Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
The Hindered Hand (Sutton Griggs)

The Hindered Hand (Sutton Griggs)

Last updated on: February 2, 2019 at 10:20 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

The Hindered Hand (Sutton Griggs) 2019-02-02T22:20:46-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thomas Dixon wrote a series of racist books so terrible Woodrow Wilson liked them and Hollywood made Birth of a Nation to monetize their lies. This confirms two rules of thumb: progressive cant does not cancel racism and Hollywood will do anything for money. The books, consider the title Leapord’s Spots, were a cry for race purity against “miscegenation.” White Southern folk did eugenics first.

Racist.

Ugly.

Arguing for Confederate nostalgia.

Thomas Dixon attacked the very beauty of the African-American body and the ability of the African-American mind.

He wrote, he hated, and seemingly conquered.

One man without Dixon’s connections, resources, or hate decided to take on the task of telling a different story. Dixon presented African-Americans propped up by Northern bayonets and controlled by carpet bagging whites. Thomas Dixon twisted Christian theology to justify hate. Sutton Griggs wrote a novel, The Hindered Hand, to counter-act the lies.

If I had the money, I have friends (and a daughter!) who should make the movie. Sutton Griggs knew the black body is beautiful, created in the image of God.

The young woman looked up from her breakfast. “My!” she said, “Your eyes are pretty. They are such a lovely brown.

Sutton Griggs lived in corrupt, Boss Hogg South, where the hard working hand of the African-American was hindered and then blamed for not doing enough. “Lazy,” they cried, “while denying work.”

At one time the Negroes of the cities of the South had almost a monopoly of the work of transferring passengers and baggage to and from the depots, but white men organized transfer companies, placed white agents on the incoming trains to solicit patronage, employed white men to drive the transfer wagons and thus largely wrested the business from the hands of the Negroes. But the Negroes would yet drive up to the station, hoping for some measure of success in the spirited contests that would arise in attempts to capture such gleanings as the advance agents of the transfer companies had left behind.

Sutton Griggs spoke the truth and (mostly) was ignored, but Griggs created a publishing house and wrote novel after novel. They are (if you like early 1900’s novels as I do) excellent quick reads with the bonus of being lived history. He describes what is around him and that was enough to engender hatred in the Ivy League, the business elite, the Democrats, and the Lilly White Republicans that had purged the party of any trace of the abolitionist past.

Griggs pictures brave veterans who fought for our flag given less honor than traitors who tore down Old Glory, because the veterans were black and the rebels were white. He did not have to say it, just picture the truth of the Wilson era: better to spit on Old Glory, than to bleed red, white, and blue if the skin pricked is black. He was, certainly, less of a novelist than Dixon, less sure in his story telling, because the truth was so overwhelming.

The prophet Jeremiah would have struggled to be a novelist, but it was novelists that were penetrating the public, so Griggs took on the task of telling tales while telling the truth. His novels, unlike Dixons’s, struggle to maintain a plot, because they are so full of passion. See Judge Lynch in action and it is hard to slow dow.

Dixon played up fear. Griggs loved. Both were Baptist pastors, but one was a Christian.

Griggs describes a society where an African-American is better off “confessing” to a crime he did not commit than to face a jury. The judge might, just might, give justice, but if he is acquitted, the lynch mob will end his life. Guilty he goes to prison, where he might live. Innocent and he will die.

If you are my age and African-American, your grandparents lived this world. This is not long ago and justice still has not been done. How can you know? Dixon’s lies live in Gone with the Wind and Griggs remains unshot, unscripted, unknown.

Read the novel that tells the truth and ask somebody to make the film.

Culture

On Books

Previous Post

February 1, 2019

Injustice Must Not Last Forever (Countee Cullen)

Next Post

February 3, 2019 Plain Theology for Plain People: Being and Character of God (Charles Octavius Boothe 1/9)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who tried to lure Nehemiah into a trap to discredit him?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Darius and Cyrus Sanballat and Tobiah Haggai and Zerubbabel Ezra and Eliashib

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »