Southern Bookman

Louisiana's Old State Capitol registers state's tragic history

The spiral staircase and stained glass dome at Louisiana's Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge are astonishing monuments to a vanished society's sense of elegance and beauty.

They are also vestiges of an era of racial violence and repression. The white ruling class that regained control of Louisiana after Reconstruction built the imposing structures as symbols of its dominance.

The Old State Capitol traces the state's tormented political history like sedimentary rock. Abandoned for years, the Neo-Gothic structure has kept watch over the Mississippi River for nearly 175 years. Baton Rouge's history is registered through carved wood, polished floors, golden chandeliers and resplendent windows.

Exhibits and furnishings trace the state's agonized path from the Antebellum period through the Civil War and Reconstruction, the restoration of white rule and the tragic usurpation of blacks' civil rights, and the reign of Huey Long.

Along with impressive exhibits, the building considered a monstrosity by Mark Twain preserves the old legislative chambers and offices where political deals were consummated. A beautiful stained glass window graces the House's side, which looks ready for business. The Senate chamber, decorated with a glorious Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, is a favorite spot for weddings. A bride's room has been established where lobbyists once cajoled legislators.

Originally designed by New York architect James H. Dakin, the building resembling a medieval castle opened in 1845. During the Civil War, Union troops occupying Baton Rouge set fires that destroyed the interior. When Union forces gained control of Baton Rouge, the state capital moved to Opelousas and Shreveport, where the Confederacy made its last stand.

After a brief spell of Republican rule during Reconstruction, which saw the election of black officials including Gov. P.B.S. Pinchback, the Bourbon planters and merchants regained white control with the Louisiana Constitution of 1879. Baton Rouge was restored as the state capital, and the Legislature allocated $153,000 to realize architect William Freret's vision of adding the staircase, dome and towers. The renovated building opened in 1884.

In the next decade, the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court case that originated in New Orleans would cement white rule with the ignominious "separate but equal" standard. Belying the dome's serene beauty, Louisiana imposed white power enforced by lynchings and barriers to blacks' voting.

Depression-devastated Louisiana turned to Huey Long, who gave the state new roads, schools and hospitals. Long, who broke the Bourbons' power, built the soaring new state Capitol on the other side of downtown Baton Rouge from 1929-32.

Before the state government moved to the art-deco edifice where "the Kingfish" was later assassinated, the State Senate tried and failed to impeach Long in the last political drama played out at the Old State Capitol. Long gleefully referred in political speeches to his clinching victory over the Bourbons. The Old State Capitol's intensive exhibit on Long's career includes recordings of his orations as the melody of Long's anthem "Every Man a King" plays in the background.

The memorable Civil War diarist Sarah Morgan Dawson is also remembered at the Old State Capitol in an entertaining multimedia theatrical production "The Ghost of the Castle." Like the more heralded Mary Boykin Chestnut's diary, Dawson's work gives an absorbing eyewitness account of daily life in the Confederacy. Written from March 1862 until April 1865, Dawson's diary records the deprivations suffered by Southern women under Union occupation.

Like its staircase and dome, the Old State Capitol glorifies Louisiana's history. But the state's tragic and violence-stained past comes through. The Old State Capitol, like the river it overlooks, endures through the years.

 

 

 

Millennials' jibe "OK Boomer" shows nothing new under the sun

Bob Dylan told baby boomers not to trust anyone over 30.

Now, the millennials, who comprise several generations, snarl "OK, Boomer" to us aging postwar babies.

The generational putdown, an Internet sensation, has received rebuttals from New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page.

Generations X, Y and Z - what will new generations be called now that the letters have run out? - blame us boomers for climate change, declining economic prospects, Donald Trump and the Eagles. They probably think Dylan can't sing.

Dylan and other Baby Boom heroes were not even Baby Boomers. Dylan, born in 1941, and John Lennon, in 1940, were of the "Silent Generation," which came after the "Greatest Generation," and before the post-war baby explosion. With all of their music and social protest, those rockers weren't very silent.

Once we sang "The Times They Are a Changin'." Now, the younger generation wants us gone. As college football old-timer Lee Corso would say, "hey, not so fast."

