The Black Swan
In celebration of Black History Month, I salute Elizabeth Greenfield (1819-1876), a Mississippi slave whose golden voice was her ticket to freedom. Born on a Natchez, Mississippi, plantation, Elizabeth was taken as an infant to Philadelphia by her owner, Holliday Greenfield. After joining the Society of Friends (Quakers), Mrs. Greenfield freed and adopted her charge. As Elizabeth grew up and showed a natural flair for singing, she astonished Mrs. Greenfield with the power and range of her voice and her self-taught skills on the guitar. Recognizing a remarkable talent, Mrs. Greenfield sought formal training, but could find no Philadelphia voice coach willing to jeopardize his professional reputation with a student of color, even at three times the going rate of...
Read MoreThe Heart of Darkness
As we enter the final year of the Civil War sesquicentennial, debate continues over whether or not slavery was the primary cause of the conflict. Was the North fighting to free the slaves or to preserve the Union? Would the South really go to war over slavery with only 1.5% of the population owning slaves or was it fighting for state’s rights? An equally important question is why educated, deeply religious men and women allowed this heinous institution to thrive on our shores, justified it from the pulpit and crippled half a fledgling nation. There’s no shortage of material on the subject, but since its history is often skewed by revisionists, an unvarnished look is in order. Nearly as old as mankind, slavery flourished in almost every ancient civilization. It...
Read MoreOne-Man Show
Seventy-five years ago today, the film version of Gone with the Wind premiered in Atlanta. It remains one of the most beloved classics in American cinema and holds the number six spot on the American Film Institute (AFI) list of 100 Greatest American Films. Cast, crew and history concur that the daunting task of transforming book-to-film would have been impossible without the passion and drive of one man, producer David O. Selznick. Flying in the face of naysayers insisting costume epics were passé and that civil war movies always lost money, Selznick Studios paid $50,000 for the screen rights to Margaret Mitchell’s phenomenally successful bestseller only a month after publication. The book, not incidentally, was first entitled Tomorrow Is Another Day and had a...
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