuire contends that this co- volunteers and even the murder of the trajectory of the long civil rights alition was essential for the boycott for Viola Liuzzo, a white housewife from movement, McGuire initially pro- which Parks is better known, providing Detroit. McGuire also argues that the

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 23 Reading the South continued

often-overlooked 1965 conviction of the struggle of African American of a white man, Norman Cannon, women to secure rights to their own for the rape of Rosa Lee Coates, a bodies to the civil rights movement 15-year-old African American girl, as a whole. It is little wonder that the in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, inspired a work won the 2011 Frederick Jackson major turning point in NAACP Legal Turner Award from the Organization of Defense Fund strategy as the organi- American Historians, the 2011 Lillian zation’s attorneys became convinced Smith Award from the Southern that justice could be secured in inter- Regional Council and the University racial rape cases. of Georgia Libraries, as well as the Finally, McGuire demonstrates 2011 Julia Cherry Spruill Prize from the enduring nature of this struggle the Southern Association of Women for control over black women’s bod- Historians. ies through her unique examination of the shifting approach to civil rights Michele Grigsby Coffey demands in the 1970s. In the final chapters of her work, she analyzes the complexities surrounding the incar- Battle Hymns: The Power ceration, escape, and subsequent tri- and Popularity of Music in al of Joan Little in North Carolina in the Civil War. fined and unified ideologies during the 1975. Little was accused of murdering a Civil War. white prison guard, Clarence Alligood, By Christian McWhirter. McWhirter argues that patriotic in order to escape a seven-year prison songs played a vital role in establish- sentence for burglary. Little, however, Chapel Hill: University of ing a sense of nationalism for both asserted that she had killed Alligood North Carolina Press, 2012. sides of the conflict and excels when in self-defense after being repeatedly 336 pages. $39.95 cloth. relaying the untold stories of these raped by the guard. McGuire argues tunes. For instance, men of the Second that the Little case represents an im- For students of the Civil War, the fa- Massachusetts Infantry Battalion portant shift in the rhetoric surround- miliar strains of “Dixie” or “Yankee wrote the song “John Brown’s Body,” ing the defense of black women’s bod- Doodle” played on fife and drum may precursor to the now canonized “Battle ies within the justice system. In the provide the aural cues necessary to Hymn of the Republic,” to poke fun at previous examples cited by McGuire, it transport one’s imagination back to a fellow soldier who shared the name was essential to prove the respectabili- the 1860s. With little urging, one may of the noted abolitionist. The author ty of the victim in order to achieve first easily conceive such anthems sum- details this song’s evolution through a sustained coalition and then a legal moning the martial patriotism that its many rewrites, showing the organ- victory. However, it was not possible led approximately three-quarters of ic process of song creation in the com- for Little’s defense to present her as a a million Americans to their death. munal setting of the army. Perhaps sur- “respectable lady” because of her crim- Yet, until now, the discussion of Civil prisingly, even the Union needed such inal and personal past. McGuire ar- War music lacked the scholarly treat- songs, as tunes like “The Star Spangled gues that Little’s success proves that by ment this topic warrants. Christian Banner” had not yet ascended to a 1975 “respectability was no longer the McWhirter’s Battle Hymns ends this place of reverence in the national defining trait supporters looked for be- drought and chronicles the crucial songbook. Likewise, the Confederacy fore rallying to the cause” so that black and complex functions of music dur- urgently looked to songs to buoy its women with more complicated back- ing the American Civil War. Delving nascent identity as an independent grounds could also, at times, achieve into the role of songs for both the nation. Specifically, McWhirter de- legal victories. North and the South, this study trac- tails the ascent of “Dixie” to its place Throughout the work, McGuire es the origins of the war’s most popu- of prominence for the South, illumi- masterfully uses her extensive research lar tunes and largely succeeds in the nating its happenstance journey from to weave a beautifully written narrative formidable task of linking songs to minstrel song to unofficial Confederate that does intellectual and emotion- the political and social consequenc- national anthem. al justice to her topic. The pain and es of their influence. With an archive Music served equally important determination of her subjects comes that includes sheet music, memoires, purposes on the home front, inform- through every page. Her footnotes advertisements, and regimental histo- ing and influencing civilian knowl- demonstrate her own passion for detail, ries, Battle Hymns offers a fascinating edge of the war. Song lyrics provided and her analysis proves the importance examination of how popular songs de- women with a useful medium through