In the pre-industrial age, people lived pretty much the same year after year. The generations' experience stayed the same, and people died young. Retroactively, historians branded ages like the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, but Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Voltaire didn't think of themselves as members of defined generations.

Generational conflict goes back to ancient times. Ecclesiastes, in the passage from which Ernest Hemingway found the name for his novel "The Sun Also Rises," warned that "one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever."

Britain in the 19th century began identifying historical periods with the reigns of monarchs: the Victorian Age, the Georgian Age. Literary critics retroactively called Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lord Byron and Charles Lamb the Romantics. Romanticism was also a European movement, including Beethoven and Goethe.

During the 20th century, enormous changes from decade to decade led to the rise of  distinct generations. Those of the Depression Era had different outlooks from those born in the 1950s. Music, fashion, art, culture, and social mores shifted.

The designation of generations emerged after World War I, when Gertrude Stein told Hemingway that he and  his contemporaries were members of a "Lost Generation." Then came the postwar flowering of writers like John Updike, Truman Capote, Robert Lowell and Gore Vidal. New waves of writers, musicians and film stars followed. From Chuck Berry to Katy Perry, the world kept turning.

The Baby Boomers reached a new level of self-consciousness, or bloated self-importance. Talking about my generation, we did bang the drum and blow the horn quite loudly.

Now, the millennials look at us as old duffers.

But remember, kids, a new crop of babies is being born, who will look at you as hopeless.

 

 

 

 

Feeling paranoid on Peachtree Street? It might be those cameras watching you

Welcome South, (Big) Brother.

Atlanta is a global city after all, at least when it comes to spying on its citizens and visitors. Henry Grady's "brave and beautiful city" ranks 10th in the world in public street surveillance, with nearly 11,000 security cameras watching the sidewalks, according to a recent AJC article.

With 15.6 cameras per 1,000 residents, Atlanta ia the only American city to make the top 10 list, according to the Comparitech report. Eight of the top surveillance cities are in China, which holds the top five spots. London, with 58 cameras per 1,000 residents, ranks sixth. Chongqing, in central China, is the world's top snoop, with 158 cameras per 1,000 people.

Years ago, Atlanta aspired to be an international city. Little did we know it would be for video surveillance.

Go to a strip club, the giant eye will see you. Tipsy after too many drinks at lunch? Surprise, you're on candid camera. Starting a new relationship? The camera knows. Those 11,000 unblinking eyes will see what books or magazines you've purchased.

Notoriously repressive Singapore and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates rank below Atlanta. Perhaps Atlanta can hold on to the camera-security lead as the UAB's Dubai's airport closes in on Hartsfield-Jackson as the world's busiest.

City police keeping watch on the city's streets from monitors in the Loudermilk Visual Intregration Center downtown say the prying on Peachtree reduces crime. But the ACLU says the watching handcuffs personal freedom.

If you're going to see the Falcons or Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, enjoy the game. The city will be watching you.

 

 

 

 

 

As reading declines, Philip Roth's $2 million bequest to Newark Library supports books

Philip Roth in his novels wrote about Jewish life of his youth in Newark. Honoring that heritage, Roth left $2 million to his hometown's public library, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The bequest from Roth's $10 million estate shows his faith in reading and literature. Roth stipulated that the money be used to purchase books, not for capital projects. The gift will be placed in an endowment, and $80,000 a year in interest will go to the library to add to its selection of new books.

Before his death, Roth left his extensive book collection to the library. The books, with Roth's annotations, are housed in a dedicated room open to the public.The library also sponsors special events to honor Roth.

Growing up in a prosperous, middle-class Newark, Roth was dismayed by the city's decline in the 1960s and 1970s. During his youth, he often visited the city's public library, which opened the literary world to him.

Fewer children are discovering that world, according to an alarming report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. National tests showed a 3 percent decline in reading ability among eighth graders and 1 percent falloff among fourth graders. Math tests showed a 1 percent gain for fourth graders and a 1 percent drop for eighth graders.

Struggling students keep falling further behind, while those at the top are regressing, the report found.

