Burden

by Courtney Hargrave

  By the time it was over—the referendum was struck down by a margin of 54 percent—many residents had called for the resignation of the entire school board. Superintendent Peters admitted that he felt unsafe in Laurens and took an abrupt leave of absence for “family reasons.” As for the reverend, social media lit up with posts describing him as a “racist,” a “racial pot stirrer,” and a “trouble-maker” who was guilty of “preaching hate.” Countless residents suggested they vote “to remove him from Laurens County.” Just about everyone agreed that Kennedy should stop seeking attention and let the past stay in the past.

  Reverend Kennedy still owns the deed to the Echo theater. He still hopes to open his long-prayed-for multicultural center, or perhaps turn the building into an auxiliary facility for his Baptist church. More recently he’s floated the idea of creating a memorial for the victims of lynching—but money is tight. In the meantime, the residents of Laurens have grown used to reporters milling around, so they’re a little more guarded, a little more wary. Most have tired of talking about the Redneck Shop. After all, the Echo is empty now, just another faded storefront on the courthouse square, a relic from some darker time they’d just as soon forget.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Sharing the story of Michael Burden’s journey to redemption and Reverend Kennedy’s remarkable faith was a twenty-year passion project—but not mine. I was a freshman in high school in 1996, blissfully unaware of the Redneck Shop and the attendant controversy in Laurens. Were it not for Andrew Heckler’s determination to get his film made, the book you are holding in your hands would not exist. I am profoundly grateful to Andrew for supporting another writer as she reported and interpreted a story that has been so close to him for the better part of two decades.

  Some five years after Andrew wrote the first draft of his screenplay, the estimable producer Robbie Brenner signed on in the hope of shepherding Burden to the big screen. Fast-forward another few years, and producer Dan Farah had come on board, bringing with him truckloads of experience straddling the worlds of motion pictures and publishing. Movies are bound by a host of logistical and budgetary constraints; and filmmakers have the unenviable task of depicting a fully realized narrative in the span of roughly two hours. It was Dan who first believed that the events depicted in Burden could—and should—form the basis for a work of narrative nonfiction. Andrew and Robbie graciously introduced me to their contacts in Laurens, while Dan encouraged me to do what journalists do: follow the story, no matter where it might take me. What came out of my research was a tale neither simple nor tidy, but I left Laurens with an even greater appreciation for Reverend Kennedy’s stunning act of grace.

  My agent, Yfat Reiss Gendell, has been my professional rock and touchstone for more than five years now—thank you for pushing me out of my comfort zone. I’m so glad you’re on this journey with me. My heartfelt thanks to the entire team at Foundry Literary + Media, especially Jessica Felleman.

  Derek Reed, my incredible editor: you are a saint. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your thoughtful guidance, your grace under pressure, and—certainly not least—your patience. I am incredibly lucky to have been paired on this project with you. To Tina Constable, Campbell Wharton, Megan Perritt, Ayelet Gruenspecht, Cindy Berman, Maria Spano, Jessie Bright, Marlene Glazer, and the entire team at Convergent: thank you for your unwavering faith and support, even when things started to move slower than perhaps all of us had expected.

  Reconstructing events that took place some twenty years ago—or, in some cases, sixty years ago—required a deep dive into the archives. A hearty thanks to the staffs at the Presbyterian College library, the Laurens County Public Library, and the Laurens Clerk of Court’s office. Thom Berry and Mary C. Perry at the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division’s Freedom of Information Office swiftly fielded a number of my requests. Reverend Kennedy’s former attorneys Rauch Wise and Stephen John Henry were both gracious enough to answer questions and to provide additional court records and other legal paperwork.

  The process of writing a book is often a lonely one; my parents, Thomas and Cindy, were there when I needed them, as they always are—I could not have made it through without you. To Beck, for being a sounding board, a confidante, and for keeping me grounded. To Abigail Carpenter, who waited so patiently even when I was supposed to be helping plan her wedding. I owe you. (And to Laura Langdon and Deb Boudreaux, for stepping in and taking over when I was seriously short on both time and sanity—finally, we can laissez les bons temps rouler.) To the dear friends who somehow remained my dear friends, even as I missed birthdays and engagements, rescheduled meetings, or in some cases disappeared entirely for a matter of months, especially Christy Webster, Martinique Teperman, Kathryn Huck, Tammy Chen, and Tynan Davis.

