The literature of the Negro in America is colossal, from political oratory through abolitionism to "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Cotton is King"--a vast mass of books which many men have read to the waste of good years (and I among them); but the only books that I have read a second time or ever care again to read in the whole list (most of them by tiresome and unbalanced "reformers") are "
Uncle Remus" and "Up from Slavery"; for these are the great literature of the subject.
Uncle Remus is the first non-national brand and business to enter into a direct, non-third-party agreement with Wal-Mart to open a franchise location in one of its stores, according to Wal-Mart, which points to the deal as evidence of its commitment to helping local businesses.
A lonely boy living on a southern plantation is entertained by elderly servant
Uncle Remus's enchanting tales of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear.
If alarm bells don't go off to you learn it's adapted from an Oprah recommended novel, the preponderance of oddballs with quaint names (did I forget to mention kindly black photographer Moses Whitecotten) that make
Uncle Remus sound like Tolstoy and a rambling plot that takes in alcoholism, tornado, child abuse, inheritance and, I kid you not, Christian kidnappers and retribution in the form of leg amputation by train, should seriously cause you to thing twice about viewing.
In the United States the adventures of the trickster hare Brer Rabbit were first given literary form in the late 19th century by Joel Chandler Harris in a series of tales told by a wise old black character called
Uncle Remus.
Like a character out of Faulkner, Shadrach strikes Paul Whitehurst as a combination of Stepin Fetchit and
Uncle Remus. Shad has returned to Virginia after an impossible journey undertaken in his half-blind, penniless condition.
The most memorable thing about the film was that James Baskett received a special award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his "
Uncle Remus" role.
Among other books of this year were
Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris, full of authentic black folklore in dialect; Dr.
Born in Illinois, Marquis worked in Atlanta on <IR> JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS </IR> 'S
Uncle Remus's Magazine, then became a columnist in New York for the Sun and the Tribune.
"Presidents may come andpresidents may go," Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed at a 1905 Atlanta banquet attended by Joel Chandler Harris, "but
Uncle Remus stays put." Roosevelt's tribute was eloquent testimony to the popularity at the turn of the century of the imaginary slave who, Harris tells us, had "nothing but pleasant memories of the discipline of slavery," who retained his loyal attachment to the old plantation long after the Civil War and who night after night entertained a little whie boy with tales from the old days.