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editor’s note
Waiting. Tis the season: waiting for parties, waiting for Santa, waiting for bowl games, waiting for Longleaf! Now that you’re holding Longleaf in your hand, you need wait no longer for multiple versions of this issue’s theme — “Transformation.” Each story brings a realization that some of the things we take for granted have evolved from quite different origins. You will find that much of our food and plant life took human imagination to grow into what we have today. But the transformation has happened in a partnership between people and such pesky Photo by Beca Eiland critters as bees! They may sting, but Pat Kettles shows how bees are crucial to our challenges the viewer to use the artist’s eye to food supply. From Hayes Jackson’s story on look at the land around us. the Southern favorite Camellia, we can see Finally, as Longleaf continues to examine the remarkable transformation resulting from critical issues in our society, we come to an creative hybridizing. important moment in 20th century history: More on our insect friends comes from our defending the defensless among us. Most first editor, Geni Certain, who has sheperded readers will recall Harper Lee’s book and butterflies into the world from their protective the subsequent movie To Kill a Mockingbird. coverings! She wrote about the Monarch Though Atticus Finch was not a public butterfly migration in the second issue of defender, he took on the case for no charge Longleaf; now it seems that butterflies find a because he believed in the right of all those home with her! Geni is not only a writer and who face trial to a competent defense. This butterfly Mom — she is a gifted photographer, principle was the basis of the seminal Supreme as you can see on our cover and in her story. Court ruling on this subject: Gideon v. Changing gears, we welcome a new writer Wainwright. We include in our special section to Longleaf. Lee Roop brings us the story of an explanation of this decision by H. Brandt the transformation of Huntsville from small Ayers, a story by Tim Lockette about the town to the thriving metropolis of today. organization Gideon’s Promise, which trains This is a very different kind of change caused public defenders from around the country, and entirely by people and their creation of NASA. as a bonus, a terrific piece of fiction by our Skipping around again, the fascinating friend Beth Duke. story of the painter Georgia O’Keeffe and the So I hope you find that the waiting was photographer Alfred Stieglitz is told by our worthwhile, and that “Transformation” takes favorite art critic, Mary Eloise H. Leake. you into a blessed and prosperous New Year And we have the privilege of bringing with more amusing and thought-provoking the first look at local artist Pat Potter’s stories to come! remarkable work in imagining a new dimension in Alabama’s terrain between the Little River Canyon and Mount Cheaha. The beautiful photography is by an equally beautiful Frenchwoman, Claire Boscher who collaborated with Pat on this project. Called “Isomorphic Maps,” Pat’s newest work
Volume 8, No. 4 Winter 2013 Longleaf Style Josephine E. Ayers, Editor-in-Chief Deirdre Long, Managing Editor Patrick Stokesberry, Art Director Kristy Farmer, Editorial Assistant Dennis Dunn, Circulation Director Kim Kirk, Administrative Assistant Graphics Designers Heather Anthony, Benita Duff, Les Johnson Contributing Writers H. Brandt Ayers Geni Certain Beth Duke Hayes Jackson Pat Kettles Mary Eloise H. Leake Tim Lockette Lee Roop Contributing Photographers Geni Certain Claire Boscher Ingemar Kenyatta Smith Consolidated Publishing Co. H. Brandt Ayers, Chairman and Publisher P.A. Sanguinetti, President Robert Jackson, VP for Operations & Sales Scott Calhoun, VP for Finance Longleaf Style is a quarterly publication of the Consolidated Publishing Company 4305 McClellan Boulevard Anniston, AL 36206 Address correspondence to: Longleaf Style P.O. Box 189 Anniston, AL 36202 Editorial queries: (256) 235-3555 Advertising: (256) 235-9222 www.longleafstyle.com Copyright 2013 The Consolidated Publishing Company Printed in USA. All rights reserved. Follow us on Facebook
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2013 Winter Longleaf Style 3
Table of Contents 8
Hail To The Queen! By Hayes Jackson A man with 300 Camellias in his garden must be an expert in this seductive winter beauty.
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What’s Love Got To Do With It?
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A Bug’s Life
26
NASA
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Imagination Changes Everything
By Pat Kettles Bees may “do it” (according to Cole Porter) but their relationship with plants is just a practical matter that has given sustenance to humans since ancient times. By Geni Certain The long journey from a crawling thing to a flighty butterfly proves to be worth waiting for!
By Lee Roop How Huntsville was transformed from a sleepy small town to the thriving center of development in science and technology.
Longleaf readers get the first look at artist Pat Potter’s vision of the terrain from Little River Canyon to Mount Cheaha.
Georgia O’Keeffe: Transformation Artist
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By Mary Eloise H. Leake Intrigued by the power of visual imagery, Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic images are everywhere. Her partnership with Alfred Steiglitz, the greatest photographer of his day, took them both to the pinnacle of artistry.
Special Section Transforming The Defenseless: Three Perspectives
Gideon V. Wainwright
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By H. Brandt Ayers The story behind a historic moment in U.S. legal history.
Gideon’s Promise
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By Tim Lockette Supporting the lawyers who speak for the defenseless.
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The Defense Needs To Rest
50
Fiction by Beth Duke This defense attorney persists in denying the stress of the job he has to do.
On The Cover: Geni Certain 4 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
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beCurious
Gideon’s Trumpet
The Garden of Invention Jane S. Smith This is an exuberant account of Luther Burbank’s life and impact on agriculture in the U.S. Scientist, businessman and dedicated plantsman, Burbank had a profound influence on the development of food in the U.S. His work in hybridizing the lowly potato into a blight-resistant food was the first step in creating methods of farming that led to mass production of food crops. The book sets Burbank alongside some of the great inventors of the early 20th century, including Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwell Like most of Malcolm Gladwell’s work, this book is an adventure in detail made accessible. Gladwell’s writing is so lively that it’s impossible to resist. He uses the story of David and Goliah to anchor a clever primer on using available resources to achieve victory over a superior opponent. His references are impeccable and his prose lively; Gladwell is unquestionably a writer for the 21st century.
A movie which tells the story of Clarence Earl Gideon is mostly remembered for the stunning performance by Henry Fonda in the lead road. The fight waged by Gideon led to the seminal decision by the U.S. Supreme Court which changed the landscape for indigent defendants. This is a must-watch for those who haven’t seen it and for those whose memory about this time may have faded.
Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz So many books with so many illustrations it’s hard to choose one. These two both reflected and influenced an outpouring of inventiveness in art. Many of these books are expensive and/or out of print, but make a visit your local library to enjoy the singular beauty of their work.