  Finally, I must express my profound gratitude to Reverend David Kennedy, Janice Kennedy, the Kennedy family, and the entire congregation at New Beginning Missionary Baptist for welcoming me into your homes and into your church. I, too, believe that you’re overdue for a blessing. To Clarence and Barbara Simpson, thank you for your generosity and your insights—you both make excellent tour guides. To Judy Burden and Stacy Harbeson, I am in awe of your strength and your bravery. And to Michael Burden, for having the courage to share your story with the world.

  NOTES AND SOURCES

  The bulk of my reporting relies on interviews conducted with Reverend David Kennedy and members of his extended family; Reverend Clarence Simpson and his wife, Barbara; Michael and Judy Burden, and Judy’s daughter, Stacy Harbeson; court records from the Laurens County courthouse; and the Greenville News, Laurens County Advertiser, and Clinton Chronicle. Reconstructing events some twenty years after the fact presents a challenge; in instances where my interview subjects have disagreed, or their memories of events have proven contradictory, I’ve done my best to corroborate anecdotes and dialogue with as many outside sources as possible. Additional sources for each chapter can be found below.

  Prologue: “This Is What We’ll Do”

  Information about the history and economic development of Laurens was culled from a variety of sources, most important, the Online Records Index of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (nationalregister.sc.gov), in particular Jennifer Revels, “Historic and Architectural Survey of Eastern Laurens County” (2003); Mary Sherrer and Jennifer Revels, “Historic and Architectural Survey of Western Laurens County” (2002); and the National Register of Historic Places Nomination Forms prepared by John C. Blythe Jr. (1986). See also Libby Rhodes, Images of America: Laurens (Arcadia Publishing, 2000), and Julian Stevenson Bolick, A Laurens County Sketchbook (Clinton, SC: Jacobs, 1973). Information on the Capitol and Echo theaters comes from the Laurens County Advertiser, January 21, 1974, and is summarized at scmovietheaters.com and capitoltheatreandcafe.com. Additional sources include the Laurens County Museum, the Main Street Laurens Partnership, and Fritz Hammer’s “From Cracked to Perfect Bottles: Laurens Glass Works, 1910–1986,” in Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association, 2003, 25–38.

  Information about the economic downturn in Laurens specifically and the decline of the textile industry in general is based on reporting from a range of government sources and trade publications, including the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. See Mark Mittelhauser, “Employment Trends in Textiles and Apparel, 1973–2005,” in Monthly Labor Review, August 1997, 24–36; Kai Ryssdal, “In Upstate S.C., BMW Jobs Replace Textile Mills,” Marketplace, January 17, 2014; Betty Joice Nash, “When South Carolina Met BMW,” Region Focus, Second Quarter, 2011, 20–22; and the City of Laurens Comprehensive Plan 2015–2025, prepared by the City of Laurens Planning Commission (cityoflaurenssc.com). Population figures come from the 2010 United States Census. For crime statistics, see “Laurens Ranked Among State’s Most Dangerous Cities,” November 2014, at golaurens.com.

  In addition to my interviews with Rev. David Kenn
edy, much of the material about the lynching of Richard Puckett, including the quotes from Brock Coggins and Rachel Watts, comes from Bruce E. Baker’s “Under the Rope: Lynching and Memory in Laurens County, South Carolina,” in Where These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity, ed. W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 319–346. Additional details about Puckett’s death can be found in Bruce E. Baker, This Mob Will Surely Take My Life: Lynchings in the Carolinas, 1871–1947 (Bloomsbury Academic, 2008), 121–144. See also Greenville News, August 12, 1913; Laurens Advertiser, August 13, 1913; Newberry Herald and News, August 13, 1913; Pickens Keowee Courier, August 13, 1913; Greenwood Index and Greenwood Evening Index, August 14, 1913; and Manning Times, August 20, 1913. The statistics about lynching in Laurens County come from the Equal Justice Initiative’s “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror” report, 3rd ed. (lynchinginamerica.eji.org/​report). Samuel A. Shipman’s recollections are from April 2000 interviews with G. Kurt Piehler and Shelley Stafford for the Veteran’s Oral History Project, Center for the Study of War and Society, Department of History, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (volweb.utk.edu/​~wpcsws/​wp-content/​uploads/​2013/​04/​2000-Shipman-Samuel.pdf). Information about the trestle over River Street and its removal can be found in the Greenville News, September 8, 1983. Rev. Kennedy’s remarks about the Ku Klux Klan growing “bold” are from the Associated Press, June 17, 1996. The Gray Court resident who preferred to keep her mind on the Bible was quoted in the Greenville News, March 5, 1996.

