Monday, May 24, 2010
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Swapping Stories
Before I left town on Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of chatting with George Thomas Jones, a journalist and Monroeville resident who has known Harper Lee since she was a school girl.
Mr. Jones discussed with me race relations in Monroeville from the 1930s through today. He recounted what he knew from articles in the Monroe Journal about the trial of Walter Lett, the 1933 court case upon which the Tom Robinson trial is thought to be based. We talked about the total segregation that "wasn't right...wasn't fair...but that's the way it was" in Monroeville for many decades.
We also talked about how the Civil Rights Movement touched Monroeville, and --scary-- how the Ku Klux Klan operated in Monroeville right through the 1980s. To respect the rights and privacy of Mr. Thomas and the folks in the stories he shared with me, I won't publish them here, but be sure to talk with me about them in person!
Mr. Jones discussed with me race relations in Monroeville from the 1930s through today. He recounted what he knew from articles in the Monroe Journal about the trial of Walter Lett, the 1933 court case upon which the Tom Robinson trial is thought to be based. We talked about the total segregation that "wasn't right...wasn't fair...but that's the way it was" in Monroeville for many decades.
We also talked about how the Civil Rights Movement touched Monroeville, and --scary-- how the Ku Klux Klan operated in Monroeville right through the 1980s. To respect the rights and privacy of Mr. Thomas and the folks in the stories he shared with me, I won't publish them here, but be sure to talk with me about them in person!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Miss Alice Lee, Harper Lee's formidable sister.
To respect the privacy of Miss Alice Lee and Miss Nelle Harper Lee, I won't publish my stories about my experiences with Miss Alice.
Be sure to ask me in person!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Harper Lee and the Alabama State Bar
A man of many talents and several careers, A. C. Lee was first and foremost a lawyer. While working as a bookkeeper for the law office of Barnett and Bugg, he studied law at night and after two years, passed the bar exam. The practice became Barnett, Bugg, and Lee.
When it came time for Miss Alice Lee to go to college, she chose to follow in her father's footsteps, studying law at University of Alabama.
A.C. and Alice wished for Nelle Harper Lee to join them in their practice. Harper Lee did indeed study law at University of Alabama, just like her sister, but she dropped out of school with just months left to go. She moved to New York to write, and the rest is history.
Harper Lee has admitted that A.C. Lee served as the model for Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch has become one of the most famous lawyers -- indeed, one of the most famous characters -- in modern American literature. This fictional character has become an icon not only in literature but also in the field of law.
Check out just a few of the honors related to law that have been bestowed upon Harper Lee and her creation Atticus Finch:
From the Minutes of the Alabama State Bar Board of Bar Commissioners Meeting on Friday, February 3, 2006:
12. ALABAMA STATE BAR AWARD OF MERIT
President Segall stated that Monroeville native Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, had been nominated to receive the Alabama State Bar Award of Merit for the noble portrayal of lawyers through her creation of the enduring character of Atticus Finch.
COMMISSIONER LAW AND COMMISSIONER PRICE JOINTLY MOVED THAT MONROEVILLE NATIVE, HARPER LEE, AUTHOER OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, RECEIVE THE ALABAMA STATE BAR AWARD OF MERIT FOR 2006. THE MOTION WAS SECONDED AND APPROVED BY VOICE VOTE.
Click here for a link to the Alabama Law Foundation's Atticus Finch Society. What does it take to be worthy of the association with Atticus Finch?
Moreover, there is a monument to Atticus Finch on the grounds of the Old Courthouse in Monroeville. Established by the Alabama State Bar in 1997, the memorial is the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history," according to the Birmingham News article "'Mockingbird' Hero Honored in Monroeville."
When it came time for Miss Alice Lee to go to college, she chose to follow in her father's footsteps, studying law at University of Alabama.
A.C. and Alice wished for Nelle Harper Lee to join them in their practice. Harper Lee did indeed study law at University of Alabama, just like her sister, but she dropped out of school with just months left to go. She moved to New York to write, and the rest is history.
Harper Lee has admitted that A.C. Lee served as the model for Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch has become one of the most famous lawyers -- indeed, one of the most famous characters -- in modern American literature. This fictional character has become an icon not only in literature but also in the field of law.
Check out just a few of the honors related to law that have been bestowed upon Harper Lee and her creation Atticus Finch:
From the Minutes of the Alabama State Bar Board of Bar Commissioners Meeting on Friday, February 3, 2006:
12. ALABAMA STATE BAR AWARD OF MERIT
President Segall stated that Monroeville native Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, had been nominated to receive the Alabama State Bar Award of Merit for the noble portrayal of lawyers through her creation of the enduring character of Atticus Finch.
