From the article “Birthplace of the Confederacy backs away from anniversary event” by Richard Fausset in the Los Angeles Times:

In 1961, Montgomery, Ala., went all out for the centennial of the swearing-in of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Three Southern governors attended, decked out in period costumes, along with the mayor, an outspoken segregationist. About 1,200 Montgomerians put on a secession-themed pageant every day for a week. Men around Alabama grew beards to 19th century lengths to mark the occasion. There was a beauty contest, parades attended by thousands and a “Confederate Drummer Boy” event for kids. But so far, this year’s festivities are generating scant buy-in from city and state officials, and relatively little buzz among locals. Mayor Todd Strange said he probably won’t attend. Randy George, president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t have the event on his to-do list. The office of Republican Gov. Robert Bentley - who, like Strange and George, is white - did not respond to a query on the matter. “I hadn’t even heard it was happening,” said Rhonda Campbell, 43, the manager of a payday loan business near the parade route, echoing many residents interviewed last week. The event is being organized by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the self-described “hereditary organization” for descendants of Confederate soldiers. Like other efforts by the group to mark the Civil War anniversary - December’s “Secession Ball” in Charleston, S.C.; a move to create a Mississippi license plate honoring Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate general and Klansman - it is likely to generate heat and headlines.

And yet Saturday’s event may also demonstrate the extent to which romantic notions of the “Lost Cause” have become less a defining trait and more a niche issue as the 21st century South prepares for years of sesquicentennial events. Thomas V. Strain Jr., a national board member of Sons of Confederate Veterans and march organizer, said some of that is to be expected: “It’s just not as easy to market three or four generations out,” he said. The era of institutionalized racism, Strain said, was “an awful time in our history.” He said he simply feels compelled to honor his many forebears who sacrificed for the Southern cause. He wasn’t out to hurt feelings, he said, but the Civil War is something the city can’t escape. In Montgomery, a city of 202,000 on the southern banks of the Alabama River, civic leaders are most focused these days on reviving the retail districts surrounding the capital’s dignified and imposing government buildings, and attracting more outside business like the $1.4-billion Hyundai plant that opened here in 2005, adding 2,700 jobs. But they too acknowledge that such goals are tangled up with Southern history. That past can feel ever present in downtown Montgomery. Just yards from the starting point of Saturday’s march is a marker on the spot where seamstress Rosa Parks boarded a bus in 1955 and sparked the famous bus boycott. Another marks the building where a telegram was sent April 11, 1861, to Charleston, authorizing the attack on Ft. Sumter, the first military action of the Civil War. A third marks the site of the old slave market, where a male field hand could be purchased in the 1850s for $1,500.

Like many Southern cities, Montgomery has acknowledged its racial problems and, in some cases, transformed them into tourist attractions. Recent years have seen the opening of a Civil Rights Memorial Center, a Rosa Parks Library and Museum, and the restored parsonage that was home to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The bus terminal where a group of black and white Freedom Riders were beaten by a white mob in 1961 – three months after the Davis centennial – is to become a museum. Chamber official Anna B. Buckalew rattled off these attractions proudly. But when asked to name new Confederate-themed attractions, she couldn’t think of one. “The Chamber’s mission is all about job creation,” she said. “We’re very in tune to getting any obstacles out of the way. It came out that lack of diversity, of inclusiveness, was an obstacle.” Still, state and local officials maintain that they aren’t shying away from Montgomery’s Confederate history. ”

Today, the vestiges of the Old South take their place in the visitors center, alongside brochures for the zoo and railroad museum. One pamphlet touts a “Civil War Trail,” with a photo of the “First White House of the Confederacy,” the modestly elegant home where Davis lived briefly before the capital was moved to Richmond, Va. A smaller pamphlet for the sesquicentennial directs tourists to a website for information on events in Tennessee, Georgia and elsewhere in Alabama. “I think that everybody’s just been busy in moving the state forward,” said state tourism director Lee Sentell. “The sesquicentennial just hasn’t gained a lot of traction.” The state has sanctioned a $60 memorial medallion with a bust of Davis and a few other souvenirs to mark the 150th anniversary. It is also sponsoring two plays with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival -one about conflicts over slavery within the family of secessionist William Lowndes Yancey, the other about a Union supporter in Montgomery who made the first Confederate flag.

For the complete article please see http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-confederate-sesquicentennial-20110219,0,5740615.story?page=1.

ASF presents two original Civil War plays
From the article ‘Drama follows family divided by Civil War” by Teri Greene in the Montgomery Advertiser:

William Baldwin, a Montgomery physician from a prominent family, is a staunch Unionist and abolitionist who freed his slaves even before there were rumblings of war. He is hit with a heartbreaking dilemma when his son, Buddie Willie, is persuaded to join the Confederacy by William Lowndes Yancey, a “fire-eater” who preached pro-slavery and secession — to great success — to the masses. The play is “Blood Divided” by Jeffry L. Chastang, which opened Sunday at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) in Montgomery and runs through March 20. It is one of a pair of Southern Writers’ Project (SWP) plays commissioned by ASF to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. The other play, “The Flag Maker of Market Street” by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder, opened Feb. 4 and runs through March 19. Like “Blood Divided,” its characters are real-life citizens of Montgomery during the Civil War era.

Both Civil War plays got their start after Lee Sentell of the Alabama Tourism Department came to the team at ASF in search of a unique way to mark the sesquicentennial of the Civil War in the state. But these wouldn’t be your typical historical overviews, “Blood Divided” director Nancy Rominger said. Instead, ASF Creative Artistic Director Geoffrey Sherman’s idea was to ask two playwrights to tell local Civil War stories from two different perspectives, said Rominger, who also is director of the SWP. Rominger said “Blood Divided” spotlights Montgomery’s enormous role in the conflict at the time. “A lot of people don’t understand that at this time, Montgomery was one of the most important cities in the nation –the eyes of the world were focused on Montgomery,” she said. “It’s the start of our history and, because of some technological advances, we have a lot of documentation — photography was brand new. There is a great wealth of documentation of this period.” And there is overlap between the two plays. Jack Koenig, who plays the Unionist Baldwin in “Blood Divided,” portrays store owner George Cowles, also a Unionist and the central figure of “The Flag Maker of Market Street.” Brian Wallace, outspoken Confederate Yancey in “Blood Divided,” is also Unionist William Bibb in “Flag Maker.” Bibb figures in to “Blood Divided” but is not a character in that play. In both plays, activities that take place in Court Square are central plot points.

In writing “Blood Divided,” which received an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award, Chastang, like Wilder, dug into archival material and crafted a drama centered on actual Montgomerians of the time who were deeply affected by the secession and the Confederacy, abolition and taking the Unionist stance. The playwrights scrutinized all the divisions these causes created, often among close friends and even family members. When it comes to wars throughout history, people often remember the big events, the military leaders, the major battles and the notable locations. Rominger said these two plays could open the eyes of those who have looked at the Civil War only through a broad scope. “That’s the problem when we look at these times in history,” Rominger said. “We forget that it’s people. It all comes down to ordinary people just trying to do what they believe is right. That’s one thing that I love about ‘Blood Divided’: Whether you agree with their choices or not, they are men who are really committed to trying to do what is right and what they think is best.”

For the complete article please see http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011102150305. For a complete schedule of performances and ticket information please see www.asf.net.

Posted: February 23rd, 2011 under Bed and Breakfast News.

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