Reckoning with Southern Legacy: An Evening with Ty Seidule
We are excited to have welcomed author and historian Ty Seidule, author of Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause, to Jacksonville on February 13, 2024.
If you’re not familiar with his work, Ty revered Robert E. Lee and the "Lost Cause" myth of the Civil War while growing up in Virginia and Georgia. During his time in the Army and through his training as a historian, his view has radically changed – and he now believes that American history demands a reckoning.
Ty joined us for an engaging public conversation with duPont Fund President Mari Kuraishi followed by a community reflection over dinner hosted by The People's Supper.
How have the paths of Ty Seidule and the Jessie Ball duPont Fund crossed? It’s all about the journey of acknowledging a legacy.
In many ways, Ty’s personal journey reckoning with the myth of the Lost Cause of the “honorable Confederacy” mirrors our journey reckoning with the reality Jessie’s beliefs and the damage they caused: both require deep work and intentional learning – and in some cases, un-learning – to acknowledge, reconcile and begin the important work of repair.
Over the past five years, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund Trustees and staff have embarked on a journey of understanding and acknowledging Jessie’s beliefs, and beginning to repair the damage her beliefs caused. Today, the duPont Fund is actively working to make the communities Jessie supported more accessible and more inclusive. We do this through our grantmaking, such as by supporting scholarships for Black students at a former segregationist academy; and a more inclusive telling of history at Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee’s birthplace. We also do it through impact investing, research, and convenings; and through public-private partnerships such as the building of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park in Jacksonville.