COMMISSIONER LAW AND COMMISSIONER PRICE JOINTLY MOVED THAT MONROEVILLE NATIVE, HARPER LEE, AUTHOER OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, RECEIVE THE ALABAMA STATE BAR AWARD OF MERIT FOR 2006. THE MOTION WAS SECONDED AND APPROVED BY VOICE VOTE.
Click here for a link to the Alabama Law Foundation's Atticus Finch Society. What does it take to be worthy of the association with Atticus Finch?
Moreover, there is a monument to Atticus Finch on the grounds of the Old Courthouse in Monroeville. Established by the Alabama State Bar in 1997, the memorial is the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history," according to the Birmingham News article "'Mockingbird' Hero Honored in Monroeville."
The Most Famous Courtroom in America
This is the courtroom in which A.C. Lee, Nelle Harper Lee's father, practiced law. As a child, Nelle would sit in the balcony and watch him.
The producer of the film, Alan Pakula, wanted to shoot the film in Monroeville. However, Monroeville in the 1960s looked nothing like Monroeville in the 1930s. Depression Era Maycomb had to be recreated in a Hollywood back lot. To prepare for the film, many of those involved visited Monroeville, and the man who designed the sets, Art Director Henry Bumstead, knew this courtroom was key. He knew he had to get it just right, to reproduce it exactly on a Hollywood sound stage.
Bumstead and his crew likewise created the rest of Maycomb, from the Finch house to the town square to the Radley house. When Lee visited the set, she commented on its realism, saying she felt like she could sit right down on one of the porches just like she would at home. The set design of the film was remarkable, and Bumstead, with Alexander Golitzen and Oliver Emert, won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Black-and-White.
Follow this link to view Bumstead's storyboards and compare them to stills from the film itself.
The novel and film made this courtroom an icon, and people come from all over the world to visit it.
Created with flickr slideshow.
The producer of the film, Alan Pakula, wanted to shoot the film in Monroeville. However, Monroeville in the 1960s looked nothing like Monroeville in the 1930s. Depression Era Maycomb had to be recreated in a Hollywood back lot. To prepare for the film, many of those involved visited Monroeville, and the man who designed the sets, Art Director Henry Bumstead, knew this courtroom was key. He knew he had to get it just right, to reproduce it exactly on a Hollywood sound stage.
Bumstead and his crew likewise created the rest of Maycomb, from the Finch house to the town square to the Radley house. When Lee visited the set, she commented on its realism, saying she felt like she could sit right down on one of the porches just like she would at home. The set design of the film was remarkable, and Bumstead, with Alexander Golitzen and Oliver Emert, won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Black-and-White.
Follow this link to view Bumstead's storyboards and compare them to stills from the film itself.
The novel and film made this courtroom an icon, and people come from all over the world to visit it.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
A Map of Maycomb?
Of course this is not Maycomb -- it's Monroeville! However, this road bears a striking resemblance to the one the described in TKAM. Where would the Radley house be?
Sites of the Lee and Faulk Houses
The sites of the Lee and Faulk homes are on South Alabama Avenue, one of the major thoroughfares in town. Nothing remains of the Lee home, and all that remains of the Faulk home are portions of the foundation and the low stone wall that ran between the two yards.
There is a historical marker for Truman Capote on the site of the Faulk home, but there is nothing for Harper Lee; when the town wanted to erect one, she refused. In its place is just the Mel's Dairy Dream, the little hamburger and ice cream stand.
Alabama Southern Community College
The Library at Alabama Southern Community College in Monroeville is the home of the Alabama Center for the Literary Arts and the Monroeville Writers Fountain. The Center features mixed media portraits of Truman Capote, Martin Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, Booker T. Washington, and Harper Lee. In the slideshow below, you'll see that there is not a portrait of Harper Lee, but rather a symbolic representation of a mockingbird.
From the Center's website:
The internationally acclaimed Alabama artist Nall was commissioned by the Alabama Center for Literary Arts to create portraits of Alabama literary icons Truman Capote, Martin Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, and Booker T. Washington for display in the Alabama Writers Hall of Honor. Nall is an American symbolist artist who further developed his passion for art through studies in Paris and numerous world travels. Nall served as an artist-in-residence at Troy State University.
Click here for the artist Nall's extremely interesting interactive website.
Also in the Center is the Alabama Collection of books, which of course includes a signed copy of TKAM, just sitting on the shelves like any other book. The Fountain of Literary Inspiration is also part of the Center. I threw in a quarter in hopes of some inspiration to finish my dissertation! Click here to read more about the fountain the Literary Courtyard.
