The OTHER Nat Turner film controversy

[get these nets]

1967 Controversy · Revisiting Rebellion: Nat Turner in the American Imagination

 

[get these nets]

Oct 15, 1968
Summary
William H. Booth interviews historian John Henrik Clarke, Assistant Editor of Freedomways Magazine, regarding his recent book, "William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond."

In Professor Clarke's view, William Styron's Pulitzer-Prize winning book badly distorts the facts about Nat Turner, and he believes Styron perpetuates stereotypes of African-Americans.

Clarke says the Nat Turner revolt in Virginia set in motion other slave revolts and insurrections and should be viewed in a positive light because of that.

He argues that Styron is not a historian nor authority on Nat Turner and that he has read certain contemporary prejudices into the Nat Turner story. Styron's Turner, says Clarke, has no resemblance to the real Turner in historical context by making him a vacillating 'Uncle Tom.' Clarke adds that Styron reversed many things in the history. For example, he says, Turner's parents taught him to read, yet in the novel, his master teaches him to read. In history, says Clarke, Turner ran away while in the novel the protagonist chides other slaves for running away. Clarke also maintains that the historical documents show Turner had a black wife to whom he entrusted the secrets of the slave revolution. Clarke argues that because he trusted her, this must have been a good marriage, but that Turner obviously kept many things from his 'confession' strategically for fear his wife would have been harmed.

Booth: Critics have argued that Styron has exercised literary license in places because he was writing a novel, not a non-fiction text.

Clarke says Styron made the mistake of saying his novel was a "meditation on history." If that is the case, then 'he has ignored the facts.' In particular, Clarke says Styron has disregarded the work of Herbert Aptheker, "the finest historian of the black resistance movement during slavery." The two discuss the nature of history. History by the victors, and history by the oppressed.

A summary and comments on the various essays in Clarke's book are made and reference to Higgison's work on Nat Turner and Turner's wife. Clarke argues that Styron cannot accept Nat Turner as a hero because if he did, he would also have to accept Stokely Carmichael and H. Rap Brown as heroes.

Booth: Should whites only write about whites and blacks about blacks?

Clarke: No. But "generally there is a flavor they miss.even at their best."

Clarke says Styron has put up a weak defense of his work through 'literary license.' "In taking on Styron, we not only took on Styron the novelist but we took on the white literary establishment." Clarke argues that Styron has a literary ability, but in this novel, he bit off more than he could chew.

Dr. Alvin Pousaint's criticism of Styron is further discussed as well as other distorted literary works. In particular, many histories of the Reconstruction period. Clarke: "We knew about the heroics of Nat Turner when I was nine-years-old." A survey of African History by Clarke will be coming out to counteract misinformation about Africa.

 

[xoxodede]

I remember this issue.

I was really disappointed in Baldwin.

Letter to Baldwin​

John Henrik Clarke noted that James Baldwin was “one of the few Negro writers that has had a favorable view of William Styron’s book.” Baldwin declined to participate in the written response to the novel. Vincent Harding, who wrote an essay for the book, criticized the writer’s positive assessment of Styron’s novel: “It was Baldwin who praised his friend’s [Styron] work highly, Baldwin who saw himself in Styron’s Turner, and Baldwin who dared to say, “This is the beginning of our common history.”

Alex Haley, who had published The Autobiography of Malcolm X in 1965, was another African American admirer, who wrote to Styron, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen captured so succinctly what I, too, feel are the essences of our ethnic condition, and the true motivations of the social tragedies recently.”

In May 1968, as the controversy about the book and the prospective film was raging, Baldwin moderated a conversation on Pacifica Radio between Styron and actor Ossie Davis. The polemic lived on and in the summer issue of the quarterly Freedomways, published a few weeks after the conversation, Davis admonished Styron, “Tomorrow, a whole new world is coming right this way. And a man as constitutionally incapable of knowing a black man when you see one, as you seem to be, might just get run over!” Listen to the radio show here.

Letter from John Henrik Clarke to James Baldwin, November 22, 1967. John Henrik Clarke Collection. Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.​

Letter to Baldwin · 1967 Controversy · Revisiting Rebellion: Nat Turner in the American Imagination

 

[get these nets]

Yes, Baldwin was doing a serious tap dance with that one. Afraid of biting the hand that fed him, literally and figuratively. When I was younger and read the story of him defending Styron, I thought that they were a couple. Why else would he be living in Styron's home? I figured out later that Styron must have been some type of patron, so Baldwin doing what he felt he had to do.

 

[get these nets]

speaking of tap dancing.


I send PBS a complaint letter every 3 months, asking them to get rid of the finding your roots tv hosted by Gates. He was publicly exposed as a fraud and professional tap dancer and has no credibility.

 

[David_TheMan]

Not surprised a government agent and someone like Baldwin would support the white destorted depiction of Nat Turner.

 

[xoxodede]

speaking of tap dancing.


I send PBS a complaint letter every 3 months, asking them to get rid of the finding your roots tv hosted by Gates. He was publicly exposed as a fraud and professional tap dancer and has no credibility.

Definitely, he is still spreading the Black Confederate myth and that Black people owned slaves. He says that a lot on his shows - not explaining that most of them were mulatto and did not classify themselves as Black and weren't seen as Black.

I think I am going to do the same (write PBS) - but I doubt they will remove him.

 

[get these nets]

I send PBS a complaint letter every 3 months, asking them to get rid of the finding your roots tv hosted by Gates. He was publicly exposed as a fraud and professional tap dancer and has no credibility.

PBS Program Contacts | Contact Information | PBS About

I donated $25 one year during a pledge drive. You've got to throw your weight around when you're a big shot. (hehehe, just a joke)

 

[agpxknt]

 

[get these nets]

Thanks ,will watch full later. The image is reversed......which threw me off as he was reading the book.