Find “beCurious” books and movies at Books-a-Million or Amazon.com. 6 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
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THE CAMELLIA the Queen of the Winter Garden Photos and Story by Hayes Jackson
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Camellias have always drawn the attention of gardeners and non-gardeners alike with their luxuriant flowers, glossy evergreen foliage and untimely season of bloom. The numerous cultivars are elegantly named and often bear resemblance to small cabbages with the numerous ruffled petals of pink, red and white. The floral display brings opulent flashes of color to any winter landscape that offers them gentle weather. The change of seasons from the fiery days of summer to the cooler, clear days of autumn give the signal for the camellia to begin its botanical show when so many other plants appear tired and weary. The camellia has long been a staple of the gardens of the deep South. The common camellia (Camellia japonica) is known simply as a “japonica� to those who have immersed themselves into the realm of all things camellia. There are local shows sponsored by camellia clubs where perfect blooms are displayed in colorful arrays and regional and national clubs provide information and resources to all those addicted to this lovely iconic flower of southern gardens. I did mention it is the Alabama state flower, right? Camellias grace the capitol grounds in Montgomery, dazzle visitors to the Gulf Coast and grace gardens in the far northern reaches of the Tennessee Valley. The camellia’s humble beginnings are tied to a simpler form native to the forests of Southeast Asia. The native camellia in its mountainous haunts is a beautiful, stately tree that survives for decades or centuries. The single flowers are a pure red and adorn the branches during the cool winter days. On Fragrant Pink 2013 Winter Longleaf Style 9
Lemon Glow
Mathotiana 10 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
The camellia has long been a staple of the gardens of the deep South. The common camellia (Camellia japonica) is known simply as a “japonica” to those who have totally immersed themselves into the realm of all things camellia. occasion, a tree bearing white or pinkish blooms can be found growing amongst the vivid red. The aberrant color forms were the catalyst that transformed the wild camellia into a frenzy of diversity in color and form. The original botanical interest was not that of the common Camellia (Camellia japonica), but the plant that is the source of a worldwide quenching beverage, the tea camellia (Camellia sinensis). The tea camellia has been grown for thousands of years for the tiny new growth that is laboriously picked and dried in various methods. The story is that the Chinese wanted to keep a monopoly on tea culture from visiting westerners and baited visitors with the highly ornamental common camellia instead. The common camellia ultimately appeared in Europe as early as the 17th century and popularity soared. Tea plantations have never taken hold in the United States, despite a few attempts in Southern cities such as Savannah and Charleston. The labor to harvest tea leaves is intensive and costly. Southerners have remained focused on the ornamental garden variety with the fanciful flower forms that are structurally described as double, formal double, rose, anemone
and peony form. The surreal amount of petals erupting from a single flower bud is breathtakingly beautiful. The idea that these wonderful camellia flower variations have been developed from simple, five-petaled single blooms is an amazing attribute of plant selection and breeding by those drawn to the beauty and form of the flower. The common camellia was first introduced from England as a greenhouse plant in the harsher climates of the northern part of our country in the late 1700s. Southerners soon took command and delegated the few various flowering forms or cultivars to the gardens and landscape. Popularity of the camellia waned during the Civil War era, but soon returned to new heights in the early 20th century as new varieties were introduced and developed. Camellia fanciers worldwide began to showcase their newest creations in varietal forms that still occupy both public and private gardens today. The resurgence of camellia popularity in the recent decades can be attributed to the several factors that have made this garden gem even more appealing. The introduction of more cold-hardy selections has encouraged those beyond the typical
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camellia belt. Hardier forms such as Korean Fire, with its intense single red blooms, hails from the far northern reaches of the native habitat in a much colder climate. Hardy hybrids with icy winter-themed names such as Snow Flurry or Winter’s Waterlily, have transformed cooler zones into successful camellia venues. Renewed interest in heirloom and antique varieties such as the commonly seen Mathotiana, or the more elusive Ella Drayton, have provided camellia growers with tried-andtrue selections that adorned early antebellum gardens and survived the vagaries of drought, winter chill and neglect. While there are literally thousands of camellia varieties available, locating specific or rare varieties often entails a search including specialty nurseries such as Nuccio’s Nursery in Altadena, California, or Camellia Forest in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where offerings include page after page of neatly organized lists according to particular flower characteristics. The quest for new forms and colors is an exciting area in the camellia world. There are weeping and cascading forms like Marge Miller, (Camellia sasanqua), a fall blooming species that has seen a huge popularity surge. Other
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sasanqua varieties like Autumn Sentinel have been developed to grow in upright columns for tight spaces, and dwarf forms like Tanya for containers and planters. We have Bobby Green of Green Nurseries in Fairhope, Alabama, to thank for so many unique camellia introductions. Many of Bobby’s camellias can be found at local nurseries, especially during fall and spring when the plants are in bloom. The most exciting realm of camellia breeding is the introduction of exciting new colors such as yellow, purple and blue. The true golden yellow camellias are subtropical species with smaller, less attractive blooms. Camellia breeders are looking to cross these species with hardier, larger-blooming varieties to achieve a suitable and attractive yellow camellia for Southern gardens. While some hardy yellow camellias like Lemon Glow are available, the color is more creamy-yellow and not the golden or buttery yellow camellia fanciers yearn to attain. The purple and blue camellias are a real eye catcher in my Anniston garden. Grape Soda produces mid-winter blooms that vary from true lavender blue to mahogany purple. Camellia sasanqua Green’s Blues and Sparkling Burgundy produce a bluish purple flower when the soil pH is at least
The quest for new forms and colors is an exciting area in the camellia world. There are weeping and cascading forms like Marge Miller (Camellia sasanqua), a fall blooming species that has seen a huge popularity surge.
5.0 or lower. Camellias prefer acidic soil, but the bluish tones seem to be exacerbated by the lower pH readings. Many camellias will take on a purple cast with the coolest weather. Roosevelt Blues is a unique variety I spotted many years ago at an Albany, Georgia, camellia show and the intense bluish purple color was outstanding. Upon visiting a local nursery, the gardener can be deluged with a buffet of varieties to include in the landscape plan. My advice is that no Southern garden should be without a planting of these beautiful flowering shrubs. The choices can be overwhelming. The camellia has been transformed from the simple wild species with independent attributes such as color, flower size, bloom time and fragrance to a hybridized flower that can described as bodacious and gaudy. Yes, there are fragrant camellias too! The aroma tends to be sweet and airy. Fragrant Pink subtly perfumes my garden on warm late winter afternoons. Summer blooming camellias will soon be tempting
camellia fanciers. A newly introduced species from China, Camellia azalea, will offer an extended bloom period despite camellias already blooming eight to nine months of the year in our Southern gardens. My problem is that I adore all the simple camellia species as well as the complex and elaborate hybrids and cultivars that have made the camellia one of the most popular flowering shrubs around the globe. My crowded garden is home to around 300 camellias. I cannot seem to turn down any new-found camellia that strikes my fancy. I feel fortunate and damned that the queen of the winter landscape is so well suited to my Southern garden. Hayes Jackson is Urban Regional Extension Agent for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System and a founding cultivator at the Longleaf Botanical Gardens. He has traveled the world in pursuit of exotic plants and nurtures hundreds of them in his home garden.
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14 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
What’s love got to do with it? By Pat Kettles
“Birds do it, bees do it...” So go the lyrics to an old standard by Cole Porter. The “do it,” according to Porter, is falling in love. But in the words of the more recent songstress, Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?” When it comes to bees and plants and the ancient symbiotic role they play in the survival of mankind, love does not enter the equation. Bees and flowers appeared on Earth around a hundred million years ago. Early in their evolutionary cycle honeybees became vegetarians, developing a taste for nectar and pollen essential for the bee’s survival. In this process the honeybee evolved into a creature with the ability to transform nectar into honey, but more importantly, and not to be underestimated, is their crosspollination services assuring survival of crops that feed mankind. Honeybees are thought to have originated in Asia or Africa. The Egyptians were likely the first civilization to practice beekeeping. Jars with honey residue have been found in the tombs of pharaohs. Honey and the bee appear as potent symbols in Greek mythology, the Koran, the Bible and other religious texts. Honeybee behavior is little changed since the species appeared on Earth. The manse is ruled by a queen surrounded by female worker bees that build hives, care for the young and gather pollen and nectar — and in the process cross-pollinate various plant species. Field worker bees gather nectar, storing it in their nectar stomachs until returning to the hive, where it is transferred to hive worker bees who swish it around in their stomachs, transforming it into raw honey to store in comb cells for future use. All the while the queen lolls around munching
bonbons. The queen’s only mission is to lay eggs and dine on the best food while disseminating pheromones that inhibit other hive females from reproducing. The male drones, a sorry lot, have no function other than to laze around dining on the largess of the worker bees while waiting to mate with new queens. Man may think he domesticated the honeybee. Ancient man discovered smoke rendered honeybees docile, making honey harvesting less dangerous, but the hive was an organized working entity before man appeared. Michael Pollan, in his book, The Botany of Desire, hypothesizes man is merely a voyeur in domesticated honey production. The deal for honey is not struck between bee and man but rather it is a coevolutionary bargain struck between the bee for food and the plant for transportation of its genes to ensure propagation of the plant species. Modern-day beekeeping did not come into fruition until the 18th century. Specimens of indigenous ancient bees have been found in North America, but the honeybee, Apis mellifera, was brought to America by the pilgrims. With so much riding on industrious honeybees, understandably their disappearance in some areas is cause for alarm. Colony Collapse Disorder is the name given to the phenomenon where worker bees inexplicably abandon the hive. Maybe the worker bees just get fed up with their lazy queen and those sorry drones. More likely modern man with his pesticides is culpable. Environmental and education entities are studying colony collapse in hopes of stemming the phenomenon. The loss of honey would be a giant blow to mankind, but the breach of the coevolutionary contract between bees and plants for pollination services would be catastrophic. Pat Kettles has confirmed her status as Longleaf’s most dedicated researcher.