Created with flickr slideshow.
From the Center's website:
The internationally acclaimed Alabama artist Nall was commissioned by the Alabama Center for Literary Arts to create portraits of Alabama literary icons Truman Capote, Martin Luther King, Jr., Helen Keller, and Booker T. Washington for display in the Alabama Writers Hall of Honor. Nall is an American symbolist artist who further developed his passion for art through studies in Paris and numerous world travels. Nall served as an artist-in-residence at Troy State University.
Click here for the artist Nall's extremely interesting interactive website.
Also in the Center is the Alabama Collection of books, which of course includes a signed copy of TKAM, just sitting on the shelves like any other book. The Fountain of Literary Inspiration is also part of the Center. I threw in a quarter in hopes of some inspiration to finish my dissertation! Click here to read more about the fountain the Literary Courtyard.
Boo Radley...
was real.
The character of Boo Radley is, according to townspeople, modeled after Alfred "Son" Boulware.
The Boulware family lived just down the street from the Lees. Son, born in 1910, got into a little trouble when he was a teenager. According to town stories Son and two of his friends -- one named Baggett and one named Sawyer -- broke into the Hudson Store to steal cigarettes. The Hudson Store's floorboards were twelve inches wide, wide enough for the boys to lift a loose one and climb through. Another town story suggests that the three teens were caught shooting out the windows of the store with a slingshot.
The boys were sentenced to attend industrial school -- reform school -- but Son Boulware's father would not allow him to go. Instead, he took Son home where he stayed for the remainder of his life. He wasn't really allowed to go out, but his friends would come by and sneak him through a window to hang out. The townspeople think that Son's father knew about this sneaking out and were okay with it. His friends would also furtively study with Son, as he was a smart young man. However, when his friends grew up and moved away, Son was left with no one.
While Boo Radley virtually never leaves the house, Son Boulware did, but he could only when accompianed by a family member.
Townspeople's accounts of the Boulware house vary. Some remember it being dilapidated while others remember that it was only unpainted. Some remember the yard as unkempt but others remember it as neat.
Son passed away in 1952 and was buried with his family in Pineville Cemetary, the same cemetary in which Harper Lee's father, mother, and brother Edwin are buried.
The Baggett boy went to reform school, returned to Monroeville and finished high school as a star athlete, and then went on to Mobile where he did well. An article in the June 28, 1928 Monroe Journal reports that Robert Baggett was honored at the Alabama Industrial School -- "awarded a medal for being the second best commander in a military drill and review staged in honor of Governor Bibb Graves."
The Sawyer boy went on to be a motorcycle highway patrolman.
The character of Boo Radley is, according to townspeople, modeled after Alfred "Son" Boulware.
The Boulware family lived just down the street from the Lees. Son, born in 1910, got into a little trouble when he was a teenager. According to town stories Son and two of his friends -- one named Baggett and one named Sawyer -- broke into the Hudson Store to steal cigarettes. The Hudson Store's floorboards were twelve inches wide, wide enough for the boys to lift a loose one and climb through. Another town story suggests that the three teens were caught shooting out the windows of the store with a slingshot.
The boys were sentenced to attend industrial school -- reform school -- but Son Boulware's father would not allow him to go. Instead, he took Son home where he stayed for the remainder of his life. He wasn't really allowed to go out, but his friends would come by and sneak him through a window to hang out. The townspeople think that Son's father knew about this sneaking out and were okay with it. His friends would also furtively study with Son, as he was a smart young man. However, when his friends grew up and moved away, Son was left with no one.
While Boo Radley virtually never leaves the house, Son Boulware did, but he could only when accompianed by a family member.
Townspeople's accounts of the Boulware house vary. Some remember it being dilapidated while others remember that it was only unpainted. Some remember the yard as unkempt but others remember it as neat.
Son passed away in 1952 and was buried with his family in Pineville Cemetary, the same cemetary in which Harper Lee's father, mother, and brother Edwin are buried.
The Baggett boy went to reform school, returned to Monroeville and finished high school as a star athlete, and then went on to Mobile where he did well. An article in the June 28, 1928 Monroe Journal reports that Robert Baggett was honored at the Alabama Industrial School -- "awarded a medal for being the second best commander in a military drill and review staged in honor of Governor Bibb Graves."
The Sawyer boy went on to be a motorcycle highway patrolman.
"Cultural Education and Economic Background of the Town."
Miss Farish, Mr. Jones, and Mr. Skinner wanted to provide "cultural education and the economic background" of Monroeville in the Depression Era. Some of the points they made include:
- The Old Courthouse courtroom is considered the most famous courtroom in America because of its prominence in the novel and film of TKAM.
