I'm proud to be a Furman Paladin
Yesterday about 2:50 I'm sittin in the house and I hear a voice, a conversation on NPR about Confederate monuments coming down in New Orleans. I think this could be Vernon cause I know a South Carolina accent when I hear one, Mrs Reaves and Mrs Sossamon of Gaffney among the best.
Sure enough Clemson proff Vernon Burton had just completed a 3 minute and change interview on monuments and Civil War History and what it was fought about. Vernon is a 1969 graduate or Furman. He left two years before I got there and six years after Marshall Frady graduated.
I got excited and left messages for Ansley Quiros, Vandy doc who is a Furman alum and Harvard history proff Tomiko Brown Nagin, 90s Furman grad from Greenwood, SC. I don't roll in those professional circles but figger everything else they know they should least know what I know.
Vernon got it right. Instead of takin all the monuments down, put more up. For instance the only thing written in stone on the grounds of the state capitol grounds in Columbia South Carolina recognizing a person of color is a recent etching to the statue of Strom Thurmond naming his mixed race daughter.
My nomination for the first full statue is Marian Wright Edelman who summered in Cherokee County where her grandfather was a Baptist Preacher at Thicketty Creek. Marian Wright showed Bobby Kennedy the face of poverty in Mississippi. Her statue should go up before Sidney Rice, even Joe Frazier; and God knows how much I join everybody else in Gaffney South Carolina claiming Sidney Rice as my best friend.
Here is what Vernon said. Listen closely
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/05/11/jefferson-davis-statue-new-Orleans
In that vein also google Hal Crowther's great piece in the Oxford American few years ago, The New Mind of the South. Will help you see the Daughters of the Confederacy in a New Light.
Another person I called was the son of Nixon's barber, Jim Pitts, who with LD Johnson in the 60s was Furman's prophetic voice in the Chaplain's office. Alester G Furman the III or IV loved LD and often sought his counsel. Furman wept when fundamentalists forced Furman to break with South Carolina Baptists.
A few months ago Pitts told me the story of Benjamin Mayes coming to campus the winter of 68. He worked hard to drum up attendance for the event. Only 20 showed, but one of them was Vernon Burton, who later drove Mayes to the airport and became a lifelong friend.
A few months later Martin King was assassinate and hundreds of Furman students drove to Atlanta to witness the historic funeral.
As Maya Angelou said at Coretta's funeral: I opened my eyes to the Lawd, and we shall see What the End will be!!
Amen.
I paraphrased. According to reports Angelou said:
I open my mouth to the Lord, and I won’t turn back no. I will go. I shall go. I’ll see what the end is going to be
Sure enough Clemson proff Vernon Burton had just completed a 3 minute and change interview on monuments and Civil War History and what it was fought about. Vernon is a 1969 graduate or Furman. He left two years before I got there and six years after Marshall Frady graduated.
I got excited and left messages for Ansley Quiros, Vandy doc who is a Furman alum and Harvard history proff Tomiko Brown Nagin, 90s Furman grad from Greenwood, SC. I don't roll in those professional circles but figger everything else they know they should least know what I know.
Vernon got it right. Instead of takin all the monuments down, put more up. For instance the only thing written in stone on the grounds of the state capitol grounds in Columbia South Carolina recognizing a person of color is a recent etching to the statue of Strom Thurmond naming his mixed race daughter.
My nomination for the first full statue is Marian Wright Edelman who summered in Cherokee County where her grandfather was a Baptist Preacher at Thicketty Creek. Marian Wright showed Bobby Kennedy the face of poverty in Mississippi. Her statue should go up before Sidney Rice, even Joe Frazier; and God knows how much I join everybody else in Gaffney South Carolina claiming Sidney Rice as my best friend.
Here is what Vernon said. Listen closely
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/05/11/jefferson-davis-statue-new-Orleans
In that vein also google Hal Crowther's great piece in the Oxford American few years ago, The New Mind of the South. Will help you see the Daughters of the Confederacy in a New Light.
Another person I called was the son of Nixon's barber, Jim Pitts, who with LD Johnson in the 60s was Furman's prophetic voice in the Chaplain's office. Alester G Furman the III or IV loved LD and often sought his counsel. Furman wept when fundamentalists forced Furman to break with South Carolina Baptists.
A few months ago Pitts told me the story of Benjamin Mayes coming to campus the winter of 68. He worked hard to drum up attendance for the event. Only 20 showed, but one of them was Vernon Burton, who later drove Mayes to the airport and became a lifelong friend.
A few months later Martin King was assassinate and hundreds of Furman students drove to Atlanta to witness the historic funeral.
As Maya Angelou said at Coretta's funeral: I opened my eyes to the Lawd, and we shall see What the End will be!!
Amen.
I paraphrased. According to reports Angelou said:
I open my mouth to the Lord, and I won’t turn back no. I will go. I shall go. I’ll see what the end is going to be
posted by foxofbama | 12:10 PM
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