gone of the wind is a national epic in a sense for white Southerners it inres both the Old South myth of Elegance and gentility and the myth of the Lost Cause of the Gallant outman Confederates fighting to their last against the Yankee Invaders the Yankees can't fight and we can going with the wind has this magical quality to actually alleviate a white southerner's guilt and make us believe that that is really how it was you actually think for a second wow I wish those days still existed war war war this war talk spoiling all the fun at every part of this spring I get so bored I could scream the impact of the Civil War on the south was enormous in many ways that history continues to play itself out and so in that sense it certainly isn't over white Southerners and black Southerners are attempting to find ways back to one another to reconcile their different memories to come to terms with a difficult past if you look at the South today it is not the same South that it was in in the Years prior to the Civil War it is not the same South in the immediate years after the Civil War but those souths are part of the new [Music] [Applause] South Gone With the Wind has captured the imagination of audiences around the world with its Vivid depiction of life in the Old South the image of the old South is remarkably durable so you have this image of you know Cavaliers Rich cultured plantation owners it conjures up a time of leisure a time of Class A Time of Civility uh a time when time moves slowly I've got an idea we'll talk about the barbecue the wilss are giv over 12 Oaks tomorrow a good idea the attraction of the antibellum South is not only for southerners but was also for Northerners G the wind was immensely popular all over the country the Old South was something that the rest of the nation uh was not the old South as depicted and Gone With the Wind continues to inform people's perceptions no matter how hard Atlanta might try to Market itself as the new city of the new South when people come to Atlanta they come looking for scarlet O'Hara they come looking for Rhett Butler that's the South that they want to see fauler said in the South the past isn't dead it's not even passed it's very easy in many places in the South to feel history very forcefully history is all around us I don't think the South has changed nearly as much as we give it credit for I say that for good and for bad they're really you know beautiful ideals that still exist in Mississippi in Georgia Hospitality if someone needs something it is your job as a neighbor or a friend or just just to go see what the inside of their house looks like to go bring it to them I would say the most obvious enduring quality in the South are its beautiful manners Southerners are the most mannerly people in America Southern Hospitality is part of your bio and part of it is being proud of being Southern we tend to know our history better we tend to know who we are and we're very rooted we family ties are very important those old values of the South still continue and I think we hold on to them we also very friendly people and we will feed and clothe and give to almost anybody strangers who come through whereas in the north you don't have that I thing I think there were some times in my life when I was a teenager where I didn't want to have an accent and I didn't want to be from the south because you know it people thought that if you had a Southern accent you were automatically a dumb person or you weren't smart but somewhere along the way if you're a southern woman you outgrow that and you realize that you're one of the lucky ones as an African-American in the South I'm very proud to be a southerner and I say that to people about they well how can you be proud to be a Southern and they had slavery and so I said but you know what there were a few a lot of good good ones in there that helped us get from point A to point B and now we're a family we think to get along better than people from other regions African-Americans and white Americans progress in the new South has been hard one rising from the ashes of the one historical event that overshadows all others it's been 150 years since the Civil War and it remains a viable historical and cultural force in the lives of of Southerners of of black or white in the wake of the Civil War Southerners found themselves in Uncharted Territory as the sun sets on the major combat actions of the Civil War the south is facing a very different and Starker future reconstruction period in the Civil War is going to be one in which you're balancing the attempt that you reunite a nation that has elements in it that aren't comfortable with being reunited white Southerners wanted to restore the Old South civilization because of course everything was destroyed uh After the War slavery was destroyed in many cases their land that was destroyed so what they decided to do uh after the war was reconstruct what they thought was the old South civilization and that civilization was based upon white supremacy on the dominance of white rule African-Americans are going to try to experience Freedom as much as that can be possible in the new setting that exists and yet Black Codes aren't going to be substantially different from slave codes that existed before the war the fact that you can't just go wherever you want or do whatever you want is quickly going to be the reality for so many people historians are fond of saying that the South lost the war but won the peace for white Southerners the effort to win the peace included the creation of a mythology that would reframe the South's history for future Generations when you're trying to sort of use the past to justify what you're doing in in the present you're naturally going to try to lay down a good solid historical Foundation that shows that you were a noble civilization from the beginning populated by admirable people and so that a lot of what the Old South myth was really about white Southerners created a myth called The Lost Cause And in this lost cause they elevated the defeat that they had suffered at the hands of the Yankees in the Civil War uh into a noble effort white Southerners created the myth that the war was not fought over slavery now before the war white Southerners knew very well the war was fought over slavery there was no question about why the war was being fought everyone knew the what the war was being fought over it's only after their defeat that white Southerners are able to create this prevailing myth that the war was not about slavery At All by the first part of the 20th century it was common to see novels and history books reflecting the southern perspective on the Civil War that is the Civil War was not about slavery it was about states rights and that in fact slavery may have been the natural work for African Americans and even if it weren't white Southerners were the dominant race and they in fact should rule the hardest thing that teach students and get them to really uh buy into is that the the war was about slavery the first thing he had to do was sort of destroy the gone of the wind image of what the Civil War was about because there there's so many people today not just Southerners either who want to believe that it was about almost anything else but when you get right down to it it really is slavery because uh what state right are you talking about you're talking