The declines reverse significant gains in test results from 1990 to 2015, according to reports. Now, as China and other countries tout educational achievements, American students fall behind

Some commentators blamed the reversals on students' dependence on mobile phones, television and computer screens. Others said more and more parents don't read to their children from an early age. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos predictably called for more "school choice" and tax breaks for private schools rather than spending more on public education.

Like Philip Roth, children deserve the gift of reading.

 

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Happy 40th anniversary, London Review of Books

The London Review of Books bookstore was one of the first places I visited on a trip to London several years ago.

Perusing the well-stocked shelves at the store in Bloomsbury near the British Museum gave me the sense of belonging to London's literary scene. A LRB subscriber for years, I'd often seen ads for the bookstore in the journal. Finding the place on a small side street made me feel like a cultural insider.

The LRB is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a number of events in the British capital. As when I hurried to the LRB bookstore, I was excited to receive the 40th anniversary issue in the mail, the first of two.

Modeled on the New York Review of Books, the LRB was founded in 1979 when the Times Literary Supplement was sidelined by a strike at the London Times. Co-founder Mary Kay Wilmers remains at the helm.

The journal has published an all-star cast of writers. In the early years of receiving the LRB, I loved articles by the esteemed critic Frank Kermode. I first encountered Christopher Hitchens' work in the LRB, along with that of Christopher Ricks.

A new generation of writers does excellent work in the LRB, including the novelist and essayist John Lanchester and novelist and journalist Andrew O'Hagan. Patrick Cockburn's Mideast reporting gives a different perspective than that found in American media. O'Hagan's lengthy report on the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 residents of the high rise was a major piece of journalism.

Another standout was Jenny Diski's multipart diary chronicling her losing battle with cancer. Diski also looked back on her adolescent years living with the Noble Prize winning novelist Doris Lessing, who rescued Diski from a troubled life. Lessing is portrayed as a mercurial, emotionally remote caregiver.

Each new year brings the publication of playwright Alan Bennett's diary of the previous 12 months. The urbane Bennett's account of his daily life in Leeds and London chronicles his love of old churches and country pleasures, his literary life in London and his hatred of conservative politicians.

Wilmers is known for publishing controversial articles such as Seymour Hersh's piece proclaiming that the Obama administration lied about Obama Bin Laden's death, that Pakistan had known of Bin Laden's presence in the country. American publications including the New Yorker refused to publish Hersh's findings. His piece has been disputed, but the public deserved the chance to weigh its claims.

The LRB has kept close tabs on Brexit, cuts to the British public health system, and disorienting changes in the British economy. It also gives strong perspectives on American politics.

I have one quibble with the LRB: It arrives in a plastic covering, unlike the Times Literary Supplement. A journal committed to battling climate change shouldn't generate plastic waste.

It is a joy to discover the LRB's presence in my mailbox, often two weeks later than its London publication. While the LRB's circulation has increased, its finances are precarious and it's struggling in the digital age. When I receive the print journal, published on cheap newsprint, it seems like a vestige of a vanished era. Here's hoping it keeps going.

 

Louisiana governor's race headed to runoff

Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards fell short of an outright victory in the state's "jungle primary" Saturday.

Edwards, who hoped to gather more than 50 percent of the vote, was forced into a runoff by ultra-conservative construction tycoon Eddie Rispone, who reportedly spent $8 million of his own money on the race and styles himself a Trump-style outsider who will shake up state government.

Trump appeared at a rally in Lake Charles on the eve of the election and took credit for Rispone's showing. In a tweet, Trump outlandishly claimed that Edwards was favored by 66 percent of the voters before his appearance. The Advocate Times-Picayune reported that Trump's visit boosted voter turnout in rural parishes.

With many residents lacking health insurance, those parishes ignored Edwards expanding Medicaid in the state under Obamacare. Rispone claimed he won't rescind the Medicaid expansion.

Many urban Democrats stayed home. Lamar White Jr. in a comprehensive analysis on his excellent Bayou Brief online news site, said that the Orleans Parish turnout was 38.4 percent. He cited the collapse Saturday of the Hard Rock hotel under construction on New Orleans' Canal Street, which resulted in two deaths. Edwards had scheduled a campaign rally in New Orleans, but turned his attention to coordinating with rescue workers.