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Emerging from the
Chrysalis Photos and Story by Geni Certain
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My daughter’s first encounter with a caterpillar ended badly for the caterpillar. She was 3. We’d planted some lettuce seeds in a flower pot, and one day we found a green inchworm had chewed up all our seedlings. She dispatched it with the sole of her sandal. I tried to conceal my horror. “Why did you do that?” I asked, hoping I kept my voice even. “Because it ate our plants,” she said, explaining the obvious with a show of patience. At that time, all I knew about butterflies was what I retained from ninth-grade biology class. I recognized this inchworm as a caterpillar, but I didn’t know whether it was a butterfly or a moth. Since that long-ago class, I had not given any thought to butterflies and the miraculous life cycle that transforms them from wormshape to angel-shape. But in this moment, something changed, for good and forever. I would teach this child to respect the life in all the creatures she met. She would step on no more caterpillars. The lessons were casual, offered as opportunities occurred. One that I particularly remember was a few months later, during a visit to my parents’ home in New Hope. On my way to my father’s vegetable garden, I noticed that a patch of damp soil had attracted hundreds of the bright yellow butterflies I later came to know as Cloudless Sulphurs. I pointed them out to my daughter as we approached and asked her what they were. “Flowers?” she guessed. “Let’s pick some for Granny,” I suggested, and stopped where I was so she could enter the patch alone. As she took her first step into the circle of yellow, all the butterflies rose in a cloud around her. Her gasp of surprise blossomed into peals of laughter. “You knew they were butterflies!” she happily accused. As I continued to the garden, my daughter wandered a little distance away, intent on something she’d picked up from the ground. I found her sitting on a bench, carefully wiping the tattered wings of an aged butterfly. She’d found it in a puddle, its wings wet and covered with what she thought was mud. By the time I reached her and she had told me what she was doing, she had wiped the wings completely clean. Tiger Swallowtail
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Black Swallowtail
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Again I found myself measuring my words. I lifted her into my lap and explained that a butterfly’s wings are covered in tiny scales that — I thought, wrongly — enabled it to fly. She started to cry and I guess I cried a little, too. We tried to think of something positive we could do for the dying butterfly, and finally she lifted it gently to a flower and left it there. That experience might have turned her away from butterflies, but later that summer, or maybe it was the next summer, she found a clutch of caterpillars in the yard at her daycare and brought them home in a cup. I had no idea how to care for them, but it was suddenly important that I figure it out. I put them in a shallow bowl with a lid to keep them in and a paper towel in the bottom to catch any waste they produced. I didn’t know what they might eat, but I thought they were probably tent caterpillars, so I tried leaves from trees and various weeds in the backyard. The caterpillars ignored everything except the leaves of a pesky weed, greater plantain. And after a few days, they wrapped themselves in those same leaves and began their metamorphosis into Virgin Tiger moths. Over the next two weeks, my daughter lost interest in the apparently unchanging cocoons, but when the moths began emerging, she delighted in releasing them. Sometimes she’d
F C
invite friends over to witness the ceremony. She’d point her index finger into the bowl and let a moth climb on board. Then she’d hold her hand high and watch the beautiful pink and black and cream-striped moth lightly take to the air, as her friends oohed and aahed.
I don’t know how much of an impression these preschool lessons made on my daughter. She did develop sincere compassion, but not a particular interest in Lepidoptera. My interest, however, flourished. First, I planted a Buddleia bush, a shrub guaranteed to entice butterflies into my yard. It attracted all the butterflies that I recognized, Tiger Swallowtails, Monarchs and Cloudless Sulphurs, and, to my delight, it brought me species I had never seen before. I bought a book, the first of many, to help me learn their names, imagining that my “butterfly bush” was attracting
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Gulf Fritillary 20 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
species unknown to the area. When brilliant orange Gulf Fritillaries showed up, I thought my Buddleia had lured them all the way from the Gulf of Mexico. That fantasy faded as I read about the butterflies’ ranges and habitats. Instead of dreaming about attracting exotic species, I began concentrating on growing host plants, those that caterpillars eat. Herbs I once grew for the table became primarily butterfly food, and I sought out trees and vines that are the only foods for some caterpillars. A troublesome slope that refused to grow grass became my first designated butterfly garden, filled with milkweeds, lantana, coneflowers, sunflowers, zinnias — the nectar-filled blossoms that butterflies like best. Before long, I began seeing eggs on some of the host plants. I cautiously collected a few and brought them inside. After a few days, I had tiny caterpillars. In a week, they increased their size several times over. Toward the end of the second week, they made chrysalises, each following the pattern peculiar to its species. And after about two weeks in the chrysalis, butterflies emerged, bearing no resemblance whatever to the caterpillars I had lovingly fed. The first time it happened, I was afraid. Afraid I had done something wrong, that the butterflies would not be healthy,
that they’d have been damaged somehow by captivity. They were fine — more than fine — they were spectacular. And the exhilaration of seeing a butterfly lift off my finger and zoom to a treetop was immediately addictive.
I began collecting lots of eggs. Online friends described rearing species I had never seen, and I envied them. But soon I learned to find the eggs of three of the butterflies that were common in my garden: Monarchs on milkweed, Black Swallowtails on parsley and fennel, and Gulf Fritillaries on maypop vines. These I could reliably identify and rear through to adulthood; so reliably, in fact that it became a problem to know when to stop.
