‘The natural habitat of the North Carolina Babbitt’

“Industrial progress in North Carolina is primarily of the Piedmont. Cotton and tobacco factories dot this section, and from it comes most of the new noise.

“The Piedmont is the natural habitat of the North Carolina Babbitt. Over it the boosters swarm.

“But from the point of view of charm, the Piedmont is the state’s most barren region. It is loud-mouthed and bustling, and only too much like a displaced section of the Middle West. Its aim is to become indistinguishable from Michigan. God willing, that high aspiration will probably be achieved within the next 10 years.”

— From “North Carolina” by Raleigh newspaperwoman  Nell Battle Lewis in the American Mercury (May 1926)

 

History book wars: The more things change….

“North Carolina last week was upset because its fifth-grade pupils were learning State history out of a book (“North Carolina Yesterday & Today” by Jule B. Warren) which declared that:

” ‘ — Congress elected George Washington… President.’ (The electors, not Congress, did so.)

” — Joseph Martin had fought in the Mexican War in 1848…  and died in 1786.)

”  — Charles McDowell was a hero of the Battle of King’s Mountain in 1780… and was buried in 1775.)

“These were among more than 200 errors of fact turned up by a white-haired, peppery schoolteacher named Nell Battle Lewis, who writes a column in the Raleigh News and Observer.

“In North Carolina [textbooks] are picked by the State Board of Education, which consists of the Governor and State officers.

“Four months ago Clyde R. Hoey and fellow board members adopted the Warren book, rejecting a more scholarly work by Professors A. R. Newsome and Hugh T. Lefler, of the University of North Carolina, and recommended by the State Textbook Commission (educators).

“Nell Lewis had raised such a furor that Governor J. Melville Broughton (who succeeded Hoey Jan. 1) hurried home from a vacation in Mexico City and ordered that the Warren books be recalled for corrections. He also asked Revenue Commissioner A. J. Maxwell to analyze the rejected Newsome-Lefler book. Maxwell, a Hoeyite, explained everything:

” ‘The Newsome-Lefler history continues to harp on the conservatives of the Democratic Party… and intimates that both Governor Ehringhaus and Governor Hoey owed their election to fraud. Such an implication… is entirely out of place in a proposed history for the fifth grade.’ ”

“Last week Authors Newsome & Lefler said in a letter to the Governor: ‘No one can deny the accuracy of the statement that… “many citizens demanded laws to make clean and honest elections more certain.” ‘ ”

– From Time magazine, April 28, 1941

North Carolina last week was upset because its fifth-grade pupils were learning State history out of a book (North Carolina Yesterday & Today by Jule B. Warren) which declared that:

> “Congress elected George Washington . . . President.” (The electors, not Congress, did so.)

> Tarheel Joseph Martin had fought in the Mexican War in 1848 and trained Confederate troops in the Civil War. (The book also states he died in 1786.)

> Tarheel Charles McDowell was a hero of the Battle of King’s Mountain in 1780. (On page 306, the book says he was buried in 1775.) These were among more than 200 errors of fact turned up by a white-haired, peppery schoolteacher named Nell Battle Lewis, who writes a column in the Raleigh News and Observer. Miss Lewis described the whole thing as A POLITICAL STINK.

Most U.S. schoolbooks are chosen by the schools that use them, but eleven States have boards which adopt books for the elementary schools of the whole State, a system well liked by politicians. In North Carolina they are picked by the State Board of Education, which consists of the Governor and State officers.

Four months ago Clyde R. Hoey, then Governor, and fellow board members adopted the Warren book, rejecting a more scholarly work written by Professors A. R. Newsome and Hugh T. Lefler, of the University of North Carolina, and recommended by the State Textbook Commi sion (educators).

Nell Lewis’ campaign had raised such a furor that Governor J. Melville Broughton (who succeeded Hoey Jan. 1) hurried home from a vacation in Mexico City and ordered that the Warren books, already in use by 90,000 fifth-graders, be recalled at the end of the school term for corrections. He also asked Revenue Commissioner A. J. Maxwell to analyze the rejected Newsome-Lefler book. Maxwell, a Hoeyite, explained everything:

“The Newsome-Lefler history continues to harp on the conservatives of the Democratic Party down to and including the administration of Governor Hoey and plainly intimates that both Governor Ehringhaus and Governor Hoey owed their election to election frauds. Such an implication . . . is entirely out of place in a proposed history for the fifth grade. . . .”

Last week Authors Newsome & Lefler said in a letter to the Governor: “No one can deny the accuracy of the statement that . . . ‘many citizens demanded laws to make clean and honest elections more certain.’ ”

//
// Click here to find out more!

//

Get 4 Free Preview Issues!
StateAAAEAKALAPARASAZCACOCTDCDEFLGAGUHIIAIDILINKSKYLAMAMDMEMIMNMOMSMTNCNDNENHNJNMNVNYOHOKORPAPRRISCSDTNTXUTVAVIVTWAWIWVWY

Quotes of the Day »

LIU DEZHENG, a rescue headquarters spokesman, on more than 100 Chinese miners pulled out alive Monday after being trapped for more than a week in a flooded coal mine

For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.

Stay Connected with TIME.com

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,765522,00.html#ixzz0kEmgHyxp

Now THAT was a mea culpa!

“When I was completely taken in by the Communist agitation at Gastonia in 1929, there wasn’t a bigger jackass or a more gullible sap in the State of North Carolina than I was. I knew absolutely nothing about what I was talking about, as I whooped it up continually in this column in support of the murderous Gastonia defendants. My experience in the bloody Gastonia business is THE thing of all  others which has done most to make me distrust so-called ‘liberalism,’  which so often, like mine was then, is not only ignorant and neurotic, but very dangerous.”

— Nell Battle Lewis’s “Incidentally” column in the News & Observer of Raleigh, Dec. 16, 1951 (as quoted in “Battling Nell: The Life of Southern Journalist Cornelia Battle Lewis, 1893-1956” by Alexander S. Leidholdt [2009]).

When Lewis died, N&O editor Jonathan Daniels, who had served simultaneously as her patron and her archvillain, wrote that “Nell Battle Lewis made for herself a name that will be long remembered in North Carolina.”

Through no lack of effort on her part, it hasn’t turned out that way. Leidholdt’s thoughtful and thorough biography, which details Lewis’s transitions from “most versatile” graduate at St. Mary’s School to daring advocate of the underclass to hard-line segregationist, has gone virtually unnoticed. (Hat tips to exceptions Ben Steelman of the Wilmington Star-News  [http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20091114/ARTICLES/911139982?Title=Book-review-Biography-looks-at-a-homegrown-N-C-reformer] and Charles Wheeler of the Greensboro News & Record [http://www.news-record.com/blog/63640/entry/76748].)