Dear Friend,
The Spring/Summer 2000 issue of Southern Exposure -- "LIES ACROSS THE SOUTH: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong" -- has just hit the stands, with an eye-opening investigation from best-selling author James Loewen about the half-truths, sins of omission, and outright lies that skew our public history.
Every day, we encounter monuments, road-side markers, musuems and other historic sites that say a lot about how we view our past -- and how we understand our region today. But as Loewen -- author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and "Lies Across America" -- reports, "All across the South, from Maryland to Texas, historical markers, monuments and historic sites get history wrong, mostly on purpose."
"Some errors are fun," Loewen says, "like the marker in Pittsburg, Texas, that tells of 'The Ezekial Airship,' invented by Baptist minister Burrell Cannon. Texas claims it 'was briefly airborne at this site late in 1902, a year before the Wright brothers first flew' -- but it wasn't."
"But many errors are not so innocent..."
Among the not-so-innocent and dubious history revealed: -- A plantation house exhibit that describes in excruciating detail the silverware used by residents -- but which fails to mention slavery -- A monument in Cleveland, Mississippi that honors "Our Confederate dead" -- even though the town didn't have any Confederate dead. Indeed, "Until 1900, most of the interior of Bolivar County was a vast forest." -- A Florida marker that mourns the 1856 killing of two children of Captain Robert Duke Bradley as "The Bradley Massacre" -- while the unprovoked killing of Native Americans is described on state markers as "battles."
An excerpt from "Lies Across the South" will be available soon at www.i4south.org
ALSO IN THE SPRING/SUMMER 2000 ISSUE OF SE: -- G.W.'s Texas death penalty machine draws deadpan humor -- Policing the Police: Tennessee communities tackle the brutality epidemic -- Who killed Martin Luther King Jr.? The mainstream press: we don't care -- PLUS news, media reviews, fiction, and "Still the South"
Southern Exposure is the award-winning journal of politics and culture published by the Institute for Southern Studies (www.i4south.org), a non-profit research and education center working for progressive change.
To order your copy of "LIES ACROSS THE SOUTH" or to join the Institute -- which includes a year's subscription to Southern Exposure -- just use the order form below.
In solidarity, Chris
Chris Kromm - Editor, Southern Exposure editor at i4south.org - www.i4south.org * Subscribe now for just $24 a year *
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