about the right of individuals in the southern states to own slaves so when you talk about the other issues whether you're talking about the Tariff or State's rights or the economy or postmasters whatever you're talking about it all comes down to slavery I think it's important to keep in mind that that you know Southerners weren't the only only ones who bought into the Old South myth it also offered Americans at large to sort of Escape into the this mythological world where everything seemed so perfect and everybody was happy the truth of slavery is rarely mentioned in our romantic depictions of the Old South the image of the Old South in movies like Gone With the Wind is an image of a plantation society one based on slavery but slavery as it's depicted in that image is is fairly benign quitting time who says it's quitting time I said it's quitting time I the foran I the one says when it's quitting time of Terror quitting time slavery is really not even a critical issue in the movie you have these African-Americans that are working for these white families and it's as if it's just their job it's as if they just get a paycheck you know and this is something they chose to do there's an element in there that's so seductive it would have you believe that there could be these rich and Powerful people who would never abuse that power and the subjects who were exploited to create the wealth and sustain the power would never for a second resent it or or hold a grudge G with the wi also attempts to have it both ways and portray these black people as being happy in the context of slavery but also they have a saying I would have freed my slaves once my father died well if they were so happy why would he want to free them G with the wind is a great example of how the white South View of the antibellum period the war the South View of reconstruction became really the prevailing National myth and that's remarkable there aren't many cases in history where the losers write the history not the victors for Confederate soldiers returning home however no myth could obscure the fact that they were the first Americans ever to lose a war it fell to Southern women to heal K their wounded husbands Fathers and Sons there was an effort after the war to prop Southern men back up that they had lost the war was devastating not just as a society but as men a lot of efforts went into to kind of bolster a southern manhood to tell a story about the war they didn't emphasize the loss but instead emphasized that southern men fought hard and fought bravely and that they fought to protect their wives and families and way of life to carry the glory of the Old South forward into the new South required visible tributes to Confederate Heroes once again it was southern women who came to the rescue after the war ended it would have been very very difficult in fact for the vanquished that is for the men of the Confederacy to stand up and say that they wanted to create monuments to what was in fact treason but for southern women mourning lost husbands Sons fathers Brothers to wish to carry on the memory of their loved ones not only by decorating their graves for example annually on Memorial day but ultimately also by creating monuments to commemorate that loss was viewed as apolitical as less problematic the women could do something the men could not although statues and monuments uh are not erected in honor of losers they're erected in honor of courage and heroism everywhere you turn there is in fact a monument to a confederate soldier on practically every town square and it puts off a great many visitors from outside the region to see these uh statues to people who fought a war to to maintain slavery but you that's the reality of of the South while monuments to the Confederacy have become an accepted part of life in the new South one symbol generates a great deal more controversy when we see the Confederate flag students get really upset about it and say why do they still still flight and I tried to tell them from a white standpoint but see these people really believed in the Old South they really believe that they won the war and this is their land and their country and the Northerners were nothing but Carpet Baggers and scalla acts that came down here and they still see them that way a number of white Southerners believe that hey this is my Heritage I deserve to have this uh this flag and there's no racism uh about that but the fact is that the Confederate Battle Flag from the very beginning was associated with white supremacy and not only that but the Confederate Battle Flag supported a country that was dedicated to the furtherance of slavery I remember there was one white American young young man there they had this flag up and he had lights on and i' had heard some of the African-Americans saying that uhhuh we goingon to get him before he leave town so I went to him I said let me tell you one thing I don't know you young man and he likes to me he hey Dr B how you doing he flying the conf flag right hey Dr B how you doing and then he says then I said to him I said these young men are plotting against you do you realize what that flag means to them do you know what the Confederacy was to to African-Americans you were trying your best to keep maintain that institution of slavery you did not want to give that up as a people so your flag says that we still don't see you we still see you as three- fifths of man we still see the women as women that we can take whenever we want to we still think that you should never go into college you you shouldn't have those rights because you're not completely human is a way that they thought of African-Americans and so he heard all that he said you may be right after the ver so he took him down but I can tell you in small town America those flags fly all the time my position is that yes this flag should fly but it should fly in a [Music] museum the long journey to reconciliation between blacks and whites in the South has had many landmarks none more pivotal than World War II some historians are fond of saying that World War II had a more dramatic impact on the south than the Civil War did because of the involvement of black World War II veterans who came home to the South and were no longer content to remain in that segregated Society black Southerners and blacks across this country talked about what they call the double v the victory at home and the Victory abroad and even white Southerners despised Hitler's racial politics and even white Southerners understood that things could not remain as they had been that you could not make war on Hitler and demonized Hitler's racial politics without seeing the obvious similarities at home and so many Southerners black and white understand that change is going to have to come but understanding the inevitability of change and embracing it are two different things in the 1950s and 60s the conflict between the values of the Old South and the promise of the new South reached a boiling point you had the Civil Rights Movement culminating with the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act but what did you have in the wake of the uh Voting Rights Act of 65 you had civil disturbances you had riots race riots across Urban America we were trying to find ourselves what kind of country are we the Civil Rights Movement captured the imagination of millions most