"To Defeat Memory"

"He asked artists to do their thing somewhat simultaneously. He quickly sketched out a layout with the audience surrounding the performers and created the timing for the participants. They were not told what to do, just where and when.
"The poet Charles Olson read, probably on a ladder. Cage delivered a lecture he had written earlier for Juilliard. Cunningham improvised a dance. Avant-garde virtuoso David Tudor played something or other on the piano. Robert Rauschenberg, who had been a student of Albers, hung his white paintings and maybe a black one. There were projections of film and a painting by Franz Kline overhead.
"This is widely credited as having been the first Happening and the inciter of performance art. "

Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times looks at John Cage's time at Black Mountain College.

"Everyone Has Encouraged Us That What We're Finding Is Really Exciting and Terribly Significant"

"'We need to know more,' said Eric Klingelhofer, a vice president for research at the foundation and a history professor at Mercer University in Macon, Ga. 'This whole story is a blank—a blank page, a blank chapter of history, and I think archaeology is the only way to come up with answers.'"


Theo Emery in The New York Times reports on the discovery of possible artifacts from the lost colonists of Roanoke.

"What You Need to Do to Be a College Sports Fan These Days: Adopt the Mentality of a 7-Year-Old"

"The people who defend the status quo in college sports have always maintained that the student-athletes do get something in return for their on-the-field labors: a free education. Opponents of the status quo, like myself, have often countered that a lot of those student-athletes realistically aren't able to take advantage of that educational opportunity, because, in playing their sports, they're essentially working full-time jobs. But I don't think many of us imagined that the system was as corrupt as it was at UNC—where student-athletes, by being steered into these courses, were basically being defrauded."


Jason Zengerle in The New Republic reacts to the scandal at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

"It Had Patches on It Like a Hand-Me-Down"

"White made the map and other drawings when he travelled to Roanoke Island in 1585 on an expedition commanded by Sir Ralph Lane. In 1587, a second colony of 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by White. He left the island for England for more supplies but couldn't return again until 1590 because of the war between England and Spain.
"When he came back, the colony was gone. White knew the majority had planned to move '50 miles into the marine,' as he wrote, referring to the mainland. The only clue he found about the fate of the other two dozen was the word 'CROATOAN' carved into a post, leading historians to believe they moved south to live with American Indians on what's now Hatteras Island."

The Telegraph reports on an old map that may provide a clue to the fate of the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

"The Real Third Rail of Politics"

"So far, there has been no official response from the Perry campaign, and that doesn't bode well for his electoral prospects. Just ask Rufus Edmisten, who ran for governor of North Carolina in 1984. Late in the campaign, after eating barbecue at rallies three times a day for almost a year, he broke down at a public feed in Raleigh. 'We haven't had any of the damnable barbecue,' he proclaimed. 'I've eaten enough barbecue. I am not going to eat any more!' The quote ran in local newspapers, and Edmisten lost by almost 200,000 votes.
"When asked to comment on Perry's chance to recover from his similar gaffe, Edmisten told the Raleigh News & Observer: 'He's had it. He's done. He's beef toast.'"

Robert F. Moss in the Los Angeles Times writes about the politics of barbecue.

"The Shock Troops of the Civil Rights Movement"

"What seems remarkable in retrospect is the factual authority of network news in those days. Dixie’s politicians, of course, accused the national anchors of bias. But the pictures trumped the home-cooked propaganda, as when you put a spittle-spraying Southern governor up against a Greensboro Four leader like Franklin McCain, in his earnest Sunday clothes, offering a cogent critique of Woolworth’s Southern business strategy as it related to black shoppers nationwide. It took only one national telecast of Nashville students being assaulted at the lunch counters to demonstrate that segregation everywhere depended on the unconstitutional application of police brutality."

In The New York Times, Howell Raines marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins.

The Courage to Risk Everything for What She Believes Is Right

"After months trying to organize co-workers, Ms. Sutton was fired. When the police, summoned by the management, came to take her away, she made one last act of defiance.
"'I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word "union" on it in big letters, got up on my worktable, and slowly turned it around,' she said in the interview. 'The workers started cutting their machines off and giving me the victory sign. All of a sudden the plant was very quiet.'"

Dennis Hevesi in The New York Times writes an obit for Crystal Lee Sutton, the inspiration for Norma Rae.

Free at Last

"At 12, he rushed to help a blind white woman cross the street in Tulsa, until she commanded him to take his 'filthy hands off her' after realizing he was black. As a college student, he gave a $20 dollar bill to a streetcar worker and asked for change, prompting the man to hurl a racial slur and count out $19.85 in dimes and nickels. As a young scholar, Franklin toiled on his research at the state archives in Raleigh, where he was confined to a tiny room across from the whites-only research room.
"Franklin would not be deterred."

Jane Stancill in Raleigh, North Carolina's The News & Observer reports the death of historian John Hope Franklin.

Peter Applebome in The New York Times writes an appreciation.

Dead Right

Steven A. Holmes in The New York Times writes an obit for segregationist former senator Jesse Helms.