  One: The Mask That Grins and Lies

  Much of the narrative in this chapter derives from my interviews with Reverend Kennedy and members of his extended family. Frankie Kennedy’s specific recollections of her son’s death come from videotaped interviews conducted in the mid-2000s by Mary Jo Marino Stemp, to whom I am grateful.

  For more general information about the Echo theater, see my notes for the Prologue. The city’s plans to revitalize the courthouse square were covered in the Greenville News, June 27, 1983. Advertisements for the liquidation of the Echo and its contents can be found in the Greenwood Index-Journal, August 6 and August 13, 1989.

  The statistics regarding the number of meals served by the Laurens County Soup Kitchen come from a feature in the Laurens County Advertiser, October 16, 1996.

  The description of Bell’s Café was largely derived from interviews with Clarence Simpson. For Samuel Shipman, see my notes for the Prologue. The death of the Laurens County sharecropper was covered in the Greenville News, July 5, September 24, and November 16, 1957, and the Greenwood Index-Journal, July 10, 1957. For an account of the Lamar riots, widely regarded as the most violent reaction to court-ordered desegregation in South Carolina, see the Associated Press report in the Greenwood Index-Journal, August 27, 1970.

  Benjamin Payton’s biography was culled from obituaries printed in the New York Times, October 11, 2016, and the Montgomery Advertiser, September 30, 2016. The quote about Benedict College’s original mission (to train “teachers and preachers”) comes from the Benedict College Catalogue and is summarized at benedict.edu. For an account of the Lawson Affair, see Ray Waddle, “Days of Thunder,” Vanderbilt Magazine, Fall 2002.

  For an overview of the Anti–Drug Abuse Act and its effect on the national prison population, see Deborah J. Vagins and Jesselyn McCurdy, “Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of the Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law,” American Civil Liberties Union, October 2006. For specific information on the Abbeville bust, see the Greenville News, April 12 and 13, 1986. For an account of the rumors about the Anderson County Sheriff, see the Greenville News, February 28 and March 22, 1986. For an overview of the Laurens raid, see Associated Press reports in the Gaffney Ledger, September 23, 1985, and Greenwood Index-Journal, December 4, 1985. See also the Greenwood Index-Journal, September 22, 1985, and Greenville News, October 10, 1985.

  Reverend Kennedy’s first major anti-drug rally in Laurens was covered in the Greenville News, December 23, 1986, and January 18, 1987. Mayor Dominick’s visit to New Beginning and the statistics about drug arrests in Laurens are from January 16, 1987.

  For information about the arrest of William Robertson, see the Greenville News, October 6 and October 12, 1988. Kennedy’s specific quotes about turning the city “upside down” are from the Greenville News, October 16, 1988.

  Worsening racial tensions, including a lawsuit filed by the local NAACP and a lawsuit filed by a Laurens parent against the local school board, were covered in the Greenville News, March 8 and April 15, 1990. Kennedy’s quotes about encouraging children to boycott classes are from the Greenville News, August 30, 1989.

  Almost all of the information about the death of James “Bobo” Cook, the resulting protests, and the fallout between Reverend Kennedy and Mayor Bob Dominick comes from coverage in the Greenville News in 1990: The initial protest rally was covered on April 10; the verbal altercation and Dominick’s quotes about Project Awakening are from June 19; Dominick’s reference to Rev. Kennedy as a “joker” and Councilman Bolt’s comments are from June 20; the physical confrontation between Dominick and Kennedy was covered on June 23. For information about Kennedy’s trial, see June 27, August 26, and August 29; and for city prosecutor Wyatt Saunders’s comments on the “racial overtones” of the case, see the January 4, 1991, issue. The Greenwood Index-Journal, April 10, 1990, also reported on the Cook protests.

  Two: A Kernel of Truth

  The controversial death of Bobby “Cat” Scroggs triggered investigations by the FBI and the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, and was covered extensively in the Greenville News. Most of my information comes from a four-part investigative series by Jim Tharpe. John Howard’s press conference and the quotes about returning to reveal “all of the facts” gleaned during the Klan’s probe of the incident are from the third installment of that series, May 1, 1980.