Americans today most Southerners today would want to embrace and own the Civil Rights Movement as their history and I think African-Americans are more capable of remembering the degree and extent of white resistance and also more conscious of the ways in which the Civil Rights Movement is ongoing so much we do in this country is an attempt to tell ourselves that we are really better human beings than we are people want to feel good about themselves and for white people to look honestly at the South and the racism that was permitted by the nation that would really destroy our concept of ourselves as Americans you cannot talk about American ideals of democracy and Justice and freedom and not acknowledge the fact that in the context of race each of those ideals is demonstrably false and has been for the majority of our history if the Civil War was about the abolition of slavery and about trying to fulfill the noblest aspirations of American society as laid out in documents like the Declaration of Independence we're still grappling with those issues race has not disappeared what WB Deo call the problem of the color line continues whites and blacks of course in the South today uh view their history differently but they also understand this increasing understanding that that these histories of black and white intertwine they intertwine in music they intertwine in food so there's a growing acknowledgement of a of a common history we are a resilient people even as far back as the Civil War being able to rebuild and for blacks after the Civil Rights Movement to bounce back and do the kinds of things that they've done over the last 50 years shows up a lot of tenacity in the recent history of the South one need only look to the recovery of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to see that southern tenacity in action the fight that new orans put up to preserve this city and its culture and its Heritage has been a real inspiration there was the real very real danger that this place would disappear and there seemed to be a perfect willingness on the part of many people across the country and in the federal government to see that happen and so the fact that New Orleans is here and the fact that so much of that culture is intact is a huge Victory the town has come back economically for sure the sense of shiv in New Orleans is as great now as it was before there are pockets of Destruction that remain and life in those Pockets has not come back there was also the fear that much of what made New Orleans distinctive and much of New Orleans very real and deeply rooted culture might be erased because so many of those neighborhoods have been destroyed and so many of the Ci's black population had left and might not be able to return after Katrina after the levy failures there's really this effort to keep New Orleans culture without New Orleans people and I don't know if that's possible if you talk about about what makes New Orleans interesting indiff and important the African presence is crucial for that in the absence of the African presence new war would not nearly be so compelling as it is to see neenans rally around this city to live in a city where almost every person has made a conscious decision to be here most of them fighting to be here I don't know of another city that can make that [Music] claim like a good bowl of Gumball the City of New Orleans brings together disperate elements to make a unified whole society in the south is very much a gumbo it's a mixture of things of people from various backgrounds and together it makes one mixed Society the cuisine of New Orleans has played an enormous role in the city's rebirth for those of us who were here uh during the storm we all gravitated and celebrated the minute one of our favorite restaurants reopened the minute some Chef came back into town it was big news all over the city New Orleans Cuisine has been one of our emblems for the entirety of our history it's also one of the ways in which the mix of the African the European the Native American and the Caribbean have come together to Define New Orleans so if you take any of our emblematic dishes not only are you affirming New Orleans you're affirming all of the cultures that have come together to build the city and make it great the native Cuisine here is as strong cultural Factor as it ever was before one week after Levy failures they whole out of New Orleans in Baton Rouge and so my dear friend Don logon and her family calls together as many of those people as possible to have red means and rice on the Monday after Katrina struck there's probably no other city in America that has one dish so emblematic of who we are as a people that you could serve that and have that in of itself be an act of patriotism though patriotism means different things to different people Southerners of all backgrounds look to the future with a sense of hope I hope that we continue to carry those Southern ways that we've always had into the next century and yet at the same time that we grow we grow as a people with this nation to help us become the greatest nation in the world the flavor of the South is so rich and so varied it's the story of history from the earliest days and colonial days and Revolution through the Civil War to today so I hope that the South continues to find a way to reconcile its past with its future I'm happy to be living at this point in history at our ages we have seen the South change unbelievably and we are so so pleased with those changes all of us have a lot of work to do but there's work to be done and there are people to do the work and we are very happy to be a part of that I think in America We are Becoming uh more of a colorblind society and and I think it's correct to see the younger generation uh in in that regard you I've got a 10-year-old and and she's absolutely the most color blind person I've ever met in my life you know there she she doesn't even say black she says oh she's brown oh she's tan you know she's burnt sienna if my ancestors Could See Me Now and realize that whole struggle of almost 400 years of slavery and where we are today they probably say hallelujah and thank you Lord I have to say that uh it is one of the great honors of my life to be able to address this Gathering here today when President Obama came we had 500 men that set there in the rain dripping from the hats and everything and set strong to receive all of these degrees from engineering to political science to English to medicine and math nobody cares how tough your upbringing was nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination you have to remember that whatever you've gone through it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured and they overcame them and if they overcame them you can overcome them too and that's what I'm asking all of you to do keep setting an example for what it means to be a man things will never go back to be the same because we as a race we've come too far now to go back to that by I carried my grandson back to where I come from back to my hometown I carried him to all of the grave sites and all of those things cuz his grandparents are dead now I wanted him to know where he come from in terms of us and they can see where we come from and then where they can go because everything is in front of them nothing is fine [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]