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That reading stuff is--outtasight!
ROFL! That was a great show! Didn't they show reruns on the Noggin channel for a while?
Posted on 03/01/2005 11:55:14 AM PST by WKB
OSCAR nominee MORGAN FREEMAN has discovered why he loves his home state of Mississippi so much - it's less racist than most other places in America.
The actor grew up in racial segregation in the Delta region, which was once considered the heartland of American racism, but he insists he never felt oppression until he moved away.
And now he has fond memories of his childhood, despite the fact he wasn't allowed to attend certain clubs and had to sit on the balcony of his local cinema because only whites were allowed downstairs.
He says, "It can't bother you if that's the way life is. If you were raised up in Africa and you ate worms it wouldn't bother you, would it? Same thing.
"I wasn't thinking about rising up and going up to the Paramount and demanding to be let in to the ground floor. I just wanted to go to the movies."
Freeman admits he once dreamed of getting far away from Mississippi, but now he lives there and owns a blues bar and restaurant in Clarksdale.
He admits the state is still one of the most friendly places on earth, despite it's dubious reputation.
He adds, "I grew up in a segregated society that was purposely, obviously, openly segregated. I wasn't given any BS about anything else and I went up to the north and you see it and it's insidious... You want to think you're free-er but you're not."
Mr. Freeman said pretty much the same thing and I thought Lauer was going pass out.
Mine, too. One of the few books I have read that was turned into a great movie!
I think his attitude in that movie was "Look, I know this is a tacked-on PC role, but I'm a professional actor and I will turn in an A performance."
"In the 1860s, people in the North fought the Civil War to free the black man. In the 1960s, people in the North vacated their cities so they wouldn't have to live near him."
Oh yeah. IIRC he did the skit w/ Rita Moreno, where she'd play this annoyed, bossy director and he was the cue-card guy she always yelled at. That was one of my favorite skits as a kid.
I think it's Muddy, I read his biography a couple of years ago but I can't check in the book because it's buried behind three old tube amps I don't want to move!
This area is where some great guitar pickers were raised though...
Driving Miss Daisy reminded me of the era in which I grew up. I knew one local rich man who had a black chauffeur who remained his friend for life. But the strangest sight around town (more prevalent than black chauffeurs) was wealthy white women who picked up their black maids and servants to go to work and take them home again. It was not socially acceptable in a segregated society for a black woman to ride beside a white woman. Therefore, the black lady would be seen sitting in the backseat of the Cadillac or Lincoln, driven around town by her white employer. I thought it was hilarious and illustrated some of the absurdities imposed by segregation.
Red Barber sportscaster, Columbus
Lance Bass singer, Laurel
Theodore Bilbo public official, Poplarville
Jimmy Buffett singer, songwriter, Pascagoula
Craig Claiborne columnist, restaurant critic, Sunflower
Bo Diddley guitarist, McCombs
Charles Evers civil rights leader, Decatur
Medgar Evers civil rights leader, Decatur
Brett Farve football, Kiln
William Cuthbert Faulkner author, New Albany
Shelby Foote historian, Greenville
Richard Ford author, Jackson
Barry Hannah author, Clinton
Elizabeth Lee Hazen inventor,
Beth Henley playwright, actress, Jackson
Jim Henson puppeteer, Greenville
Faith Hill singer, Jackson
James Earl Jones entertainer, Arkabutla
Simbi Khali actress, Jackson
B. B. King guitarist, Itta Bena
Willie Morris writer, Jackson
Brandy Norwood singer,actress, McComb
Walter Payton football player, Columbia
Elvis Presley singer, actor, Tupelo
Charley Pride country singer, Sledge
Leontyne Price soprano, Laurel
William Raspberry columnist, Oklaona
Jerry Rice football player, Starkville
LeAnn Rimes country music, Jackson
William Grant Still composer, Woodville
Conway Twitty country music, Friars Point
Sela Ward actress, Meridian
Muddy Waters singer, guitarist, Rolling Fork
Eudora Welty author, Jackson
Tennessee Williams playwright, Columbus
Oprah Winfrey talk-show host, Kosciusko
Richard Wright author, Natchez
Tammy Wynette country music star, Tupelo
...and Morgan Freeman
"One of my favorites..."
Mine, too.
He's talking about the Missippy I grew up in.
There was segregation, to be sure.
And, that had to change.
But, folks were friendly and courteous to one another.
When I go home, I can feel the difference when I arrive
at the gate to fly to Jackson.
Folks of both races visit as though they are old friends.
He is always watchable, and has always struck me as a mensch
The "well-meaning" libs, on the other hand, would have their protests and op-eds...and would then sign petitions keeping black provate schools from their Cambridge neighborhoods.
The working classes have to learn to live together; acceptance often comes without thinking about it. But libs who live in their precious all-white communities think their fear of non-whites is actually some weird form of respect. They're the most insidious ones, I think, that Freemen referenced.
Sounds like a tax exile to me. Can't blame him.
see dixiechick2000's tagline in #70
I love Morgan Freeman. He has a great voice. Makes me feel at home. Makes me wanna go home to Mississippi. I also love to hear James Earl Jones' voice.
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That reading stuff is--outtasight!
ROFL! That was a great show! Didn't they show reruns on the Noggin channel for a while?
01/03/2005 - 12:20:41 Movie star Morgan Freeman has accused his fellow African-Americans of supporting hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, by refusing to join his battle to remove the Confederate battle flag in the corner of the ensign of his home state of Mississippi.
Movie star Morgan Freeman has accused his fellow African-Americans of supporting hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, by refusing to join his battle to remove the Confederate battle flag in the corner of the ensign of his home state of Mississippi.
The Driving Miss Daisy star fought lawmakers in 2001 to change the "slave flag's" design but his efforts were in vain - locals voted to keep the ensign just the way it is.
Freeman complains: "The flag, the stars and bars, has personal resonance to me because to me it doesn't represent so much the south as a very negative mind-set that is not necessarily southern.
"You see that flag wherever you see skinheads, radical right wingers, neo-Nazis, any hate group."
He adds: "It's pitiful. They still feel that they do not have a say.
“That's why they don't do it. That's the apathy part of it... It's too bad. Maybe now I'll go and join the Ku Klux Klan."
Homestate ping!
The majority of black voters in Ms voted to keep the flag.
There was much less racial tension in Birmingham than the Northern cities.
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