Edwards' support among Democratic women was hurt by his approval of the state's harsh abortion law. Women turning against Edwards is self-defeating; Rispone has more conservative abortion views than Edwards.

White's Pelican Brief article raises hope that Edwards will win the election. A total of 70 percent of voters went for candidates other than Rispone, who had little statewide recognition before spending millions on the campaign He has already used his attack ads against Edwards, White noted.

In another distressing outcome, residents of southeastern Baton Rouge voted to form their own city, to be called St. George. The area is one of the most affluent in the city, with a strong tax base. The movement to form a new city began several years ago, over unhappiness with public schools. The proposal failed several times to get on the ballot, at last winning enough petition signatures for an election, in which only residents of the area participated.

The call for better schools, less taxation and "local control" masked the racism behind the move. The St. George area has a white majority, dismayed at increasing black control of city-parish politics.

The city of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish merged their governments decades ago, and the parish apparently will still provide police and other services. In a curious anti-democratic requirement, the governor will appoint St. George's mayor and council. It was  unclear whether municipal elections eventually will be held. Another question will how much of the area's taxes will go to the parish government.

Unlike cities like Atlanta, Baton Rouge's southside is its most prosperous. Home to the the city's petro-chemical plants, the northside has long been neglected. With the St. George breakaway, poverty-ridden North Baton Rouge will receive even fewer resources.

Rispone's election will be as much of a disaster for Louisiana as Trump's has been for the nation. Perhaps voters will remember Bobby Jindal's destructive administration. But Louisiana has an unlimited capacity for self-destruction.

 

A big Saturday in Louisiana: LSU football and governor's election

Two big events will excite Louisiana Saturday: The LSU-Florida game at night-time Tiger Stadium and the governor's election.

In one of Louisiana's oddities, state elections are held on Saturdays, with often brings a mixture of football and politics.

Louisiana followers of both state religions still chortle at the memory of football color man Bud Wilkinson doing an LSU-Ole Miss game at Tiger Stadium on election day during the 1960s.

Wilkinson, expressing amazement that 20 or so candidates were seeking the governorship, said over the air, "must be a good job." Yes, Bud, as good as being a Latin American dictator, medieval king or Mafia boss.

Once again, the national spotlight will shine on Louisiana on election Saturday. ESPN's College Game Day is coming to the LSU campus, and ESPN's Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit will broadcast the clash between the No. 5 LSU Tigers and No. 7 Florida Gators. National political observers will watch the election as a prelude to the national 2020 vote.

The nation's college football fans are waiting to see if the Gators' defense that throttled Auburn last weekend can stop LSU quarterback Joe Burrow and the high-powered LSU offense. LSU's pass-happy spread resembles the old Lakers fast break, although coach Ed Orgeron dialed it back a bit against Utah State last week. For long-suffering LSU fans, the new high-octane attack is like switching to color TV after years of black and white.

In the governor's race, incumbent John Bel Edwards, the deep South's only Democratic governor, is seeking re-election against a bevy of Republican candidates. Trump lapdog U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham and businessman Eddie Rispone are the GOP front-runners.

Just to show his power, President Donald Trump is seeking to influence the race. Vice President Mike Pence appeared at a GOP rally recently, and Trump himself will travel to Lake Charles Friday. The embattled president will find a friendlier crowd than the House Democrats. While Trump will mention Abraham and Rispone, he'll make the event a rally for his 2020 re-election.

The conservative Edwards signed a restrictive abortion bill, but accepted the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. He has also restored the devastating budget cuts engendered by former Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal. In Trump-loving Louisiana, he touts his good relationship with the president.

Ex-pharmacist Abraham, who represents an ultra-conservative North Louisiana District, recently introduced a resolution for the House to expel Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the impeachment inquiry against Trump. He's also been linked to the opioid scandal. Rispone, running as a Trump-style or Russ Perot-style business maven, has been attacking Abraham in his campaign ads more than Edwards.

In another oddity of Louisiana politics, Edwards could end up in a runoff against one of the Republicans. The state's "jungle primary" puts all candidates together, regardless of party. Edwards hopes to win a majority without heading to a runoff.