Page 24 Summer 2012 The Southern Register Reading the South continued University Press of MississiPPi which to express their support and protests of the war. Particularly in the South, songs facilitated a war of words between civilians and troops, as women used parlor per- A Daring Life A Biography of Eudora Welty formances to criticize the North, making pianos targets By Carolyn J. Brown for destruction for occupying Union forces. Of course, as A moving and inspirational troops on both sides marched toward battle, field musi- biography of a great American cians and regimental bands provided a soundtrack, and writer McWhirter does well explaining the centrality of this $20 hardback; $20 ebook music to the soldier experience, from bivouac to battle- field. Recent immigrants to the United States like the Irish and Germans used songs to simultaneously parody Conversations with their otherness and prove their patriotism to aid in their Dorothy Allison effort to assimilate. Edited by Mae Miller Claxton Battle Hymns also explores the relationship between In the absence of a biography, African Americans and popular song. Before and af- the best presentation of ter emancipation, minstrel songs created the most pop- Allison’s perspectives on her life, literature, and her conflicted role ular representations of African Americans through de- as a public figure meaning caricatures intended for comical purposes. One $40 printed casebinding; $40 ebook such song, “Kingdom Come,” rocketed to success on both sides of the color line. This song’s chorus celebrates emancipation and the routing of plantation owners, stat- Ethnic Heritage ing, “De massa run? ha, ha! / De darkey stay? ho, ho! / It in Mississippi The Twentieth Century mus’ be now de kingdom comin’, / An’ de year ob Jubilo!” Edited by Shana Walton McWhirter posits that the use of dialect, combined with Barbara Carpenter, General Editor its positive tone toward emancipation, created an ambig- A sweeping overview of the uous message, acceptable for either abolitionists or casu- many diverse backgrounds that al fans of minstrelsy. For many Union soldiers, the Civil create the state’s tapestry $40 hardback; $40 ebook War meant their first travel to the South and first inter- action with African Americans. The author persuasively contends that this initial contact revealed to Northerners Exploring American that slave music sounded nothing like minstrel tunes, Folk Music spurring white interest in the religiously coded messages Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States of freedom found in African American spirituals. By Kip Lornell Battle Hymns concludes with a discussion of songs The perfect introduction to the as tools of remembrance and details the prevalence of many strains of American-made music at veterans’ reunions and memorial events. For music readers interested in more contemporary popular cul- $65 printed casebinding; $30 paperback; $30 ebook ture, the author offers an analysis of Elvis’s “American Trilogy.” This amalgamation of “Dixie,” “The Battle Personal Souths Hymn of the Republic,” and the spiritual “All My Interviews from the southern Quarterly Trials” was penned by country artist Mickey Newbury as Edited by Douglas B. Chambers an ironic statement about the lingering racial inequal- The very best literary interviews with famous southern writers, collected from fifty years of scholarly inquiry ities supposedly settled by the Civil War. Elvis trans- $65 printed casebinding; $30 paperback; $30 ebook formed this medley into a sincere expression of patriotism, serving as a fitting reminder of the convoluted The Past Is Not Dead trajectory taken by many songs profiled in this work. Essays from the southern Quarterly McWhirter’s analysis shines when making these sorts of Edited by Douglas B. Chambers with Kenneth Watson Foreword by Peggy Whitman Prenshaw connections between songs’ origins and their eventual The very best essays from fifty years of scholarship and meanings as understood by the public. In this way, Battle thought on southern studies Hymns provides an excellent example of how the best $65 printed casebinding; $30 paperback; $30 ebook scholarship of this type connects the seemingly ephem- eral products of popular culture to their tangible, histor- www.upress.state.ms.us ical consequences, as well as historical memory. 800-737-7788

Joey Thompson examination copies Visit http://www.upress.state.ms.us/about/ordering/educator.

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 25 Southern RegisterSummer2012.indd 1 7/31/12 2:42 PM Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Awards Nominations Being Accepted The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) will celebrate 34 years of recognizing Mississippi talent at Award Categories: its gala awards banquet in Columbus, Mississippi, on June 8, 2013. Sandra Visual Arts (painting, sculpture, drawing, print, graphic arts, etc.) Eligible are Shellnut of Pass Christian is the new up to 15 pieces first publicly shown or published in 2012. Submit slides, prints, president of MIAL, and George Bassi of or published work. Laurel is the new vice president. MIAL is the only organization in the Photography (color, black-and-white, combination) Eligible are up to 15 pho- state that chooses its arts honorees in tographs first publicly shown or published in 2012. Submit CD, slides, prints, a juried competition. Nominations for or published work. these juried awards in the categories of visual arts, photography, fiction, nonfic- Fiction (novel, short story collection, etc.) Eligible is work first published tion, poetry, music composition (classi- in 2012. Submit author’s name, publisher, title of publication, and date of cal), and music composition (contem- publication. porary) will be accepted from now until January 15, 2013. Works eligible for Nonfiction (any literature that is not fictional) Eligible is any work first pub- nomination must have been first published in 2012. Submit author’s name, publisher, title of publication, and date lished, performed, or publicly exhib- of publication. ited during the calendar year January– December 2012. Only members of Poetry Eligible are up to 15 poems published individually for the first time in MIAL may nominate artists for these 2012 or a collection of at least 15 poems published in book form for the first awards. Members may nominate more time in 2012. Poems in the collection may have been first published earlier than one individual in any category and than 2012. Submit tear sheets or publication. may nominate in as many categories as they wish. One page of comments Music Composition—Classical (song, opera, composition, instrumental mu- may be included with the nomination. sic, etc.) This award is for works first published or performed publicly in 2012. To join MIAL and support the arts in Submit evidence of initial performance or publication (book, CD, tape) in Mississippi, visit our website at www. 2012. ms-arts-letters.org. Nomination forms may also be found at the website. Music Composition—Contemporary (blues, country, jazz, rock, etc.) Submit The MIAL awards honor living published scores or the commercial recording first released in 2012. Mississippians who are either current residents of the state or former residents