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Black Swallowtail
Gulf Fritillary 22 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
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Inevitably, the host plants play out before the last generation of caterpillars is through eating. Early fall finds me scouring plant nurseries for their last overgrown pots of herbs and some forgotten milkweed. I’ve never had any caterpillars starve, but every year I heave a great sigh of relief when the last one starts its pupation ritual. I’ll admit, sometimes the butterflies have taken control of my life. I have packed up containers of caterpillars and carted them to the beach and back. Once when I ran out of milkweed, I delivered 25 Monarch caterpillars to a friend in Elberta, six hours away. I have released butterflies over the length of the state because they were in my car when their Each Office Is Independently Owned time came. I have given chrysalises to co-workers, college professors and most recently, Susan Brewer’s students at Munford Elementary School. Last winter, the Munford students took over babysitting some of my Black Swallowtail chrysalises while I traveled for a couple of months. This summer, just after school started, they got caterpillars. They sat with incredible patience on the gym floor and endured yet another slideshow on the Black Swallowtail life cycle, stealing glances at the fat caterpillars chewing on fennel next to the podium. When I finally stopped talking and asked, “Who wants to play with the caterpillars,” every hand shot up. By that time, I was satisfied that these kids already knew how to handle the soft-bodied larvae and that they would pay attention to my instructions. “Don’t pick up a caterpillar between your thumb and finger. Put your hand in front of it and let it crawl on.” “Best decision I ever Soon every student had a caterpillar crawling over a made! Wish I was able hand, up an arm, across the front of a shirt. No child was to do it sooner.” squeamish. No child was vicious. Every child was curious. — Tom, 29 Every child was compassionate. No caterpillars got stepped “Best decision I ever on that day. made! Wish I was able Three weeks later, Mrs. Brewer let me know that the first to do it sooner.” butterfly from this group had emerged from its chrysalis. — Tom, 29 I am happy to be teaching kids about butterflies again, and now I know a lot more. Still, the students always uncover gaps in my knowledge. “That baby caterpillar looks like it has barbs — why don’t the older ones have them?” Whether you’re considering clear aligners, retainers or today’s braces, an orthodontist “Do butterflies sleep in their chrysalises?” is the smart choice. Orthodontists are specialists in straightening teeth and aligning “Which butterfly lives the longest?” your bite. They have two to three years of education beyond dental school. So they’re experts at helping you get a great smile - that feels great, too. I’ll have to do a little research before my next visit to the Whether you’re considering clear aligners, retainers or today’s braces, school. Whether you’re considering clear aligners, retainers or today’s braces, an orthodontist is the smart choice. are specialists in Dr. JayOrthodontists Walker been a Specialist an orthodontist is thehas smart choice. OrthodontistsinareOrthodontics specialists in in Anniston and Gadsden Looking back over all these years of little biologystraightening teeth and aligningsince your1984, bite.teeth They two tobite. three years following his dad’s footsteps, is years certified by the American Board straightening andhave aligning your They have two and to three of education beyond dental they’re experts education beyond dental school. So they’re experts at So helping you at helping of Orthodontists. He school. is northeast Alabama’s mostyouexperienced Invisalign Provider, lessons, I wonder who reaped the greatest benefit: ofthe get a great smile – that feels great, too. beginning get a great smile – that feels great, too. shortly after the company’s founding in 2000, and has treated over 500 butterflies, the kids or me? Invisalign patients. So it makes sense to seek his opinion as to whether Invisalign is
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Geni Certain was the first editor of Longleaf and wrote about the migration of Monarchs in the second issue. Most of the time, she and her husband live in Munford, though Mexico is always on their travel agenda.
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REACHING FOR THE STARS How one German scientist transformed Huntsville into the Rocket City By Lee Roop
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The cliché in North Alabama is that Huntsville was “a nice little cotton town” before the German scientists arrived after World War II and built a moon rocket — and a modern metropolis — in the 25 miles between the banks of the Tennessee River and the Tennessee state line. In this case, the cliché is true. Huntsville numbered about 13,000 people at the close of World War II, and it has a population of 180,000 today. The metropolitan area boasts 300,000 people, and the city has America’s second-largest research park. Almost 40 percent of the population has a college degree, and per capita income is among the highest in the South. But can you really credit Wernher von Braun and NASA with what modern Huntsville has become? Absolutely, say many who saw the transformation. It’s true that the Defense Department was here at the beginning and is the city’s largest employer today, but NASA was the reason for critical decisions that still fuel the city’s growth and, less tangibly, NASA was modern Huntsville’s “brand.” That brand is something Huntsville trades on even today starting with the official motto of the Chamber of Commerce: “The Sky Is Not The Limit.” The main outlines of Huntsville’s story are wellknown. The Army was looking for a secure place for its “good” German scientists to pursue their post-World War II weapons-related rocket work, and decided on an Alabama base where the Army Ordnance Department had just founded a center for rocket research and development at a mothballed munitions factory known as Redstone Arsenal. The Germans liked the green mountains surrounding the city far better than the dry plains of Ft. Bliss, Texas, where they had been housed in barracks, and Alabama’s powerful congressional delegation was able to make the transfer happen. Von Braun and his team worked for the Army in Alabama during the early days of the space age, but Washington decided to split America’s military and civilian space programs by forming NASA. When the Marshall Space Flight Center opened in 1960, the agency quickly became a national job magnet for engineers and technicians and a regional draw for carpenters, welders and other tradesmen. And when President John F. Kennedy opened America’s checkbook to race the Soviet Union to the moon, jobs were suddenly everywhere.
German rocket expert Wernher von Braun is shown at the Pentagon in Washington on August 4, 1955, with a model of the U.S. Army’s Corporal guided missile. Von Braun has been working at the Army Ballistic Missile Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama. (AP photo)
Saturn V Rocket
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Dr. Wernher von Braun, left, briefs President John Kennedy, center, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson at the assembly plant of the huge Saturn rocket on Sept. 11, 1962 at Huntsville, Alabama. (AP Photo)
Rocket Park, which was established in 1960 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. (Library of Congress)
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Fine, but how did that moon race lead to the Huntsville of today? Some think it began with one decision by von Braun. “He convinced (NASA) Headquarters that big contracts should be awarded out of Huntsville,” Ed Buckbee told The Huntsville Times in 2012. “That was a big change.” Buckbee, one of von Braun’s first public relations officers, was talking about the early days of the moon race. The rocket that got men to the moon, the Saturn V, was designed and tested by von Braun’s team in an ocean of federal money, and if you wanted to sell to NASA, you came to Huntsville. “He told the companies, ‘I want you to have a presence here,’” Buckbee said. “It will be much more efficient if you are here. That was the beginning of the research park, and it’s something he should be credited with.” Von Braun didn’t just say it. He went with local leaders to the West Coast and persuaded Lockheed Martin to buy one of the first parcels of land in the city’s new 3,600-acre Cummings Research Park. “Wernher opened more doors out there than we could open in six years,”
Von Braun was brilliant, handsome and media savvy. He was close to men like Walt Disney and Walter Cronkite, he had the trust of Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and he remembered workers’ names and their families. When he spoke, people listened. community leader Will Halsey told the Associated Press in 1992. “He could sell ice to the Eskimos, I guess.” And so they came: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Electric, Raytheon and dozens more. Local companies grew up with names like Brown Engineering, now Teledyne Brown Engineering, and when the space program dipped after Apollo, engineers started their own companies, including blue-chippers with names like Intergraph, SCI Systems and ADTRAN. The Army never stopped working in missiles, of course, and Cummings Research Park is now a 4,000-acre research and technology campus for both aerospace and defense, just across Interstate 565 from the Marshall Space Flight Center. Today, 285 companies are located in the park, and 25,000 workers report for work there each day. Von Braun was brilliant, handsome and media savvy. He was close to men like Walt Disney and Walter Cronkite, he had the trust of Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and he remembered workers’ names and their families. When he spoke, people listened. Some of those people were in the Alabama Legislature, and when von Braun said Huntsville needed a technical school where his engineers could pursue advanced courses and degrees, the result was an extension campus that grew into the University of Alabama in Huntsville. A top engineering school today with an emphasis on rocketry, UA Huntsville attracts students from around the world. Part of the attraction is the chance to do co-op work for NASA at Marshall. But the Germans’ influence on Huntsville didn’t stop with economics and technology. Like many Germans then and now, they were cultured as well as competent. And what they didn’t find when they got to Huntsville, they helped to create. One of those men, Heinz Hilten, just died in 2013 at the age of 103, and his story is typical. Hilten was von Braun’s architect. He designed the buildings where the Germans, and later NASA employees, worked and tested their inventions. In his personal time, Hilten played the piano and violin. His gatherings with fellow Germans and other musicians in the 1950s led to the founding of the Huntsville orchestra in 1960. Today, it is one of the city’s most popular arts organizations with an ambitious classical and pops schedule. The Germans and the educated people who followed them to the city helped get theater groups, ballet companies, an art museum and dozens of other arts organizations up and running. Many
of those organizations perform today in the city’s Von Braun Center. “These people were activists,” ADTRAN President Mark Smith told the Associated Press in 2003. They just didn’t sit back and demand from the government or from others. They got together and organized things.” Today, Huntsville is trying to add on to its economic house with new initiatives in biotechnology, cyber-security and unmanned aerial vehicles. It is revitalizing its downtown area, and people are beginning to move back into older neighborhoods once sidelined by the rush to the suburbs. The culture, the growing restaurant and music scene, and the nearby mountains and lakes have made the city a regional destination. But if all of that is true, the No. 1 tourist attraction in Huntsville — and Alabama — remains the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and its Space Camp. Both of those were von Braun’s ideas, too. And visitors arriving from the west today see a full-sized Saturn V replica standing upright beside Interstate 565 and a real Saturn V on display in a glass-fronted building right beside it. One wonders occasionally what the Army thinks about all of this attention to a civilian space program that fights for its financial life in Washington on a regular basis, employs far fewer people and has far less economic impact today than the major missile and aviation programs the Army has located in Huntsville. But the suspicion is that letting the little brother take the spotlight is fine with the Army, much of whose work in Huntsville is top secret. They call the arsenal complex Team Redstone now, and NASA is just one proud member of family that includes numerous Army commands and centers, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Huntsville will always be the city that built the moon rocket and the city the moon rocket built. The first is an accomplishment that some say will be one of the few events remembered in 1,000 years. The second is obvious to anyone who takes a closer look. When they needed a name for the city’s AA baseball team, for example, Huntsville’s team wasn’t called the Rockets, Aviators or Defenders, as proud as the city is of its warfighters. The team was called the Stars. Lee Roop covers NASA and biotechnology for Alabama Media Group, including al.com and The Huntsville Times.
