John F. Kennedy made a campaign swing through Georgia on October 10, 1960, which included a speech at Franklin Roosevelt’s Little White House at Warm Springs. Several patients, including...
The Movement Still Matters
We were young and we made noise. We made noise until we were listened to. We marched in step for a new era; we marched so a new generation could help move America forward. We marched so...
Symbols of the Civil War at the University of Mississippi
The new battle over symbols began two decades ago with the university’s decision to disassociate itself from the Confederate battle flag; it continued over the elimination of Colonel...
The Plainsman: Jimmy Carter in Georgia
On the surface, nothing about Plains seems capable of producing a man like this. There are no diplomats there; the crowd in the diner doesn’t seem interested in discussing the eradication...
A Velvet Hammer Wrapped in a Doily
Lindy had a way with people that combined graciousness with an iron will. She used both to blaze a trail for women in politics and the workplace.
And Who Will Lead Us?: The Problem with Presidents
The political climate, even at “the highest altitudes,” has taken a drastic turn for the worse since Mencken’s day. The blizzards of attack ads aimed squarely at the lowest common...
Can Old Hickory Reclaim the South in 2016?
Drawing connections between the past and present is always a delicate project, best captured by Mark Twain’s apocryphal remark that “history never repeats itself but it rhymes.”
Skin Deep: The Story of Governor Dr. Dr. Bentley and Me
Then I realized that Governor Bentley used to be Dr. Bentley, as in my Dr. Bentley, back when he was a dermatologist and I a pimply teenager.
Sketches of Four Southern Presidents
Of the four, the easiest to draw was Jimmy Carter, and the hardest was George Bush. But there always comes a point when I’m drawing caricatures like this when I just give up.
Will the Real Jefferson Please Stand Up?
A DNA test would determine if they were linked to Jefferson. If they were, it would prove that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally’s children because there were no other Jefferson...
Good Lord Bird
Now, in all the years I knowed him, Old John Brown never got excitable, even in matters of death—his or the next man’s—unless the subject of the Lord come up. And seeing Dutch Henry...
Interview with Mary Campbell Martin
You know why I stayed thirty-two years? I could have gone out at thirty, fully retired. I stayed thirty-two years to let them know that whatever they did, I was going home when I got ready....
Fall 2014
South Writ Large’s Fall 2014 issue features contributions about politics, which has always played an important role in shaping the history of both the American South and the broader nation from the early days of the framing of the Constitution to our most recent election. Indeed, many of the country’s most recent presidents hail from the South – think of Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. In this issue, we are thrilled to have assembled a diverse group of voices – observers, participants, and commentators – who discuss a range of ideas about Southern politics past and present. With the holiday season upon us, why not turn the injunction not to talk politics on its head?