SOUTHERN HISTORY THE RIGHT WAY

A New Southern History Flag For The South?

History is like a cat. Once it’s out of the bag, it won’t back.

Andrew Jackson won’t fit under anyone’s hat and if he did you’d probably have a lot less hair.

The uproar over the Confederate battle flag throws the South for a loop, but not as much as everyone else.

The American South knows more about southern history than those who read books and speculate about interpreted history.

The South isn’t some stagnant museum full of artifacts from a time gone by. It’s a living, breathing, cooking and eating region that gets slammed when bad people rip parts of southern history to fit their agenda.

Southerners both black and white embrace southern history every day, the good and the bad.

Bad people only know one way.

If Mississippi is the birthplace of American music, it was a hard delivery.

The Blues weren’t created by people with nothing better to do.

They came from gut wrenching working conditions in inhumane heat.

Drive through the South and you’ll have a day where you think, “Lord, this is a hard land populated by tough people who stay for generations. Could I stay here?”

Once you start feeling the cycle of days and nights you have your answer. Then you can sing your song.

You can feel as beautiful in Mississippi as you do in Alabama, but Alabama wants you to know you’re prettier there.

The Gulf Coast is one of the wonder of America. As part of the Redneck Riviera you’ll find more beauty than you expect.

You don’t need the Stars and Bars to feel good in Alabama, just a good understanding of where you are.

It ain’t Kansas, but it is somewhere that asks you to mind your manners no matter where you’re from.

Once you cross the Florida border you might as well turn around.

Florida might be in the geographic south, but too many people from elsewhere change it into something less than southern.

It might embrace its southerness, but not as much as Mississippi and Alabama.

Florida might embrace its cultural differences, but Louisiana has already got it covered.

Up in Baton Rouge you’ll find the LSU Rural Life Museum.

Below as some dolls from a museum exhibit showing aspects of daily life.

The world class British Museum, a great institution that sent scouts out to collect the material world before it was ground into gravel the way ISIS does, call Rural Life one of the top ten outdoor museums in the world.

From inside exhibits to outdoor buildings, the hardship of rural southern life during slavery gets harder.

Below is an example of slave housing. Throw a few mattresses on the floor for a good night’s sleep after laboring in the fields all day.

There’s nothing extra, nothing comforting. Work. Sleep. Repeat.

Southern history says this is the way it was. Be ready for your guts to churn at the conditions.

I asked one of the museum people if anyone had ever tried burning the out building down.

“Why would they? It’s a shared history. We don’t try to cover it up. Slavery was a way of life, and this museum portrays life as it was lived.”

Not everyone lived the same life, however.

The manager, or overseer, lived in the housing shown below.

A little more furniture. Finished walls. A table.

Most of all it even looks like a house instead of a barn.

Over time we’ve learned about differences and similarities between the races. That’s what museums are supposed to do.

LSU Rural Life Museum shows hard truths. Not everyone can handle the truth.

Using symbols to ignite hatred is a foolish use of material. Hate is the poison that stupidity drinks by the gallon.

The world is full of symbols cherished by one group, trashed by another.

No one pretends we all live in harmony today, but seeing an outdoor museum supported by black and white students of the south shows southern history at its best.

You don’t have to like it, but you do have an American obligation to do better.

On the way out, Uncle Jack stands his ground.