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Ed. Note: Artist Pat Potter’s current project challenges the viewer to see the ordinary in extraordinary detail. Using found objects laden with symbolism and with accompanying photographs, she creates a path of discovery of the complexities of the world around us. The Artist’s voice: “Transformation is a daily part of life in my studio. Ideas, tools and materials are in abundance and are in constant motion. I have
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always loved maps and making connections between things; this current project, Isomorphic Map Tables, is an attempt to discover the connections underlying solid territory. “From my window I can see Mount Cheaha, the highest point in Alabama. One hundred miles up the road is the beautiful Little River Canyon. The table featured here expresses the hidden dimensions of both, the connections between the seen and the unseen.”
IMAGINATION
Changes Everything By Patricia Boinest Potter Featuring photos by Claire Boscher
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Static pieces within the construction capture constant movement
Pat Potter is an Anniston artist who has studied across the world, from Jacksonville State University to the Rhode Island School of Design to the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland. Her Isomorphic Map Tables are scheduled to go on exhibit in January 2015 at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. You can see more of her work at www.patriciaboinestpotter.com.
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Claire Boscher is a student in graphic design and art direction in Paris. You can see more of her work at cargocollective.com/ claireboscher.
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The Skeleton of the Movement
Shadows lead the viewer to see complexity in the tinest bits 34 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
“Water carves down through earth, making the invisible visible, exposing the movement of time. “I think of how a line of water first makes a wet mark on rock; pulled by gravity it follows the contour of the surface. Then carves a line, a canyon that defines the dimension of time.”
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Look through the glass and see the smallest made large
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Shadows magnify the mysteries of the world around us 2013 Winter Longleaf Style 37
By Mary Eloise H. Leake
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Georgia O’Keeffe, THE EARLY YEARS By Mary Eloise H. Leake
Any checklist of outstanding American artist couples would begin with Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Each had a significant influence on 20thcentury American modernism — she as a sketch artist and painter, and he as a photographer, writer, gallery owner and champion of contemporary art. The unlikely duo came from totally different backgrounds. She was born in 1887 on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and he was born in Hoboken, N.J., in 1864. O’Keeffe studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, New York’s Art Students League, the University of Virginia and New York’s Teachers College, Columbia University. Stieglitz’s education in Germany as a mechanical engineer exposed him to photography, which became his lifelong passion. Before they met, O’Keeffe experienced what many consider her first major artistic epiphany far from her birthplace and even farther from the American Southwest that was to become integral to her work. The year was 1915, and she became the art instructor at Columbia College, a small Methodist school for women in Columbia, S.C. “It’s clear that when she was there, she decided to chart a new path,” says Barbara Buhler Lynes, the former curator of the O’Keeffe Museum and co-author of “Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonne.” Though O’Keeffe taught there only about six months, Lynes characterizes the period as her most “self-defining.” In her 1976 autobiography, O’Keeffe noted the
significance of her brief time in the deep South. “It was in the fall of 1915 that I first had the idea that what I had been taught was of little value to me except for the use of my materials as a language — charcoal, pencil, pen and ink, watercolor, pastel and oil,” she wrote. “But what to say with them? I had been taught to work like others and after careful thinking I decided that I wasn’t going to spend my life doing what had already been done.” So she stacked all the canvases, brushes and paints in her dorm closet and shut the door on conventional art. Then — using only charcoal on sketch paper — she began to draw the things she saw in her head. After class, O’Keeffe’s lifelong love of nature propelled her frequent walks through the pine woods nearby. Perhaps with emerging visual clarity, the artist saw shapes, lines and shadows — abstractions — where her students, who often accompanied her, simply saw leaves and trees. The process of paring away excessive details is one O’Keeffe would nurture and hone the rest of her life. By the end of December 1915, the 28-year-old artist wanted feedback, and what happened next would lead her to the man she would eventually marry. It began when she mailed some of these breakthrough abstractions to her former classmate in New York, Charlestonian Anita Pollitzer. Against O’Keeffe’s instructions to show them to no one, Pollitzer took them to Stieglitz, the owner of their favorite avant-garde gallery 291. His legendary response: “At last, a woman on paper!” Stieglitz was a respected pioneer of contemporary photography in New York and played a vital role in its advancement as an art form. Hosting the first U.S. one-man exhibitions of Henri Matisse, Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso at 291, he opened American eyes to modern art. After seeing O’Keeffe’s abstractions, Stieglitz
Photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz, in 1918.
