Karl Fleming -SON OF THE ROUGH SOUTH

Wilson, NC–1960’s Chapter

From Booklist

Fleming will forever be remembered as the Newsweek reporter who was photographed after being severely beaten in the Watts riots of 1966. In this memoir, he recounts the long road that led to his reporting on race relations and the incendiary social issues that exploded that day. He was born in 1927 in a poor, bleak North Carolina community and raised in an orphanage when his mother could no longer afford to take care of him. Fleming left college early to begin life as a reporter with a small-town ( WILSON, NC ) newspaper, covering the police beat with a cynical police chief who mistreated blacks. It was Fleming’s first hint that, having grown up in an orphanage, his sympathies were with the underdog. He went on to cover the turbulent racial changes in the South, including James Meredith’s enrollment at the University of Mississippi and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evers. In this stunning memoir, Fleming offers the perspective of a poor white boy witnessing the racial turbulence that changed the U.S. Vanessa Bush

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review   “A harrowing and brutally honest account of Fleming’s experiences on all sides of the civil rights battle.” — Publishers Weekly, April 25, 2005

“A rich and absorbing book, a window into a time and place that defined America.” — Washington Post Book World, June 12, 2005

“Incredibly rich in history, in bravery and brutality, Karl Fleming’s Son of the Rough South is so beautifully written.” — Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies

“It makes for a tense, harrowing, utterly gripping journey.” — Newsweek, May 23, 2005

“Karl Fleming knows how to tell a story.” — Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis

“Their story will take the reader on a trip not soon forgotten of spirits unwilling to be broken.” — San Antonio Express-News, June 19, 2005.

“a vivid, often painful memoir…” — David Halberstam

“offers vibrant portraits of the most harrowing incidents of [the civil rights]…” — Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2005

…recovers for us a brace period of our recent history, and delivers it with all the sharp…edges perfectly intact. — Barton Chronicle, October 2005

FFFlemingsssssssss craft soars to a level of artful elegance with blunt, unsentimental language full of casual grace notes — The Nation, August 15 and 22, 2005.

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From New York Governor:

The governor, a Democrat, said that while she had struggled with the church’s position on the measure, she had come to believe that the issue was not about shortening life “but rather about shortening dying.”

“I do not believe that in every instance condemning someone to excruciating pain and suffering preserves the dignity and sanctity of life,” she continued.

She added, “I was taught that God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be.”

Recently I suggested the last 20 minutes of Ken Burns’ 6th (and last )
segment on THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION by Ken Burns and PBS

A new book, THE GREAT CONTRADICTION ( The Tragic Side of the American Founding ) by Joseph J. Ellis , is additional support. In a word, both point out the blind eye we have turned concerning Slavery and the treatment of Native Americans.

Last night I watched THE LAST CLASS. It goes on the list. Pat Conroy once said, “…if anything is more important than good teachers I wish someone would tell me what it is before I die.”

Robert Reich is a giant of truth. Should one be interested in the truth–listen to him.

https://www.thelastclassfilm.com/where-to-watch?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22852037166&gbraid=0AAAAApZR52Jh2XR26umqvS4JcIGI0RU_J&gclid=Cj0KCQiArt_JBhCTARIsADQZayk8iKXxOd_e_BrHEKtBlMEY7lS-lvzlDCbO7aYLZP3LaMoSHtgtvdAaAvklEALw_wcB

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12BE-i5cGTzkex1oKwxA5Jf88gl-TKtcksiHXux-I3B0/edit?tab=t.0

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15zWY9rk1cHJCUkbnNuS_Nrs0nIUjhst_3jUDxoWiUDk/edit?tab=t.0

The book below came out in 2025. It confirms details of how this happened.

The mission : the CIA in the 21st century by Weiner, Tim

Great birthday card — Front:  This is Edith ( beautiful Pin-Up ) and this is your cake ( Giant slice with a lighted candle ). 

Inside :  “You can have your cake, or you can have Edith–but you can’t have your cake and Edith too!”

