Saving a Remnant

Nothing is more indicative of the ongoing degradation of American  culture than the fate of the once noble Commonwealth of Virginia—not long ago widely admired as the mother of States and Presidents—inseparable from Patrick Henry, Washington, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Lee and Jackson.

Now shallow, opportunistic politicians ignorant of American foundations swarm in every Southern State. In Virginia they have gained unusual power from the effluvium of arrogant, overpaid bureaucrats swarming out of D.C. into their mini mansions poisoning the beautiful Virginia countryside. Monument Avenue, a National Historic Preservation site, has been destroyed.

So it behooves us to remember how  Virginia was once regarded, and the movies, as always, are an indication of American popular culture.   The most recent good example I can find is a delightful 2004 film, “Crazy Like a Fox,” in which a traditional community resorts to unorthodox methods to prevent Yankee developers from destroying a historic plantation, home to the same family since Revolutionary times. The dishonest invaders are appropriately called Sherman. The Welsh actor Roger Rees plays the lead Virginian with perfect accent and demeanour.

Brits and Aussies do good Southern accents when required in the movies. Yankees never get it right. Even some Southerners who have been in Hollywood too long mess up.

For an even better example, “The Vanishing Virginia,” 1942, with many of the top stars of the time.  It is set in 1913.  The film begins with a tribute to Virginia, indicating that it is “a better place to live.”  It treats family adjustment to “modern” times, including a little bit of reasonable feminism, gently and sympathetically.

The there is “The Virginian” (1941) with Fred MacMurray as “Stonewall Jackson Elliott,” who, as in “Crazy Like a Fox,” foils a cynical Yankee takeover.  And he converts the new New York owner,  played by the great English actress Madeleine Carroll, to help defeat the cynical Yankee capitalists.

These are real communities with good real people, black and white.  Racial relations are portrayed as familial and mutually supporting and the black Southerners  are admirable. That is not the whole story of Southern race relations by any means, but there are a few of us old enough to remember that it was once real.

Even as late as 2014 we have a pretty good Virginia entry, Wish You Well, in which  plain folk save their land from bad mining corporations. And it is realistic about the chronic Southern poverty and the occasional bad man to be found in the South, like everywhere else.

Anyone who is interested could find a similar story to tell about nearly every other Southern State. Kentucky was as honoured in film as Virginia. Remember North Carolina in the “Andy Griffith Show”?   Won’t some more folks tell this tale for their commonwealth? You would be striking a blow against the hateful lies with which Southern people are now portrayed in the media.

Clyde Wilson

Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina where he was the editor of the multivolume The Papers of John C. Calhoun. He is the M.E. Bradford Distinguished Chair at the Abbeville Institute. He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews and is co-publisher of www.shotwellpublishing.com, a source  for unreconstructed Southern books.

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