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Pink Tulip — Georgia O’Keeffe
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believed that O’Keeffe represented the modernist ideal of the expressive woman-child. Without her knowledge, he included some of these highly innovative works in a 1916 exhibit. When she heard, she marched quickly to his gallery to remove them. The impresario convinced her of their expressive power; they stayed. Letters flew back and forth. Coming from Texas to see her first one-person show at 291 in 1917, O’Keeffe did not reappear in New York until the following June, when she moved into Stieglitz’s niece’s empty studio apartment. Soon he, at age 54, left his wife and moved in with this 30-year-old intoxicating muse. Stieglitz obsessively photographed her through 1925 and those approximately 350 portraits — some dramatic headshots with her hands and others with her posed interacting with her works — have become so prized that in 2006 Sotheby sold “Georgia O’Keeffe (Hands)” for $1.47 million. At his own retrospective exhibit in 1921, he included some graphic O’Keeffe nudes, drawing scandalized crowds. By 1923 when he debuted O’Keeffe’s 100-work exhibition, he had transformed the former penniless art instructor into a sexually liberated modern woman with titillating name recognition. They married before Christmas 1924. Along with drawings, her vibrant palette illuminated her paintings and packed the gallery. Critics fawned over the sensuality displayed in her works — which Stieglitz encouraged. Though outraged, she realized her beloved mentor had given her priceless public exposure in a field dominated by men. To Stieglitz’s credit, he held annual shows of her works until his death. Even before their affair, she understood the magical power of camera lenses to enlarge objects and had learned the value of cropping photos to focus on certain elements. Those techniques enhanced her large vibrant flower paintings and her “if you blow it up they will look at it” technique drew raves. Two intense, passionate artists living together often made for a sandpaper marriage. As controlling as Stieglitz was, O’Keeffe did win one battle — she kept her own name, quite an accomplishment at the time. Living with a photographer added to O’Keeffe’s visual acuity. She influenced his photography, opening his eyes
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“As a matter of fact, because of what I had seen in his gallery, I was more interested in what Stieglitz thought about my work than in what anyone else would think.” – Georgia O’Keeffe
From The Plains — Georgia O’Keeffe
to nature, and he influenced her painting, instilling an appreciation of skyscrapers. Some critics today insist that her Manhattan cityscapes are her most important works. Though attuned to European modernism, by 1925 Stieglitz felt the need to champion only young American modernists. He mounted a show, “The Seven Americans,” with works by Marsden Hartley, Paul Strand, John Marin, Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, O’Keeffe and himself. Continuous dialogue with these — and other — articulate and gifted people provided O’Keeffe with a fertile environment. Engaged in abstraction, representational work and a synthesis of both, she began to develop the persona that people know today. Her growing artistic stature and bank account made her more independent. At the end of the ’20s Stieglitz began an affair with another ingenue, Dorothy Norman, devastating O’Keeffe. She took a trip out West, spending her time in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico. This reprieve renewed O’Keeffe’s strong adventurous spirit and creativity. When she returned to New York, crosses, adobe churches and Western landscapes peppered her canvases. Although he did not like her leaving, Stieglitz recognized the new excitement in her work. These summers away became a pattern. In later years she would bring home sacks of bleached bones. Though it is thought that over the ensuing years both had affairs, the Stieglitz/O’Keeffe marriage mended to an extent. But Stieglitz’s health deteriorated and he died — with O’Keeffe at his side — in 1946. Eleven years after her own death, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, the only American museum featuring the iconic works of a single woman artist of international stature, opened in Santa Fe in 1997. Mary Eloise H. Leake is Longleaf’s perpetual information source about artists and their fascinating exhibits.
Red Canal — Georgia O’Keeffe 42 Longleaf Style Winter 2013
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GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT How a pitiable petty thief came to write his name in the Great Book of Law By H. Brandt Ayers
His name will forever be linked with a transformation of our legal system — the principle that, though you are poor, weak or a member of a despised caste or party — you have a right to your own counsel when accused of a crime. He was the central character in a book by the legendary New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis and Henry Fonda portrayed him in a film version of the book. And in the Bible a young man of the same name overthrew the Midianites with only 300 blowing trumpets that sounded like an army. Clarence Earl Gideon stares cockeyed from a police blotter photo through large glasses, which give his thin face, straight nose and narrow mouth a rather goofy expression. He was born in Hannibal, Missouri, in 1910. He lost his father when he was three, quit school after the eighth grade, ran away from home at 15 and took up a career as a homeless petty criminal. He did prison time in two states, found menial jobs in Texas and Florida, and married four times. The last of his wives stuck with him through three years of treatment for tuberculosis and his consequent celebrity. The story that lifted a pitiable nobody to legal fame began on June 3, 1961, in Panama City, Florida, when someone broke into a beer joint and pool hall, smashing a cigarette machine and record player to take coins, and allegedly helped himself to money from the cash register. A witness told police that he had seen Gideon at 5:30 a.m. leaving the pool hall with a bottle of wine and pockets jingling with coins. With a rap sheet as long as Gideon’s, it is easy to understand why the authorities would take the word of a single witness, arrest, indict and put him on trial. Too poor to afford an attorney, he asked the trial judge to appoint counsel to defend him. With evident reluctance, the judge said Florida law required the appointment of counsel only in death penalty cases. He acted as his own counsel as well as he could with no money and no investigators to support him. He didn’t stand a chance. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. If the story worked out as it often does, reform school kid
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Clarence Earl Gideon’s petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that his denial of counsel during trial was unconstitutional under the Sixth Amendment. The petition was handwritten while Gideon was in jail. His research came entirely from the prison library. (U.S. National Archives)
with a list of felony convictions, nowhere jobs and three failed marriages, does his time, gets out and before long he is back in prison. The story would have played out as predicted, but for the fact that somewhere in the otherwise desolate life of this obscure man, someone or something had planted in him the spark of a fighter. He knew he was innocent and thought it was unfair to doom a poor man to fight for his freedom alone against the vast machinery of the state. He began to study the law in prison. After two years of false imprisonment and study he wrote in pencil a multi-page brief, which the Florida Supreme Court summarily dismissed. He then sent his brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. And here is a tantalizing mystery. Someone with authority, a justice or a law clerk, found that crude document, took the time to understand it was serious and distributed it among the justices who decided to hear his case. The Supreme Court not only appointed counsel, they asked a super lawyer, Abe Fortas, who would one day sit with them on the high court, to take his case. Fortas did his job well and got a unanimous opinion for Gideon. Justice Hugo Black of Alabama wrote the 1963 opinion in Gideon v. Wainwright. In his opinion, Black used a tool he had found and the Court eventually adopted, that all of the protections of the Bill of Rights apply to the states through the 14th Amendment. It stands to reason that the Bill of Rights protected citizens from government abuse of due process, freedom of religion, speech and the press in federal cases, it should offer citizens the same protection from abuses by state governments, Black reasoned. In Gideon he found that the defendant had been denied Sixth Amendment right of due process by forcing an innocent man to fight virtually unarmed for his freedom against the powers of the state. In spare language Justice Black drew a word picture of balanced judicial scales.
“This seems to us an obvious truth. Governments both federal and state … spend vast sums of money to establish machinery to try defendants accused of a crime. “Similarly, there are few defendants, few indeed, who fail to get the best lawyers they can get to prepare and present their defenses.” This unwritten law of balanced scales makes defense attorneys “not luxuries, but necessities.” Here, Justice Black, known for his desire to break the shackles of British Common Law and make for Americans greater freedoms than were allowed British citizens, indirectly asserts the unique nature of American law. “The right to counsel of one charged with crime may not be deemed fundamental and essential to fair trials in some countries, but it is in ours.” In order to make the case accessible to the ordinary citizen, Black’s opinion quoted an earlier decision by Justice Sutherland, “Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law. “He lacks both the skill and knowledge adequately to prepare his defense, even though he have a perfect one … he faces the danger of conviction because he does not know how to establish his innocence.” In this short opinion, Judge Black shows why he was regarded as an intellectual leader of the Court: he wrote a declaration of independence from British Common law, used the 14th Amendment to make essential freedoms apply to the states and reasserted the very American right that even a poor or despised citizen has the right to a fair trial. And that is how a goofy-looking petty criminal and self-taught lawyer came to stand in the pantheon of law with the other icons of justice.
This Aug. 6, 1963, file photo shows Clarence Earl Gideon, 52, the mechanic who changed the course of legal history, after his release from a Panama City, Fla., jail. (AP Photo, File)
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in his office at the Supreme Court in Washington, Feb. 23, 1966. (AP Photo/Charles Gorry)
H. Brandt Ayers is Chairman and Publisher of The Anniston Star and the author of the recently released memoir “In Love With Defeat.” published by NewSouth Books, Montgomery, Alabama.