Excellent Advocate-Times Picayune columnist Stephanie Grace, who's been following the race like the old Atlanta Journal covered Dixie like the Dew, says the election could bring an even more conservative state Legislature. I didn't think that was possible, unless the state reverted back to the days of the old Confederacy. If Edwards wins, he will find it even more difficult to work with the Legislature, which reluctantly agreed to his spending requests.

A momentous Saturday in "the gret state of Louisiana," as state politicians like to say. SEC football at Death Valley as the fog rolls in from the Mississippi River. A full day of tailgating after a series of 11 a.m. kickoffs. College Game Day. A governor's election.

Ol Bud would be amazed.

Thinking about climate change at a luxury beach resort

I tried to enjoy our visit to a resort on the Atlantic Ocean last weekend.

Before our trip through Georgia to north Florida, a U.N. report said that the world's oceans are endangered by climate change. The oceans have exhausted their capacity to absorb carbon. As the oceans warm, acidity rises, threatening sealife. Melting ice will raise sea levels, eventually flooding the luxury condos and hotels at places like Amelia Island, where we stayed.

Witnessing the Atlantic's majesty gives the illusion that the ocean is invulnerable to human activity. But Islands of plastic foul the Pacific. The Atlantic is warming. Coral reefs and fish are dying.. Already, cities like Miami experience regular flooding. Unable to break my habit of reading a newspaper, I saw something about right whales dying after hurling themselves onto dry land.

Like the other guests, we enjoyed the ocean, the swimming pools, the restaurants, the luxury shops. We walked along the golf course, which requires gallons of water to stay green.

On a cruise to Cumberland Island, we saw dolphins, a shark, ospreys and other birds, and Cumberland's feral horses. The tour guide said wild shrimp flourish. Long polluted, the Amelia River is now clean, and oyster beds have returned.  Nature seemed fine.

Looking at the waves crash against the beach, I couldn't stop thinking about that U.N. report.  The ocean, from where human life emerged, is in serious trouble.

We kept seeing small children, newborn babies and pregnant women. Congratulating a mother with a 4-week-old infant, I realized that the child likely wil live until 2100. If the world doesn't act soon to stop climate change, the baby during her life will experience a far more desolate world than ours.

I did well enjoying the luxury surroundings until I saw sprinklers spraying an abandoned tennis court, which received more water than the surrounding shrubbery. Gallons of water wasted.

Before heading home, we filled up with gasoline. As we reached Atlanta, the gas tank was almost empty. Along with the others hurtling down the highway, we had sent emissions into the atmosphere. A radio talk show said that a country plans zero carbon emissions by 2050. I said to myself, "2050? We don't have that much time."

The 90-degree days march into October.

 

 

Farewell, Cokie Roberts and Sander Vanocur

Cokie Roberts and Sander Vanocur represented different eras of Washington TV journalism.

Roberts died Tuesday in Washington at age 75 and Vanocur Monday night in California at 91.

Vanocur, best known for reporting on the Kennedy administration for NBC News, personified the male-dominated news business of the 1960s. Roberts was among a generation of women journalists who demolished those gender barriers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Roberts, like Vanocur, was a Washington insider. Her father, Hale Boggs, for years represented New Orleans in the U.S. House and was House speaker when he died in a plane crash in Alaska. Her mother, Lindy Boggs, took her husband's place after his death and served as U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. Roberts grew up breathing politics, giving her an empathy for politicians unusual for a journalist.

A glamorous correspondent in the days when TV overcame newspapers as Americans' dominant news source, Vanocur was a prominent persona during John F. Kennedy's ground-breaking administration. He was the last of a four-member panel of reporters who questioned Kennedy and Richard Nixon in their 1960 debate, which changed the course of news and politics.

Reporting on Kennedy's witty and sophisticated news conferences and his trips and speeches. Vanocur with his haughty air and polished sentences was the TV counterpart of the "Best and Brightest" who served in Kennedy's cabinet. One of my most vivid childhood memories is watching a choked-up Vanocur report on Kennedy's assassination. He was one of the last journalists who interviewed Robert F. Kennedy.

