THE SOUTH

Born in 1900, young Margaret Mitchell was profoundly influenced by a violent race riot perpetrated by white mobs against innocent blacks. The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 ravaged her home city and haunted the hub of the South for decades.

The most important person in Margaret Mitchell's life was her mother Maybelle Stephens Mitchell. Maybelle was a powerful public figure who fought in the first two decades of the 20th century to get women the right to vote. Mitchell was in awe of her mother ...

The premiere of the blockbuster movie Gone With the Wind took place in Atlanta on December 15, 1939. With crowds swelling to the hundreds of thousands, it was apparent the South had been waiting a long time for this moment. For many, Margaret Mitchell's story ...

One of the great writers of our time, Pat Conroy tells a poignant story of growing up in the South and listening to his mother read Gone With the Wind with heartfelt emotion and joy. The author of The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini ...

In an excerpt from her book, "Scout, Atticus, and Boo," that would lead to the documentary AMERICAN MASTERS Harper Lee: Hey Boo, director Mary Murphy details the the way that biographical elements worked their way into the creation and success of Harper Lee's literary classic ...

Mark Childress, author of Crazy in Alabama, describes how Harper Lee's protagonist Scout Finch, the narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird, was a radical voice of change in the segregated south of his childhood. Harper Lee: Hey Boo airs Monday April 2nd at 10 p.m. ...

Allan Gurganus, author of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All and The Practical Heart, discusses the ways that Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird influenced him as an adolescent. The novelist's ability to distill national issues into a local, familiar setting, he says, made ...