13 Comments
User's avatar
Charlotte Zureick's avatar

I will say with reading about the founding fathers lately that I think the anti woke crusade would eventually write off George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and others. I was surprised given that they were slave owners at how aware they were of the wrong doings. I think people have turned them into myth because if you actually study them they knew our country was built on shaky grounds and wrote about it. They idolize people who really were pretty woke themselves, they should actually study history.

Expand full comment
Sarah Zureick-Brown's avatar

Kind of like they would write off Jesus who showed mercy to the poor and said to love everyone.

Expand full comment
Charlotte Zureick's avatar

Ps i hate the word "woke", I cannot wait for the day when all this goofiness is behind us and our country is sane again!

Expand full comment
Lisa Maguire's avatar

I think they would also be offended by the Founding Fathers view of religion, generally!

Expand full comment
Charlotte Zureick's avatar

Yes!!! 💯, I could not believe when Mike Johnson quoted Thomas Jefferson in his speech when he got selected as speaker of the house to say that they should pray everyday basically. Jefferson would have never said something like that!

Expand full comment
Lisa Maguire's avatar

Margaret Mitchell’s racial views outside her book were pretty clear. She attended my alma mater (Smith College) but left after her first year because she didn’t want to have any Black classmates. When Smith lists its celebrated former students and alums, Mitchell is (appropriately) absent.

Expand full comment
Sarah Zureick-Brown's avatar

Interesting. I didn't realize she had a Smith connection. I live in Western Mass now and love visiting the botanical garden there. I'll have to look more into Mitchell's time there.

Expand full comment
Lisa Maguire's avatar

Don’t think she was there very long. I think she did not do any diligence before applying. More likely, the college was probably silent on the issue. I can’t imagine there were many students of color back then. I am sure one was too many for her!

Expand full comment
Lisa Maguire's avatar

I looked online, and the general reason given for dropping out was that her mother died. Am not sure where I read about her leaving because she did not want to sit in a classroom with a Black woman. Both reasons could be true. I will keep looking because I remembered the story was from an alum magazine or similar “official” Smith source. Now I need to get to the bottom of this - don’t like repeating urban legends!

Expand full comment
Linda Ferree's avatar

This is important stuff, and thank you for refusing to ignore the truth! I personally struggle with the circumstances surrounding her death. I believe she was drunk; the poor cabbie was vilified and ostracized for the rest of his life because the AJC slanted the story to protect one of their own. The power of the press!

Expand full comment
Sarah Zureick-Brown's avatar

Oh wow. I've never heard that Mitchell might have been drunk. I had read or heard something at one point about how the cab driver was drunk, and there wasn't as much public outcry as there would have been later in history with the rise of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Interesting that I heard the opposite story--he wasn't condemned enough. Just goes to show how mutable some of these stories can be.

Expand full comment
Linda Ferree's avatar

She was known to be a lush, and jaywalked out between parked cars. He was off duty, going to the drugstore because his child was sick. Apparently traffic was heavy so there’s no way he could have been speeding. There are photos from the scene that contradict some of the official story line. I read a bunch about it a few years ago when CSO highlighted them.

Expand full comment
Sarah Zureick-Brown's avatar

Thanks for sharing this.

Expand full comment