A solid, insightful reporter, Roberts excelled as one of the first of a new era of TV pundits, giving insider commentary about Washington. During her career, opinion grew as prevalent as objective news reporting.

Sophisticated and knowledgeable, she presented a folksy yet informed personality. Her gossipy, gently humorous commentaries brought comfort as partisan politics grew more hostile.

Starting out at NPR before a superstar career at ABC, Roberts was also a noted author of books detailing women's contributions to American history. While at ABC, she continued to do commentaries for NPR, and wrote a newspaper column.

Vanocur thrived when the three TV networks dominated the airwaves. Roberts rose to prominence during the last years of that dominance. She witnessed the rise of cable news and the Internet and the decline of network news.

They spanned a time when Americans' trust in the news and government receded. Roberts flourished as a believable voice as Americans' political unity frayed. Now, the country is fractured into political tribes believing their own realities.

 

 

 

 

Harper Lee loved Bear Bryant's Alabama Crimson Tide

"To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee had catapulted to fame when the Saturday Evening Post in March 1963 published an article alleging that Georgia athletics director Wally Butts and Alabama football coach Bear Bryant had fixed a game.

A  friend of Bryant and a rabid Alabama football fan, the author of the 1960 best-selling novel was consumed by the charges, along with football followers around the Southeast.

Lee in a letter to her agent, Maurice Crain, wrote a detailed account of the scandal, according to reporter Ben Cohen's fascinating article in Friday's Wall Street Journal. "A wonderful letter from Nellie Harper Lee," Crain scribbled on the envelope. The letter is at Columbia University, Cohen said.

The Saturday Evening Post's article was based on Atlanta businessman George Burnett's claims that he had overheard a telephone conversation in which Butts disclosed Georgia Bulldog plays and formations to Bryant before a 1962 game won 35-0 by the Crimson Tide. Burnett said that while trying to make a long-distance call, he had somehow gotten connected to the former Georgia football coach and Bryant.

Butts won a $3.06 million judgment in a libel suit against the Post, while Bryant reached an eventual settlement of $460,000. The case, which advanced to the Supreme Court, reportedly played a role in the Saturday Evening Post's demise.

While the controversy transfixed the South, as reported in this 1963 article by famed Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins, Lee's had received greater fame from a 1962 movie based on the now-classic novel. Gregory Peck won the Academy Award for his portrayal of lawyer Atticus Finch and his heroic defense of a black man accused of rape in a segregated small town in Alabama.

Cohen's article says that Lee followed college football all of her life, even listening to Paul Finebaum's Alabama-biased college football talk show. Along with her allegiance to Alabama, Lee rooted for Auburn when the Tigers weren't battling the Crimson Tide in the annual Iron Bowl.

Lee was also a close friend of former Auburn coach Pat Dye, to whom she wrote a number of letters. Dye, who once called her book "To Kill a Blackbird," refused to disclose the letters' contents to Cohen.

Other famous names of Alabama football lore rise in the article. Lee believed in Bryant's innocence because scrappy All-American linebacker Lee Roy Jordan supported his coach. Jordan came from a town near Lee's Monroeville, and Lee believed in Jordan's honesty.

Lee remained a prolific letter writer, while not publishing another novel during her lifetime. The posthumous "Go Set a Watchman" was an early version of "To Kill a Mockingbid." A recent book says that Lee never finished a planned nonfiction book about an Alabama minister accused of several murders.

The new revelations enhance Lee's renown as a writer of letters. Her gifts in the genre were revealed several years ago in retired Auburn professor Wayne Flynt's collection of letters between him and Lee. Giving an endearing portrait of the author, the collection presents her views on religion, politics, Hollywood, the South, writing and fame.

Perhaps Cohen's piece will lead to the publication of a collection of Lee's college football letters. The writer of a masterpiece that inspires new generations of readers, she's also worthy of a complete letters collection.

A woman who during her life counted as friends Truman Capote, Maurice Crain, Bear Bryant, Gregory Peck, Pat Dye and Lee Roy Jordan had an expansive, intellectually adventuresome personality that such a collection would honor.