Symposium Introduction

Anyone from Mercer University or from Macon, Georgia—indeed, anyone from the American South—should understand the truth of this statement. Markers and reminders of the past are ubiquitous: the Ocmulgee Mounds that were occupied by different Native American cultures for thousands of years; Confederate monuments that were only recently moved away from downtown Macon; even a plaque commemorating where Reverend Pearly Brown liked to play the gospel blues; and a museum in the house where the Allman Brothers once lived, jammed, and smoked weed. Whether we celebrate or deplore them, these long-spun webs (at least in part) define us.