Atlanta - The Wren's Nest, the ocher-colored home of Joel Chandler Harris, who was white, and his famous storyteller, Uncle Remus, has long been shunned by the black neighborhood that surrounds it. Harris' characters, including Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby, may have been based on African folktales, but their antiquated portrait of life in the Old South is not welcome by detractors, and many neighbors have not forgotten the Wren's Nest's history of keeping black people out of the house that Uncle Remus built.
Now, however, the Queen Anne-style house is undergoing an overhaul by its board of directors and Lain Shakespeare, 24, executive director and a descendant of Harris. They say their goal is to overcome the antipathy many people feel toward Harris.
"We're going to put our story out into the community," said Marshall Thomas, chairman of the Joel Chandler Harris Association.
Harris defenders like Thomas note that in many literary circles, Harris' writing is admired for its dialogue and as a contribution to American folklore.
"We would have lost these tales" if not for Harris, Thomas said, adding that he hoped to see the house refashioned one day as a center for Southern storytelling.
The house - on Georgia's list of endangered historic landmarks - is struggling financially, and with his staff of four people, Shakespeare wants to stabilize its $120,000 annual budget, increase fundraising and create partnerships with businesses in the West End and with Atlanta's schools. Shakespeare is also reviving the Wren's Nest Fest, a storytelling festival. It has created a literary magazine for high school students, and it maintains a wrensnestonline.com.
But some people would rather the tales of Uncle Remus, and the ebony Uncle Remus figurine stashed in the attic, stay where they are.
The association's bylaws stipulated that "100 white ladies" were to run the house, which was turned into a museum in 1913. A federal judge ordered the Wren's Nest integrated in 1968, a year after the Rev. Clyde Williams, who was black, sued the association after he was barred from entering. The bylaws were changed in 1973 to drop discriminatory language.
Still, hidden upstairs in a box is a sign that reads "No Integrated Classes Allowed." And though scholars contend that Harris was a proponent of racial parity, his critics argue that segregation and white paternalism were part of his agenda.
Tyrone Brooks, a state representative from Atlanta, said he saw "Song of the South," Disney's 1946 animated adaptation of the stories, when he was a teenager working with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He said the movie was used as an example of the indoctrination of white hatred of black people.
"There should be an appreciation of all that history because it tells you where we were, and how far we've come," said Brooks, president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials. "But it also tells you how far we have to go."
Poster Comment:
Wow, JCHarris is a famous author who wrote about Brer Rabbit. Who'd of ever thought that.