- In 1852, the original town courthouse, made of local clay bricks handformed by slave labor, burnt down. The Old Courthouse -- the one in which A.C. practiced -- was built in 1903 for $26,000 under the direction of Judge Stallworth. In the 1960s, a new courthouse was built and the old one was left to decay. In the 1970s, the local merchants with shops and other businesses on the square proposed to tear down the old courthouse to build a parking lot. Thanks to townspeople who came to the rescue, a $1.5 million dollar restoration was completed instead and the courthouse was registered as a historical landmark.
- George Washington Carver spoke in the courtroom.Everybody was poor. There was not a lot of difference between professional people and average people.
- Total segregation dominated the 1930s. The Blacks lived outside of town and were refered to as "colored people" or "Negroes."
- The only job available to Black women was to be a "domestic," meaning to work in the house of a white family.
- Firemen were volunteers. When there was a fire, the siren would sound and then the first volunteer to the firehouse would drive the truck slowly around the town square so that the other volunteers could run out and jump on.
- In the 1930s, the telephones were run by "live operators." You would pick up the telephone and ask the operator to connect you to whomever you wanted to call. Often the operator knew everyone's comings and goings.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Scenes & Stories of Monroeville
Monroeville is a wonderfully welcoming town. Everyone I've met has been warm and kind and just a pleasure to get to know.
My first morning in Monroeville was spent at the "Scenes and Stories of Monroeville: To Kill a Mockingbird Seminar" at the Old Courthouse Museum. The Old Courthouse, built in 1903, is the courthouse in which Harper Lee's father A.C. Lee practiced law. It is now a museum with amazing exhibits on Harper Lee, Truman Capote, and important aspects of Monroeville. As I signed in at the registration desk, my accent gave me away as a Northerner right away. And I won the proverbial award for visitor who had traveled farthest to get to the Literary Capital of Alabama!
The first session of the seminar was "Growing Up with Harper Lee" with Anne Hines Farish, a classmate of Harper Lee and the former mayor of Monroeville, George Thomas Jones, and Charles Ray Skinner, both of whom also grew up with Harper Lee and her siblings. The second session was "Moments of Courage -- Against the Odds," featuring four African-American citizens of Monroe County. Lavord Cook, Jackie Denson, Mary Tucker, and Bernice Richardson discussed agriculture, education, and the Civil Rights Movement in the local Black communities. During the break between two sessions, I had the chance to talk with a volunteer about her own memories of Monroeville in the 1930s and 40s.
After the seminar, I was honored to be invited out to lunch at Radley's with Jane Ellen Clark of MCHM, several of the panelists, and a teacher from a school very much like USM in Montgomery, AL. What a delight! (And the secret recipe tuna salad was to die for, too.)
I was also invited to return to the Old Courthouse Museum to work in the MCHM's archives!
My first morning in Monroeville was spent at the "Scenes and Stories of Monroeville: To Kill a Mockingbird Seminar" at the Old Courthouse Museum. The Old Courthouse, built in 1903, is the courthouse in which Harper Lee's father A.C. Lee practiced law. It is now a museum with amazing exhibits on Harper Lee, Truman Capote, and important aspects of Monroeville. As I signed in at the registration desk, my accent gave me away as a Northerner right away. And I won the proverbial award for visitor who had traveled farthest to get to the Literary Capital of Alabama!
The first session of the seminar was "Growing Up with Harper Lee" with Anne Hines Farish, a classmate of Harper Lee and the former mayor of Monroeville, George Thomas Jones, and Charles Ray Skinner, both of whom also grew up with Harper Lee and her siblings. The second session was "Moments of Courage -- Against the Odds," featuring four African-American citizens of Monroe County. Lavord Cook, Jackie Denson, Mary Tucker, and Bernice Richardson discussed agriculture, education, and the Civil Rights Movement in the local Black communities. During the break between two sessions, I had the chance to talk with a volunteer about her own memories of Monroeville in the 1930s and 40s.
After the seminar, I was honored to be invited out to lunch at Radley's with Jane Ellen Clark of MCHM, several of the panelists, and a teacher from a school very much like USM in Montgomery, AL. What a delight! (And the secret recipe tuna salad was to die for, too.)
I was also invited to return to the Old Courthouse Museum to work in the MCHM's archives!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Maycomb and Monroeville
Monroeville, AL is the hometown of Harper Lee and her childhood friend Truman Capote. It's considered the "Literary Capital of Alabama" and is often cited as the town on which To Kill a Mockingbird's Maycomb is based.
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