Issue 92, Spring 2009
On the cover: At twenty-four Helen Keller had the richest chapters of her life story ahead of her. [Library of Congress]
Features
Clash of Cultures: The Creek War in Alabama
By Mike Bunn and Clay Williams
Perhaps few events occurring in the lands that would become Alabama held such national importance as the original Creek War, which shocked Americans and held drastic consequences for the Creek Nation. Inspired by Tecumseh, a group of renegade Creeks called the Red Sticks harassed American settlers and assimilated Creeks in 1813, creating a climate of escalating violence vividly demonstrated at the attack on Fort Mims and reaching its full expression in the Creek War. Led by Andrew Jackson, American troops finally subdued the Red Sticks, propelling him to lasting fame and the U.S. presidency. But the struggle displaced many members of Creek nation, opening their lands to white settlers and eventually forcing the Creek Nation on its “Trail of Tears.”
The Grown-Up Helen Keller: “Goodwill Ambassador to the World”
By Kim E. Nielsen
Although most people know Helen Keller for her childhood achievements—learning signed communication through the help of her teacher Anne Sullivan—few people know of Keller’s later life and the many accomplishments it contained. Keller never let her deafness and blindness impede her ambitions, and after graduating from Radcliffe (in an age when few women attended college at all), she established herself internationally as a famous and effective human and civil rights leader. Keller considered this some of her most important work, and she traveled extensively on behalf of the American Foundation for the Blind, visiting such far-flung countries as Egypt and Japan and enjoying audiences with many U.S. Presidents. Much more than an afterthought, Keller’s adult advocacy forms a substantial and influential aspect of her life as a person engaged in the world beyond her.
Fruithurst: The Alabama Wine Country
By Mary Stanton
As the turn of the twentieth century approached, Alabama developed what would become a noted wine community. Though short-lived, Fruithurst, located about halfway between present-day Birmingham and Atlanta, was home to a hundred varieties of grapes. A booming tourism industry followed, immigrants flocked to the area from other locals, and for a time, Fruithurst enjoyed social and economic bounty. Several of the town’s wines were exhibited nationally, and the vineyards prospered from the attention. What looked like a sure success, however, was doomed by a confluence of environmental and social factors, from unexpected freezes to poor management. The advent of prohibition put a seeming end to Alabama’s wine experiment. But today a new vineyard celebrates Fruithurst’s history and legacy by producing muscadine wine on land that was first recognized as Alabama’s wine county nearly a century ago.
“The Satanic Storm King”: Alabama’s 1932 Tornado Outbreak
By Katie Cole
On a March day in 1932 fifteen tornados struck West Alabama in a span of five hours, creating a chaotic environment in a land already struggling with the hardships of the Great Depression. In Northport alone, a series of tornados killed nearly forty citizens, leveled three hundred buildings, and generally wreaked havoc on the area. A single F4 cyclone in Sylacauga killed forty-one and injured 325—along with extensive property damage along the city’s main streets. Community members banded together to respond to the wreckage, uniting in the face of disaster. Though this series of storms ranks as the worst natural disaster in Alabama history, it has virtually disappeared into obscurity until now. From newspaper accounts and interviews with survivors, Katie Cole recreates one of Alabama’s darkest days.
Departments
Southern Architecture and Preservation
The Drish House: Haunting Past, Hopeful Future
By Susan Haynes and Suzanne Wolfe
Constructed nearly 175 years ago by Dr. John R. Drish, Tuscaloosa’s Drish House has a storied past as a residence, auto garage, and church meeting place. The subject of a famous Walker Evans photograph and of ghost stories passed among local children, time and the elements have taken a toll on the once-grand plantation home. Efforts to preserve this historic structure are being coordinated by the Tuscaloosa Preservation Society. Hopefully with help from the community, the Drish House will soon return to its former glory as a showpiece of Tuscaloosa’s historical landscape.
Recollections
Mint Julep: A Gentleman’s Drink
By Jerry Armor
In the 1930s, Opelika native Edwin “Alabama” Pitts made a name for himself as a baseball player, even though he was a prisoner at Sing Sing. Upon his parole, he was signed to play professional baseball, opening a debate about the role of convicts in society. His career in both professional baseball—which he played until his death—and football helped him forge an identity after serving his prison term and also paved the way for future athletic endeavors of ex-cons.
The Nature Journal
Roadside Stories
By L. J. Davenport
Decades ago the Alabama Historical Association began to post markers at historic sites along Alabama’s roadways, making a car ride an education in the Alabama past. Erected now by several different agencies throughout the state, the markers reflect how historical interests and cultural values evolve over time.
Reading the Southern Past
Injustice Rendered: Leo Frank and the “Scottsboro Boys”
In this quarter’s “Reading the Southern Past,” Stephen Goldfarb reviews several books investigating two of the South’s most memorable legal cases—memorable for their failure to render justice. Leonard Dinnerstein’s book The Leo Frank Case, first published in 1966 and reprinted in 1987 by the University of Georgia Press, charts the murder charges leveled against Frank, a Jewish factory manager who was subsequently abducted from prison and lynched. A more contemporary investigation of the case appears in And the Dead Shall Rise by Steve Oney, published in 2003 by Pantheon Books.
Two other books—Dan T. Carter’s newly revised Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South (Louisiana State University Press, 2007) and James Goodman’s Stories of Scottsboro (Pantheon, 1997) revisit the case of the “Scottsboro Boys,” the group of nine African American males falsely accused of rape in 1931. Four of them—the luckiest of the nine—were eventually released from prison for lack of evidence after being incarcerated for six years. Not even the retraction of one of the two accusers in the case brought freedom to the unluckiest of them. Goldfarb reveals what each of the four books adds to the stories of these fascinating cases.
