Charleston, South Carolina, Hello! How better to remember the 150th anniversary of South Carolina's secession from the U.S. then to hold a "Secession Ball"! Here's a USA Today news story on the joyful activities: http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2010/12/charlestons-succession-ball-a-contentious-start-to-civil-wars-150th-anniversary/135669/1
Here's a quote from the article on what is being celebrated: |"War and death is never something to celebrate. But we do |celebrate the courage and the integrity of 170 men who signed |their signatures to the Article of Secession – the courage of |men to do what they think is right." To do what they think is right.... Here's the website of the organizers of the celebration: http://www.scsecessiongala.org/index.html There is a schedule of events on the website and it doesn't look like they're going to show D.W. Griffith's masterpiece "The Birth of a Nation", a film based on the novel "The Clansman" (sic!) which would seem to be consistent with the spirit of the event. Historically, "The Birth of a Nation" was a cinematic landmark while being one of perhaps one of the most racist films ever made. The Ku Klux Klan is actually portrayed as the heros in the film. Wikipedia (yadda-yadda) has an entry on the film and here is a quote about the ideology embodied in the film: |The film is controversial due to its interpretation of history. |University of Houston historian Steven Mintz summarizes its message |as follows: Reconstruction was a disaster, blacks could never be |integrated into white society as equals, and the violent actions of |the Ku Klux Klan were justified to reestablish honest government.[15] |The film suggested that the Ku Klux Klan restored order to the |post-war South, which was depicted as endangered by abolitionists, |freedmen, and carpetbagging Republican politicians from the North. |This reflects the so-called Dunning School of historiography.[16] Another quote is worth noting, about the significance of the film: |In 1992 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film |"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it |for preservation in the National Film Registry. Despite its |controversial story, the film has been praised by film critics such |as Roger Ebert, who said: "'The Birth of a Nation' is not a bad film |because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will, |it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so |is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil."[21] | |According to a 2002 article in the Los Angeles Times, the film |facilitated the refounding of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.[22] |As late as the 1970s, the Ku Klux Klan continued to use the film |as a recruitment tool. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_of_a_nation Maybe they'll show it next year. -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7388 or send a blank email to leave-7388-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