with continuing and significant ties to Jimmy Thomas We are pleased to the state. All judges are from outside express our appreciation Mississippi. Past winners of these awards to intern Norma include Richard Ford, Barry Hannah, Barksdale, a sophomore Gwendolyn Magee, and America’s new from Davidson College poet laureate, Natasha Trethewey. who is studying art history and French. Mary Thompson This summer Norma has assisted Jimmy Thomas and Becca Walton on a number of projects, including the 2012 Oxford Conference for the Book, writing a history of Barnard Observatory, and assisting with compiling an index g from past issues of the Southern Register. Norma Barksdale

Page 26 Summer 2012 The Southern Register 13th Annual Faulkner Fringe Program Dedicated to Betty Harrington, John Pilkington, and Dean Faulkner Wells Colby H. Kullman After a half hour of piano classics played Faulkner Fringe participants: by acclaimed pianist Diane Faulkner, (l-r) Neil White, Diane Gerald Walton opened this year’s Faulkner, and Carolyn Ross Faulkner Fringe program with a tribute to three prominent Faulknerians who have passed away since last year’s Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference. Betty Harrington, a founder of the conference 39 years ago, portrayed Faulkner’s characters by way of dramatic readings, never missing a year. John Pilkington, professor of American literature in the University of Mississippi’s Department of English from 1952 to 1985, taught one of the first university courses devoted solely to William Faulkner and was a moving force in establishing the annual Faulkner Conference. His work includes The Heart of Yoknapatawpha (1981), a study of Faulkner’s novels set in his fictional county. Dean Faulkner Wells, the ing Grandfather’s sensitive and sober- year even after she was victimized by niece of William Faulkner, lived to see ing talk to the 11-year-old Lucius Priest a stroke, George led the audience in a the publication and successful reception after he returns home from the four-day tribute song with the refrain “Who Is of Every Day in the Sun (2011), a memoir adventure with Boon Hogganbeck— That Beautiful Girl?” of the Faulkner family and her life with who drives Grandfather’s car to Elizabeth Richardson celebrated her William Faulkner, her “Pappy.” Memphis while the grownups are at a friend who was Faulkner’s classmate Thirteen years ago, the Faulkner funeral on the Coast. Neil White comin grade school, Bessie Sumner. For all Fringe program was a response to the mented on the famous letter Faulkner of her 90-plus years, Sumner contin- desire of Faulkner Conference attend- wrote on 31 January 1941 to J.E. ued to embrace life with an inspiring, ees not on the formal program who Lewison, owner of the J.E. Lewison Co. lively passion. In telling of his enthusi- wished to have their say. Southside (Neilson’s), on the occasion of his be- asm for the writings of Faulkner, Greg Gallery immediately offered a space ing pressed to make the last payment Perkins—a biochemist by trade, an for our venue. Even with a change in of a bill for $855 (today’s equivalent is avid book collector, and longtime sup- ownership from Milly West to Wil and $13,332.25). White’s commentary un- porter of the Faulkner Conference— Vicki Cook, Southside has remained covered the full strength of the irony, explained the reasons why he returns loyal to the Fringe program. Presenters wit, and humor found in the letter. annually to celebrate Faulkner. Seth create something related to William Chuck Peek followed by read- Berner gave a dramatic performance of Faulkner (however remotely). Each has ing three poems by prominent his own brilliant comic monologue in a time limit of 10 minutes. Once again, Faulknerians: Bob Hamblin’s “Always which he imagines William Faulkner as Beverly Carothers served as volunteer before Joy,” Noel Polk’s walking safa- a stand-up comic attempting to explain bartender and “bell ringer.” If present- ri, “The Hippo Highway,” and his own why the chicken crossed the road. Mary ers go overtime, Beverly rings a chain of “‘Rhinoceroses’: For Noel Polk.” Sharp Stanton brought the evening to a close cowbells that signal “Time’s up!” humor and memorable insights, often with a dramatic reading of Faulkner’s James Carothers followed, bringing trademarks of Peek’s presentations and first published poem, “L’Apres-Midi roaring laughter to the evening by tell- poetry, brought the reading to dynam- d’un Faune.” ing a series of comic memories and an- ic close. For many years, Oxford actor May Faulkner forever remain stage ecdotes of actual happenings at previ- George Kehoe teamed up with Betty center, even at a Fringe Festival held in ous Faulkner Conferences. He skillfully Harrington as a part of the Voices from his honor. Thanks for the memories! managed to keep the stories on the side Yoknapatawpha readings. After a touch- of good taste. Carolyn Ross read from ing tribute to Betty, who was deter- Colby H. Kullman the conclusion of The Reivers featur- mined to perform her “voices” every

The Southern Register Summer 2012 Page 27

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