{"id":83254,"date":"2019-03-29T18:12:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T23:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/?p=83254"},"modified":"2019-03-29T18:19:29","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T23:19:29","slug":"joseph-crespino-expert-on-atticus-finch-and-harper-lee-to-give-22nd-annual-sammy-o-cranford-memorial-history-lecture-at-delta-state-university-on-april-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2019\/03\/joseph-crespino-expert-on-atticus-finch-and-harper-lee-to-give-22nd-annual-sammy-o-cranford-memorial-history-lecture-at-delta-state-university-on-april-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Joseph Crespino, Expert on Atticus Finch and Harper Lee, to Give 22nd Annual Sammy O. Cranford Memorial History Lecture at Delta State on April 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emory University historian Joseph Crespino, author of the acclaimed Atticus Finch: The Biography\u2014Harper Lee, Her Father, and the Making of an American Icon<\/em>, will speak about what The New York Times Book Review<\/em> calls a \u201ccrisp, illuminating examination\u201d of the literary and cinematic figure at the 22nd<\/sup> annual Sammy O. Cranford Memorial History Lecture on Thursday, April 11 at 7 PM in Jobe Hall Auditorium on the campus of Delta State University. Crespino\u2019s talk, \u201cAtticus Finch and American History,\u201d is based on this 2018 volume (Basic Books), which USA Today<\/em> praised as \u201clucid, accomplished,\u201d and \u201ceminently readable.\u201d The lecture is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

In his Delta State address, Crespino will explore the development of Atticus Finch. Book lovers and movie buffs revere the character as depicted in Harper Lee\u2019s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>, which won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize, and in the movie version, which earned Gregory Peck an Academy Award for best actor in 1963. Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer, is thoughtful, noble, brave, and progressive as he saves an innocent black man from a white lynch mob in small-town Alabama. Atticus Finch\u2019s daughter, who goes by Scout, narrates the saga, which occurs when she\u2019s a little girl. Atticus Finch returns in Lee\u2019s controversial Go Set a Watchman<\/em> from 2015; in this rendition, he shifts from uniformly virtuous to humanly flawed\u2014even segregationist\u2014as Scout, now a young woman, flashes back to her childhood again. Crespino explores how Lee\u2019s father, A. C. Lee\u2014a newspaper editor, lawyer, and politician in Monroeville, Ala.\u2014served as the inspiration for Atticus Finch.<\/p>\n

\u201cAtticus Finch is one of the most beloved characters in American literature, a touchstone of tolerance and decency.\u00a0Since the publication of Harper Lee\u2019s long-lost apprentice novel, Go Set a Watchman<\/em>\u2014which depicted the character in a much more negative light\u2014there\u2019s been great confusion over who Lee intended Atticus Finch to be,\u201d Crespino explained in an email. \u201cIn my talk, I use the history of the Lee family, as well as the broader history of the massive resistance-era South, when Harper Lee was writing her two novels, to solve this puzzle, and consider Harper Lee\u2019s literary legacy for Americans today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where fact ends and fiction begins is \u201ccomplicated,\u201d continued Crespino, department chair and Jimmy Carter Professor of history at Emory. \u201cThe novel\u2019s message about the importance of decency, tolerance, and understanding across racial lines is timeless,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut the novel is dated in many respects, and needs to be considered in light of the America that we live in today.\u201d<\/p>\n

That struck a chord with Charles Westmoreland, associate professor of history and interim chair of the Division of Social Sciences and History at Delta State.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe Crespino is a testament to how historians can engage the broader public in the 21st<\/sup> century. He makes his case through thorough research and accessible writing,\u201d said Westmoreland. \u201cHis willingness to speak with a wider audience about vital issues of race, politics, the law, history, and memory makes Crespino a terrific person to deliver the 2019 Cranford Lecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura Kate Fortner, \u201918, B.A. in history, and pursuing a master of arts in liberal studies, history concentration, at Delta State, agreed. \u201cThe idea of Atticus Finch existing gives hope that not all white Southerners were racist bigots during the Jim Crow era. However, this idea of Atticus Finch also makes it seem like white Southerners were either completely for or against Jim Crow laws. Dr. Crespino\u2019s work gives understanding to the fact that most white Southerners fell somewhere in between. Atticus Finch: The Biography<\/em> is a huge step toward better understanding the complexity found in the Jim Crow South.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crespino earned a B.A. in American culture from Northwestern University, an M.Ed. in secondary school education from University of Mississippi, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University. His other books include Strom Thurmond\u2019s America<\/em> (Hill & Wang, 2012), winner of the Deep South Book Prize, among others, and In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution<\/em> (Princeton University Press, 2007), winner of several Mississippi awards. In 1996, Crespino received a S.T.A.R. Teacher Award from the Mississippi Economic Council for his work at Gentry High School in Indianola.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joseph Crespino<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI grew up in a small Southern town a lot like the one Harper Lee grew up in,\u201d Crespino, a native of Macon, Miss., observed. \u201cI\u2019ve been fascinated for a long time with the enduring influence this book has in American political culture, and, in this talk, I use my expertise as a historian to shed new light on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cranford Lecture is named for Dr. Sammy Orren Cranford, longtime history professor and archivist at Delta State. \u201cSammy Cranford was also dedicated to making history alive, fresh, and relevant,\u201d Westmoreland said. \u201cHis creation of the university archives has allowed DSU to make available a wealth of materials related to the region\u2019s history and culture. Something tells me that Sammy Cranford would be extremely proud that a native Mississippian will be coming back home to give a lecture in his honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some previous Cranford lecturers include John Marzalek (Mississippi State), 1998; Nan Woodruff (Penn State), 2003; David Sansing (University of Mississippi), 2004; Elbert Hilliard (Mississippi Department of Archives and History), 2007; Chris Myers Asch (Colby College), 2010; George Rable (University of Alabama), 2012; Jeannie Whayne (University of Arkansas), 2013; and Aram Goudsouzian (University of Memphis), 2016.<\/p>\n

The Cranford Lecture is sponsored by the Delta State Division of Social Sciences and History and is supported by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council and by DSU\u2019s Quality Enhancement Plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emory University historian Joseph Crespino, author of the acclaimed Atticus Finch: The Biography\u2014Harper Lee, Her Father, and the Making of an American Icon, will speak about what The New York…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":566,"featured_media":83256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-college-of-arts-and-sciences","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83259,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83254\/revisions\/83259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}