Place:  The Good Darky is Gone, Natchitoches Parish La
The Natchitoches Times Sept 26, 1968
Front Page
Submitted by
Danelli Faccone



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NATCHITOCHES TIMES SEPT. 26, 1968
FRONT PAGE 
THE GOOD DARKY IS GONE
BY CHARLES CUNNINGHAM

  DOUBLY A SYMBOL-FIRST, OF AN ERA ALREADY PASSING AT THE TIME OF ITS
ERECTION, AND, SECONDLY, OF AN ERA NOW UPON US- THE GOOD DARKEY, A BRONZE
STATUE, NO LONGER STANDS AT THE HEAD OF FRONT STREET.

  VICTIM OF PROGRESS, THE STATUE AND ITS SURROUNDING TURNAROUND PRESENTED
OBSTACLES TO THE CITY FATHER'S EFFORTS TO STIMULATE THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC
CONTROL ISLANDS IN THE AREA.

  CONCEIVED OF IN LOVE AND AFFECTION BY THE LATE JACKSON L. BRYAN, A MEMBER OF
THE PLANTING ARISTOCRACY OF LOUISIANA, THE MONUMENT STOOD FOR 41 YEARS BEARING
THIS PLAQUE:

 "ERECTED BY THE CITY OF NATCHITOCHES IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF THE ARDUOUS
AND FAITHFUL SERVICE OF THE GOOD DARKIES OF LOUISIANA. DONOR J.L. BRYAN,
1927."

  BRYAN WAS WIDELY KNOWN AS "UNCLE JACK," AND IT SEEMS AS IF IN NO TIME AT ALL
THIS NICKNAME TRANSFERRED TO THE STATUE.

  IDEA FOR ITS ERECTION GREW OUT OF A DREAM BASED ON THE LOVING CARE AND
AFFECTION SHOWN THE DONOR DURING HIS CHILDHOOD ON BOSSIER AND DESOTO
PLANTATIONS, ALSO PLAYING A PART WAS A PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ANCIENT NEGRO "KEEPING
THE GATES" AT A PLANTATION. THIS PHOTO APPEARED IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND WAS
USED BY BRYAN IN INTRODUCING HIS IDEA TO THE CITY.

  HOWEVER, THE DESIGNER-SCULPTOR OF THE STATUE, THE EMINENT HANS SCHULER OF
BALTIMORE, DID NOT CAPTURE THE WELCOMING, KINDLY EXPRESSION ON THE FACE OF THE
STATUE UNTIL PHOTOGRAPHS ESPECIALLY TAKEN OF LOCAL NEGROES WERE FORWARDED TO
HIM. THIS HE DID SO BEAUTIFULLY THAT THE TIMES IN 1958 TERMED THE STATUE A
MANIFESTATION OF THE LOVE AND RESPECT OF THE WHITE PEOPLE HERE FOR THE
NEGROES.

  YET, THE STATUE DID NOT MEET WITH THE APPROVAL, OR AT LEAST IT WAS VICTIM,
EARLY IN ITS HISTORY, OF A PAINT-POURING OR WHITE-WASHING. SOME SAID THIS WAS
THE WORK OF THE KU KLUX KLAN, OTHERS THAT A PASSEL OF DRINKERS HAD PERPETRATED
THE OUTRAGE ON A BET.

  INTERESTINGLY ENOUGH, THE NEWSPAPER ITSELF DID NOT WELCOME THE GIFT, THE
EDITOR THE LATE CHARLES CUNNINGHAM, BEING IMMERSED IN A FUND DRIVE TO BUILD
THE OLD NATCHITOCHES HOSPITAL, AND INSISTING THAT THE LATTER SHOULD TAKE
PRECEDENCE OVER THE MONUMENT.

  CONSTANTLY A MECCA FOR TOURISTS, THE STATUE HAS BEEN PHOTOGRAPHED
INNUMERABLE TIMES, AND HAS BROUGHT COUNTLESS REAMS OF PUBLICITY TO
NATCHITOCHES, AS THERE WAS NO OTHER KNOWN STATUE TO THE NEGRO RACE IN THE
ENTIRE WORLD.

  AMONG OTHERS, THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR PUBLISHED A PHOTOGRAPH STUDY,
WHICH BROUGHT ANGRY LETTERS TO THE EDITOR...POSSIBLY AN AUGURY OF THINGS TO
COME.

  NOT LONG AFTERWARD, EBONY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TWO PAGES TO IT, ONE A PHOTOGRAPH
AND THE OTHER AN ANGRY EDITORIAL, WHICH, IF MEMORY SERVES ME RIGHT, TERMED THE
STATUE "A SYMBOL OF DEGRADATION" AND DEMANDED ITS REMOVAL.

  WITH THE CHANGING OF RACIAL PATTERNS NOW GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY, AND WITH
PEOPLE OF GOOD WILL FROM BOTH RACES TRYING TO ACCOMMODATE TO THE CHANGE, IT
BECAME PATENT THAT THE STATUE HAD OUTLIVED ITS USEFULNESS AS A SYMBOL OF GOOD
WILL, AND HAD BECOME, INDEED, A SYMBOL OF LOCAL NEGROES, OF RACIALISM.

  IT HAS BEEN THE VICTIM OF PAINTING OUTRAGES TWICE AND OF A CROSS-BURNING
INCIDENT WITHIN RECENT YEARS, THOUGH NO DEFACEMENT HAS OCCURRED.

  CONSULTED BY THE CITY FATHERS, BRYAN'S DAUGHTER, MRS. J. ADOLPH DUCOURNAU OF
BERMUDA, AGREED TO ANYTHING THAT IS FOR THE GOOD OF NATCHITOCHES, AND SO, ON
WEDNESDAY MORNING, DOWN CAME THE STATUE.