Launching Southbound

A 10th-generation Southerner exploring overlooked stories of the South and wrestling with how they affect us today.

At first pass, the word “southbound” communicates movement in a direction, pointing toward the part of America where I’ve lived my whole life. The South is a beautiful yet broken place where the way we remember the past takes center stage. It’s a place where cultural richness and deep tragedy live as neighbors, sometimes with high fences separating them, while at other times as if they are crammed into the same shotgun house. It’s also a place that’s frequently misunderstood or oversimplified—where its people are labeled in ways that deny their humanity.

So in another sense, I feel compelled—you might say bound—to explore stories of the South, many of which I never learned in my childhood. This involves wrestling with nuance, parsing out what’s true, and considering the implications today. Sometimes that looks like a visual retelling of stories I learn from visits around the South, like the overlooked final battle of the Civil War in Columbus or the misunderstood legacy of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry. Other times it looks like my quest to unravel an unsolved lynching in my North Georgia hometown, while others involve reflections on current political events, like when the President visited my hometown back in January.

Until we grapple with the full picture of our shared history and how it affects us now, the trajectory of the South, perhaps even the country, will remain limited—or bounded. My hope is that Southbound can play a role in unbinding that trajectory.

If you’re interested in joining me for this journey, subscribe below and consider sharing this page with your friends. Keep an eye out for 1-2 articles a month.

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Articles Published Elsewhere

Bowling with John C. Calhoun - A Deeper South - April 15, 2021

A trip to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice can start the dialogue about racial injustice - Daily Citizen News (Dalton, GA) - February 25, 2020

Articles on this Substack that were published prior to July 2021 originally appeared on my Medium page.