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GIDEON’S PROMISE by Tim Lockette
Ilham Askia was the person the courts usually don’t think about. When Askia was a 5-year-old in Buffalo, New York, her father was convicted on an armed robbery charge and sent to prison, where he’d remain for most of her childhood. She can’t help but think it would have been different with a better lawyer.
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“If someone had just told his story,” she said. “He wouldn’t have been in Attica for ten years, and then in and out of prison for the rest of his life.” These days, Askia is working to make sure that courts and juries do hear the stories of people who are accused of crimes. She’s executive director of Gideon’s Promise, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that recruits the promising young law school graduates from around the country to become public defenders in the South’s overloaded court systems. “The only way we can have equal justice is if an indigent person has the kind of lawyer you or I would pay for,” said Askia’s husband, Jon Rapping, the president and founder of the group. Created in 2007, Gideon’s Promise brings groups of young lawyers to Atlanta twice a year in hopes of training them to be dogged defenders of people too poor to pay for their own lawyers. The trainees — who could make far more money in other areas of law — pledge to work as public defenders for at least three years. For Rapping, a professor at John Marshall Law School, the project is no less than the 21st-century equivalent of the civil rights marches of the 1960s. While the Supreme Court has long held that even the poorest people have the right to an attorney, Rapping says a dispirited and underpaid corps of indigent defense lawyers often isn’t able to give people the defense they deserve. “We’ve lost sight of justice, because there’s so much pressure to simply move bodies through the system,” he said. BROKEN PROMISE The battle over the right to an attorney was fought, largely, in the courtrooms of the South. When eight black Alabama teenagers — popularly known as the Scottsboro Boys — were sentenced to death on a rape charge in 1931, one of them appealed on the grounds that they’d had limited contact with a lawyer. The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that Ozie Powell didn’t need access to a lawyer to have a fair trial. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, at least in capital cases, everyone did. Three decades later, a man named Clarence Earl Gideon wrote his own legal appeal from a Florida prison, arguing that his burglary conviction should be thrown out because he didn’t have a lawyer at the trial. In the landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court agreed, and ordered that anyone accused of any crime should be appointed a lawyer, regardless of ability to pay. But a growing number of lawyers are convinced that the promise of a court-appointed lawyer isn’t being fulfilled — and that the problem is at its worst in the Deep South. Roughly eight in ten felony defendants are too poor to afford their own lawyer, according to statistics from the Department of Justice. DOJ statistics also show that while indigent defendants are about as likely to be convicted as defendants with their own attorneys, they’re more likely get prison time. Fifty-four percent of defendants with private attorneys wind up incarcerated, compared to 71 percent of those with public defenders. In Alabama, a court-appointed attorney isn’t even necessarily free.
Jon Rapping, founder of Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit that trains public defenders, speaks at a screening of Gideon’s Army in Atlanta. Photo by Ingemar Kenyatta Smith. 2013 Winter Longleaf Style 47
The state charges indigent defendants a fee for legal services if they’re convicted. Some pay down the cost in installments; others have to prove again that they’re unable to pay. Even Attorney General Eric Holder has said the indigent defense system is in a “state of crisis.” “The promise of Gideon is not being met,” Holder said in a speech to the American Bar Association earlier this year. A SYSTEM OF APPEALS What worries Rapping most is the role of indigent defense attorneys themselves in the situation. Burdened with heavy caseloads, he said, lawyers for the defense can become part of a system that simply processes people through the courts to prison. His goal is to teach would-be defense attorneys, Ilham Askia and Jon Rapping at a screening of Gideon’s Army in while they’re young, how to truly fight for their Atlanta. Photo by Ingemar Kenyatta Smith. clients. “We try to get them before they develop bad habits,” he “As attorneys who represent people in crisis, we tend to said. “Before they accept the status quo.” take on our clients’ problems,” he said. Too many public defenders, Rapping says, fail to do invesTuscaloosa Public Defender Joe Van Heest said eight of the tigations, or to do pre-trial motions to create a better situation fourteen lawyers in his office have been to Gideon’s Promise for their clients. for training. Of the rest, three were new hires he hoped to Going to trial at all is increasingly rare. According to the send soon. American Bar Association, federal courts actually tried fewer Van Heest was a private defense attorney for 19 years before cases per year in at the turn of the 21st century than in the being appointed as public defender. He said indigent defense 1960s, despite a doubling of the annual number of criminal lawyers face pressures — in particular, the volume of cases — cases. that other lawyers don’t. Gideon’s Promise, he said, keeps his Not everyone is convinced that the rise in plea deals is lawyers focused on the fact that “it is the client’s case.” due to lackadaisical public defenders. Talitha Powers Bailey, “It is not our job to decide what is in our client’s best interwho teaches criminal law at the University of Alabama, said est and it is not our job to rush the client through the process the power of prosecutors to charge defendants with multiple, without his or her having sufficient time to understand what significant crimes has forced tough choices on defendants, is happening,” she said. “Nowhere else have I seen the who would often rather plead than lose in court. client-centered model of representation so well explained and “It has become a system of appeals, not a system of trials,” ingrained in young attorneys than in this program.” Bailey said. Rapping wants lawyers to be tougher advocates of their STRUGGLE clients at every stage. So far, roughly 200 lawyers from public There’s a reason Rapping chose Atlanta for this work. The defenders’ offices around the South have come to Gideon’s South, he believes, is where the indigent defense system is Promise for coaching on how to be that advocate. most strained — and that strain is taking a disproportionate True public defenders’ offices are rare in Alabama, with toll on the black community. defendants often represented by attorneys working on a con“Indigent defense is this generation’s civil rights struggle,” tract or appointed by judges on a case-by-case basis. When he said. Jefferson County decided to create its own public defender’s Rapping got his start as a defense attorney in Washington, office, officials in the office called on Gideon’s Promise to help D.C., where the public defender’s office — funded by the prepare the new office’s lawyers. federal government — is widely recognized as one of the “They came back so invigorated and so ready for the chalbest-resourced in the nation. Even there, he says, the job was lenge that we have,” said Jefferson County Public Defender tough. Kira Fonteneau, who heads a staff of 19 attorneys. That job led to an invitation to become the training director Fonteneau said Rapping teaches lawyers to hold themselves for Georgia’s public defender system. Then Louisiana officials to a high standard in investigating cases to find everything invited him to do the same work in New Orleans as the city possible to help a client. She said he also teaches them how to rebuilt its public defender system after Hurricane Katrina. manage the other side of the job — the emotional side. Rapping said he became a public defender because he
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grew up in a household where he was encouraged to question authority. “I got started in this work because I liked the idea of standing up to the government,” he said. But he stayed in because of the defendants. “I like being on the side of these folks, who have never really had a shot in life,” he said. Askia left a job as a teacher to help Rapping set up Gideon’s Promise. “Everyone who teaches will tell you it’s the hardest job in the world,” she said. “But to me, building a nonprofit from scratch is even harder.” Askia sees the job as an outgrowth of her teaching career, which had her working in public schools in Atlanta and D.C. Toward the end of her seven years of teaching, she said, she began to see that students were often getting entangled in the justice system as young adults. She now spends much of her time seeking financial support for the organization. “Amazingly, it’s not hard to convince people, because so many people have been directly affected,” she said. “It’s very interesting. There are people almost everywhere who have a relative in the system.”
NEW NAME The group’s fortunes got a boost recently with the release of “Gideon’s Army,” a documentary on public defenders that was recently featured on HBO. Rapping, Askia and others appear in the film as workers for the Southern Public Defender Training Center — the organization’s old name. Rapping said the new name, Gideon’s Promise, grew out of a need to express the groups mission more simply. Askia said the film has led to some public defenders stopping her to say “thank you.” It has also brought the group an influx of letters from people hoping Gideon’s Promise will represent their loved ones in court. “That’s hard, because we don’t do direct representation,” she said. Rapping, however, believes Gideon’s work could spread to court systems across the South eventually. Lawyers who come through the program, he says, won’t simply be public defenders in the here and now. Some will go on to become judges or legislators, able to effect change at higher levels in the system. “We’re trying to change the culture of indigent defense,” he said. “We’re slowly rebuilding values that have been lost.” Tim Lockette is state correspondent for The Anniston Star. Reach him at tlockette@annistonstar.com.
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THE DEFENSE NEEDS TO REST Fiction by Beth Duke
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A phone call at nine o’clock on Monday morning was the first pebble of Reuben Miller’s career avalanche. Reuben, a 59-year-old gentle giant at six-foot three and 290 pounds, had just finished his third glazed doughnut and turned to grab his suit jacket for a hectic day in court.
Reuben loved his work. He was dedicated to defending the innocent, and the ones he tried to convince himself were, too. In the corner of his office stood a huge glass jar Carol had purchased early in their marriage. She’d found thousands of colorful glass marbles on clearance at a hobby shop, instructing Reuben to add one to the jar for each acquittal. Thirty years later, he smiled at the glittering greens, blues, reds, golds and oranges. On bad days he imagined convictions as balloons released from his small corner window, helium and regret rising into the sky. He’d represented an array of minor drug mules, addicts, prostitutes, accused murderers, drunk drivers, wife beaters and shoplifters over the years in the Harris County Public Defender’s Office. One of them had escaped jail at dawn; he’d had second thoughts and tried to turn himself back in, only to be refused re-admittance. The staff knew of no escape and thought he was a kook. Now the sheriff’s
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office was on his phone, asking if he knew Jerry Tutwiler’s whereabouts. “I haven’t heard from him,” he said. “How in the world could they refuse to let him back in?” “I don’t get it either,” Deputy Eames replied. “New guards at the jail. A mix-up. Heads are already rolling toward the fence.” He hung up and searched his memory: Jerry Tutwiler had been convicted of possession of methamphetamine. He was a tall, pimply kid who’d played star forward on the high school basketball team, one in a long line of 20-year-olds he’d seen morph into toothless old people in a year’s time. Jerry had a girlfriend who’d once planned to marry him. Reuben would call the sheriff’s office during a recess and tell them her name if he could conjure it. He sank back into his vinyl desk chair, rubbed his temples and pondered the situation. He was going to be late for court. His first client scheduled for trial was a college student who’d been partying with friends at a local bar. He admitted to Reuben he’d had five or six beers, then began to dance with a disabled young woman in a wheelchair. According to Rory Dean, she’d appeared to enjoy every moment. So Rory had improvised a sort of “lap dance” involving physical contact. “She was really into it,” he’d sworn to Reuben. Rory found himself charged with “indecent assault and battery” a few days later. If convicted, the word “indecent” meant he’d have to register as a sex offender. “She wanted me to go back to her apartment. I got her number and never texted her because I didn’t want to hook up. She’s punishing me,” he said. Today, Reuben would argue for him against the ADA, an old adversary named Sarah Willingham. She made every court appearance look like an audition for a Fox News commentator slot. Sarah was not known for lenience in any matter involving drinking and sex. Reuben knew she relished this case for its publicity and was itching to triumphantly address a bank of microphones. Rory was waiting in the courtroom wearing the sport coat and khakis prescribed for his appearance. He’d shaved his beard — Reuben had advised it looked like pubic hair — and Reuben noted a fresh haircut with satisfaction. Rory’s parents sat behind him in the gallery, his mother dabbing her eyes delicately with a handkerchief. She spotted Reuben and jumped up. He experienced the morning’s doughnuts revisiting and dug his pocket for an antacid. “Will you please put an end to this?” she hissed at him. Reuben felt like reminding her they were on the same side; possibly detailing the last three late nights of pizza and bad Chinese takeout at his desk he’d dedicated to Rory’s fragile case. “My son would never be a part of any kind of sexual assault. Please, Mr. Miller, we’re counting on you to clear Rory’s name. He’s done nothing wrong. His entire future is
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at stake. The bail money has broken us. We have nowhere to turn ...” Reuben held up a stop hand. “I’ll do my best, Mrs. Dean.” He nodded to Sarah across the room. She ignored him and returned to her paperwork. The young lady sat slumped beside her in the wheelchair, staring at her lap. Sarah summarized the charges against his client, portraying him as a drunken frat boy preying on the innocent disabled Caitlin Andrews. Reuben made his pitch that the dancing was done with the consent of the alleged victim, who’d admitted to having three margaritas before meeting Rory. Caitlin began to sob loudly. Judge Reynolds issued a few taps of his gavel. “Order! Do we need to recess, Miss Willingham?” he asked gently. In the ensuing quiet the courtroom doors burst open and a clearly tweaking, high and terrified Jerry Tutwiler ran to grab Reuben by the shoulders, shaking him and screaming, “You have to explain to them! I tried to go back!” Two bailiffs responded immediately with guns drawn. Jerry positioned himself behind Reuben with a forearm against his trachea. “I’ll kill him. I swear it.” He extracted a toothbrush shiv from his pocket and held it to Reuben’s carotid artery. His eyes darted frantically around the room; a cornered, desperate, wounded animal.
Reuben Miller could not breathe. He felt someone park a Buick on his chest. His legs lost feeling altogether, and a surprised Jerry had to support far more weight than he’d planned. Within ten seconds Reuben was crumpled on the floor at eye level with a syringe tucked into Jerry’s dirty white sock. Judge Reynolds had ceased to bang his gavel and taken shelter in his chambers. Assorted lawyers and clients, Rory and his parents, spectators, Sarah and the wheelchair girl gathered around him. He was dimly aware of a bailiff administering CPR, frantically pumping Reuben’s useless heart. He saw Jerry led away in handcuffs, still trying to flail himself free. He heard Caitlin tell Rory she was sorry as she wheeled herself away. “I’m dropping the charges,” she said. “I won’t testify.” He woke in a hospital bed, blinking at Carol’s lined face. Reuben struggled to smile. The woman he’d been married to for thirty-three years said, “You had a double bypass. The doctor says you have to fight to get stronger, Reuben. How do you feel?” “Defenseless,” he whispered with a groan. “You always were witty.” She stroked the hair from his forehead. “A career move to stand-up comedy would be
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perfect as soon as you can actually get vertical.” Carol stood and opened the heavy curtains, allowing him a view of city lights. “I love you, Reuben. The kids are on the way. You’ll be out of here in a week or so.” “I love you too, honey. Please get my cell and briefcase.” “Your cases have been re-assigned, Reuben. No work for at least two months — doctor’s orders. The truth is,” she said, easing herself onto his bed, “he thinks you should retire.” Reuben blinked. He couldn’t imagine a day without ten cases to juggle; without a drunk accused of riding a lawnmower through a fast-food drive-through, a teenager accidentally carrying a hundred dollars’ worth of hair extensions out of the mall, a man using neighborhood pets as food supply for his boa constrictor, a husband applying gynecological super glue to cure his wife’s infidelity. He allowed his eyes to close. “The defense needs to rest,” he said. Beth Duke is a free lance writer who is a repeat contributor to Longleaf’s fiction section. She is the author of “Delaney’s People”and “Don’t Shoot Your Mule.”
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