  To trace John Howard’s rise through the Klan from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s (and for information on various civil-rights-era Klansmen, in particular Robert Scoggin and James Venable), I relied heavily on the comprehensive reporting in Patsy Sims’s The Klan, 2nd ed. (University Press of Kentucky, 1996). (In some instances, I have altered Sims’s rendering of the southern dialect, for clarity.) Howard’s quote about being “scared” by civil-rights-era rioting is from the Clinton Chronicle, March 20, 1996. Howard’s thoughts about Reconstruction-era South Carolina and the formation of the Ku Klux Klan (specifically, the idea that the Klan was formed to defend oppressed southern whites) are represented in a range of articles and confirmed by my interviews with Michael Burden; the specific quotes about African Americans “ruling and dictating” southern white people are from a YouTube video uploaded on October 2, 2011, by Max Wendroff (youtube.com/​watch?v=fJQeSsnaPs8&t=136s). As it relates to the 1970 death of Willie Odom, Sims reported that John Howard, Robert Scoggin, and several other Klansmen were arrested and indicted, and that bail was set “at five to seven thousand dollars.” For additional information, see the Washington Post, September 18, 1970, the Greenville News, November 10, 1971, and Associated Press reports in the Aiken Standard, October 14, 1970, and the Greenwood Index-Journal, October 28, 1970. Anne Thomson Sheppard’s letter to the editor lamenting her fear of the Klan (“Smothering in Whispers About Fear”) and John Howard’s response are both from the Greenville News, November 1 and November 10, 1971, respectively. The 1961 assault on future congressman John Lewis in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has been reported on extensively, in large part because Lewis’s attacker, Elwin Wilson, publicly apologized in 2009. For a definitive account of the apology and the resulting reunion of Lewis and Wilson, see the Rock Hill Herald, January 24, January 27, and February 4, 2009. For details about John Howard’s rally in Greenwood, see the Greenwood Index-Journal, August 25, 1975. For additional information about Howard’s split from the National Knights, see the Associated Press reports in the Greenville Ne
ws, October 10, 1975, and the Muncie Star Press, February 9, 1976. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s civil suit against Robert Shelton and the UKA was chronicled in Laurence Leamer’s The Lynching: The Epic Courtroom Battle That Brought Down the Klan (William Morrow, 2016). For a brief account of Venable’s life and health, see his obituary in the New York Times, January 21, 1993. Barry Black’s years-long membership in the Klan is detailed in an Extremist Profile compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org). For details of his arrest record, see the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 9, 1998. Estimating the size of any Klan faction is a notoriously difficult task, as Klansmen are known to exaggerate, obfuscate, or outright lie about membership numbers; statistics on the Keystone Klan’s size under Black come from the Washington Post, January 24, 1999. Based on interviews with multiple subjects, the 1999 figures are likely similar to membership levels in 1993–1994. John Howard’s 1992 purchase of the Echo theater was recorded in Deed Book 273, page 260, at the Laurens County Clerk of Court’s office. The Articles of Incorporation for the South Carolina chapter of the Keystone Knights can be viewed online at search.laurensdeeds.com.

  The more general material about the first, second, and third iterations of the Ku Klux Klan is derived from sources far too extensive to list in their entirety. Some of the most valuable and informative include Arnold Forster and Benjamin R. Epstein, “Report on the Ku Klux Klan” (Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 1965); Elaine Frantz Parsons, Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan During Reconstruction (University of North Carolina, 2016); David Cunningham, Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights–Era Ku Klux Klan (Oxford University Press, 2012); Linda Gordon, The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition (Liveright, 2017); and “Ku Klux Klan: A History of Racism,” 6th ed., 2011, compiled by the Klanwatch Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center (the description of William Joseph Simmons as a “compulsive joiner” and the information about the Alabama divorcée beaten for the “crime” of remarrying both come from this report). See also Joshua Zeitz, “When Congress Ousted a Failing President,” Politico, May 20, 2017; Joshua Rothman, “When Bigotry Paraded Through the Streets,” The Atlantic, December 4, 2016; Kelly J. Baker, “Make America White Again?,” The Atlantic, March 12, 2016; and Otto H. Olsen, “The Ku Klux Klan: A Study in Reconstruction Politics and Propaganda,” North Carolina Historical Review 39, no. 3 (July 1962): 340–362.