A GATHERING OF OLD MEN
Ernest Gaines
Books for Bigots
In my quest for appropriate BOOKS FOR BIGOTS, I have read A GATHERING OF OLD MEN. It's a simple book really and one which most any bigot will understand. Unfortunately, for the BIGOTS within the book, they were not allowed to lynch anyone for killing Beau who in the minds of many, deserved killing but was a white guy and hence, not killable by a black person.
Taking place in the heart of Louisiana Cajun country a black guy kills a white guy. This would normally result in a lynching which in this case was certainly a possibility. What saved the situation was that the brother of the deceased played football for LSU, was up for all-american and his partner in the backfield was a black guy who was as talented as Gil. Gil and Cal were known as Salt and Pepper by the adoring fans of Louisiana football. Obviously. a new phenomena in the Southeast Conference. Gil, the white guy and brother of Beau, would not agree to lynching the black guy claiming to have killed Beau. The question of whether or not it was based on some idea of proper behavior or on the fact that he would not be selected as all-american if it were to occur, especially if he were involved, was not answered.
I remember very well my years at SMU in Dallas in the 1960s with Hayden Frye the football coach. Hayden recruited the first black player in the Southwest Conference, Jerry Levias, who went on to have a successful professional career. Interestingly enough, Hayden was shortly thereafter fired. It is not often that a successful, very successful, football coach is fired. Makes you wonder, doesn't it.
Being from Iowa, having attended the University of Iowa on a couple of occasions both while Hayden was the football coach there, I am fully aware that Hayden was hired at Iowa and became one of the better football coaches in the history of that University. Hayden was known nationally and many of his assistants went on to become successful coaches themselves. So when I read A GATHERING OF OLD MEN and a major factor in the non-lynching of any of the old men gathered with their worn out old shotguns as old as themselves, was the fact that the brother of the deceased, told his family that if they lynched the black man responsible, he would not become all-american, the lynching did not occur. And besides the black football player who he relied on to block for him might not be so willing if he just came from a lynching a black guy the day before. It might not work out so well. They needed to beat Ole Miss.
The book acknowledged that things had changed; violence was no longer a requirement for BIGOTS; you could be a BIGOT without it. But the racial thing was still there and not to disappear. Any BIGOT reading this book, acknowledging the fact that most BIGOTS don't read, would find it disconcerting how BIGOTRY was somewhat ameliorated; it wasn't to disappear, but unfortunately black people were no longer being lynched.
The BIGOTS in the book were clearly nasty people. I think the author, Mr. Gaines, was somewhat too kind and has mischaracterized the human race by suggesting only nasty people are BIGOTS. It has been a fixture of American life that otherwise nice, well-behaved, and loving people are often BIGOTS and are not nice, well-behaved, and loving when it comes to people of different color. It is not always the Luke Wills of the world that are the BIGOTS and the author tends to be a little too forgiving; hopefully not simply for commercial reasons to make us white people feel better about ourselves and to buy the book.
So, in my quest for BOOKS FOR BIGOTS, A Gathering of Old Men, is a questionable choice. It is an easy read, but the old black guys gathering with their shotguns to confront a lynching party of white, drunk BIGOTS would lead one to believe that the typical BIGOT would find the book less than satisfactory.
Richard E H Phelps II
Mingo
