![]() But what that means is not in fact easily described in political terms. The South is conservative in the sense of conservation. Some of you will make fun of your grandmother’s sofas covered in plastic, but how else would we find those living room suites, pronounced “suits,” in pristine order long after the furniture man, diligently paid once a month, and his son, too, was dead and gone? The caramel set, scroll-edged and brocade satin, has not a tattered thread on it, since 1964. Holding on is a commonplace of people without a great deal of luxury, for whom disaster is a commonplace. I was selected to speak for the people of Birmingham in our declaration of love for Angela Davis, a defiant reaction to this humiliation, a beautiful and thick love from a socially conservative but deeply self-protective Black community. She had recently been awarded a human rights award by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and then had it rescinded for her leftist politics. In February of 2019, I was called back to Alabama to interview Angela Davis, another daughter of Birmingham. ![]() I went back to Birmingham four times in 2019. ’00, will join Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences in July. ![]() ![]() Excerpted from Imani Perry’s “South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation,” winner of a 2022 National Book Award. ![]()
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