Despite her secluded life, her writing reveals an uncanny grasp of the nuances of human behavior. O'Connor gave many lectures on faith and literature, traveling quite far despite her frail health. Politically, she maintained a broadly progressive outlook in connection with her faith; she voted for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and outwardly supported the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.[31] Despite this, she made her personal stance on race and integration known throughout her life in several letters to playwright Maryat Lee (which she wrote under the pseudonym "Mrs Turpin"). In one such letter, she said, "You know, I'm an integrationist, by principle, and a segregationist, by taste. I don't like negroes. They all give me a pain, and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them. Particularly the new kind".[18] According to O'Connor biographer, Brad Gooch, there are also "letters where she even talks about a friend that she makes in graduate school at the University of Iowa who is black, and she defends this friendship to her own mother, in letters. It's complicated to look at, and I don't think that we can box her in".[32]
O'Connor, despite being Irish Catholic, is emblematic of Southern literature. It is interesting that in the Civil Rights era book 'Black Like Me' Roman Catholics in the South are credited with being more liberal on race. And certainly the Roman church was at the forefront in attacking anti-miscegenation laws in the courts.
Joe_McCarthy 0 points 1 month ago
Despite her secluded life, her writing reveals an uncanny grasp of the nuances of human behavior. O'Connor gave many lectures on faith and literature, traveling quite far despite her frail health. Politically, she maintained a broadly progressive outlook in connection with her faith; she voted for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and outwardly supported the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement.[31] Despite this, she made her personal stance on race and integration known throughout her life in several letters to playwright Maryat Lee (which she wrote under the pseudonym "Mrs Turpin"). In one such letter, she said, "You know, I'm an integrationist, by principle, and a segregationist, by taste. I don't like negroes. They all give me a pain, and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them. Particularly the new kind".[18] According to O'Connor biographer, Brad Gooch, there are also "letters where she even talks about a friend that she makes in graduate school at the University of Iowa who is black, and she defends this friendship to her own mother, in letters. It's complicated to look at, and I don't think that we can box her in".[32]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O'Connor
O'Connor, despite being Irish Catholic, is emblematic of Southern literature. It is interesting that in the Civil Rights era book 'Black Like Me' Roman Catholics in the South are credited with being more liberal on race. And certainly the Roman church was at the forefront in attacking anti-miscegenation laws in the courts.