As the man said–It is time to make some “chawses” ( Choices )

The just released survey by the Elon Poll requested solutions to college athletics problems.  Between the Portal and Likeness changes,  a Rubicon moment,     Teaming with the NCAA, they listed ten pages of questions and suggestions to summarize  how to reign in this “conundrum”.

Some years back I played in a local poker game with John McQuire, brother to Al,   and poster for Octogeneran Curmudgeons.  Occasionally he would blurt out angry admonitions to shut up and play.  Upon enduring  one cliched dissection of the past hand,  and it’s theories and what-ifs,  John concluded “… NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING! “

Apt description of the above Elon/NCAA poll.  

What seems apparent is that a square peg- round hole problem is at the core. 

Education and greed don’t jibe.  The POWER conferences have made their choice.  The rest may too “ante up “.   Hopefully some avenue to EDUCATION as a choice will emerge.  Some are already available.

“Bad luck women stick like glue.  You can have one or the other, but never the two.”  B. Dylan

Fiend At CourtUSTA Sport Science Research 2026: High Performance Player Development By Teresa Merklin on November 2, 2025—Two excerpts:

Playing high-performance junior tennis is expensive and often prohibitively so. Families drop out of the competitive pathway not because their children lack talent or passion, but because they simply can’t afford to stay in the game. Travel, equipment, and coaching costs create barriers that exclude many promising athletes long before their potential can be realized. The USTA needs to explore sustainable, transparent ways to subsidize training and travel that are accessible, fair, and equitable.

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 Elite-level player development doesn’t just happen in academies; It starts with the local coach who spots a spark in a kid at a park court and knows how to nurture it.

Of the three grant categories, I suspect this is the one that will attract the most proposals. Everyone loves the idea of developing the next great American champion. That’s understandable, but it also misses the point. The most impactful research might not be about training elite juniors at all, but rather creating an environment where excellence can grow naturally. That starts with broad participation, access to affordable instruction, and community-level engagement.

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Another Reality

“ For every Serena or Naomi, there are thousands of families who went all in, only to come up empty-handed. It’s a system built on dreams, but powered by delusion.

And yet… that delusion is part of what keeps the junior tennis engine running.”

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Playing high school team tennis is about the only way to inexpensive match experience in the  U.S.  (Tom Parham ).  

The SHOT DOCTORS

https://tomparham.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=5840&action=edit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sg8qPj4zvCNPhYlKy0mHe9ByIkTA-JHsUAywiW9Jv0E/edit?tab=t.0

By Elon University News Bureau, staff

October 9, 2025

The link below is to an article written January 2004. Twenty one years seems a long time for an argument to last, but the truth is this conundrum began at the begining of American college sports. ( 1852–Yale vs Harvard rowing teams )

Winning (money ) vs Education (people ). Bare bones.

How to let wallets rule one and separate the “student/athletes “into their own strata?

What would emerge? No one seems to know.

If the gamblers continue at the current rate they will create pain. If, as suggested , the Government engineers the future, grab your ankles .

https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/?s=square+peg%2C+round+hole

Your kids don’t want your “stuff ” ( See George Carlin ). I only owned two pairs of dress shoes in my life–Johnson and Murphy tassle loafers. One truly observant Alumni noticed them after twenty years : “Coach, is that the same pair of shoes you wore in 1970?” Bullseye.

Cleaning out my “stuff” yesterday I noticed the surviving J&M’s. Pair 2 has a quarter sized sole hole. The “Shoe Nazi ” in Burlington, NC estimated repair at more than I paid for them. One of my offspring wears the same size shoe. Don’t even ask.

There is precedent .

My apartment was broken into in 1968. The front and back doors were left wide open. It didn’t take long to inventory my posessions : Nothing was deemed worthy of stealing.

SO—-THE JUKE BOX ( Below is from PLAY IS WHERE LIFE IS by TP).

NOTE—While tempermental, this ” ancient ” (71 years old ) 1954 classic still will blast 45’s worthy of neighborhood complaints.

While a professed “Minimumalist”, the College gladly accepted my considerable Bob Dylan collection.

Now to find a proper home for an old friend.

The Juke Box