Margaret
Mitchell and Mark Twain are two authors who are often discussed in the context
of racism in literature. Gone With the
Wind and The Adventures of Huck Finn are
two of the most frequently banned books across the U.S.
But
while debate rages in school boards across the country, it’s interesting to
note that in their personal lives Mitchell and Twain were quite generous to aspiring
black professional students. Over a number of years Mitchell secretly funded dozens
of African American medical students at Morehouse college and elsewhere,
helping to lift up a class of black professionals in the segregated South.
And
while Twain’s philanthropy centered on one student in particular, it may have
had an even more powerful impact on society. Warner T. McGuinn, the man whose
room and board Twain paid at Yale Law School, graduated #1 in his class and
went on to become a force in the early civil rights movement in Maryland and a mentor to
Thurgood Marshall. In a letter to the dean of the law school, Twain explained his reasoning for supporting McGuinn:
“I do not believe I would very cheerfully help a white student who would ask for the benevolence of a stranger, but I do not feel so about the other color. We have ground the manhood out of them, and the shame is ours, not theirs, and we should pay for it.”
Interesting, no?
