On this episode of Our American Stories, Matthew R. Walsh, author of The Good Governor: Robert Ray and the Indochinese Refugees of Iowa, tells the story of this remarkable man who was driven by faith and a commitment to helping his fellow man. Tommy Dew shares the story of Charleston, NC—from the American Revolution to today.
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Time Codes:
00:00 - "The Good Governor" Who Welcomed Asian Refugees to Iowa
25:00 - The Story of Charleston: The Way Life Used to Be, And Perhaps, Is Supposed to Be
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And we'd love to hear stories from our listeners. That's
you send them to our American Stories dot com. That's
our American Stories dot Com. There's some of our favorite
After the United States withdrew from Vietnam in the nineteen seventies,
(00:31):
their allies around the region who had fought against the
communists faced torture, involuntary servitude, and death. They were on
their own. The man to lead the charge to save
them the governor of Iowa, Robert Ray. Here's our own
Monty Montgomery with the story of the good governor, Take
it away, Monty. In the state of Iowa, there's a
(00:53):
unique ethnic group. In fact, there are more in Iowa
than anywhere outside of Asia. They're called the Thaidon. But
how did they end up there? Here's Matthew R. Walsh
with the rest of the story. Thai Daon means black tie,
and they're called black tie because of the clothing worn
by their women. Now, this ethnic minority was from northwest
(01:15):
to Vietnam. That's their ancestral homeland around the place called
dB Fu but they ended up in Laos after North
Vietnam fell to the communists. But what happens is South
Vietnam falls to communism, and these Thaidam are very scared
because they know that the Communists remember them and how
(01:39):
they fought against them in North Vietnam. These Thai dam
A Orri Laos is going to be next. And in
May of nineteen seventy five, they actually crossed the border
into Thailand seeking asylum. And it is from Thailand that
they write letters to thirty US governors. They want to
be resettled as a group. They want all these Tai
(02:00):
dom they want their fellows to be able to go
to the same place. And nobody listened except for the
governor of Iowa, Robert Ray, and he agrees to resettle
these Thai dom, but he couldn't undo it immediately because
the US government was only accepting refugees from places that
(02:23):
had fallen to communism, and the Thai Dom had fled
in May of seventy five. Laos did not officially fall
to communism until December of nineteen seventy five, so the
governor had to kind of bend the rules and say, well,
can you let me bring these people in, and Kissinger
and Ford agreed, and they basically just said, well, these
(02:46):
people are originally from Vietnam and that place has fallen
to communism, and we'll bring them in. And this Thai
dom group ultimately comes to Iowa in nineteen seventy five.
So Governor Ray brings in these Thai Dam Vietnam false
(03:06):
to communism in nineteen seventy five, but it takes a
while for the Communists to really gain a firm hold
on the South, and thus began a second refugee crisis
in Asia. People were fearful that their sons were going
to be drafted into this military and have to fight
for the communists. So what do they do. They take
(03:28):
to the seas, and it was incredibly dangerous for them.
They got in these small boats, some of them are
very rickety, unseaworthy, so pirate attacks, rape, murder, people, dying
of thirst, dying of disease. Hundreds of thousands of people
took to the seas, and it's estimated that one in
three actually died. And some people, right when they're about
(03:50):
to get to landfall, there's this joy, but then a
boat comes and they actually tow the refugees back at
sea because these places like Sapoor, they didn't want refugees.
Malaysia doesn't want refugees. They're poor. They resent these people
coming in taking resources. Some of them will actually be
stoned to death when they arrive on shore. So Governor
(04:21):
Ray watches a basketball game at Drake University and then
he returns from this game and watches a sixty minutes program.
It's a special report on the boat people done by
Ed Bradley, and they're talking about all that these people
had been through. Well, Ray was very moved and he's like,
we have to do something. He had already created this
(04:42):
refugee resettlement program to help the tie down in nineteen
seventy five. It's still running. So what he says is,
I WA will agree to accept fifteen hundred extra refugees.
And he then wrote letters to every governor to do
more to help the boat people. And he wrote to
as a Carter to do more to help the boat people.
(05:03):
He's one of the first politicians to stand up and
say we need to help these volks. So that's the
kind of the second thing that he did, was helping
the boat people. It's the second of basically three big
things that Ray did as governor of Iola. Bringing him
the Tai Dam was first. Helping these boat people refugees
come in was second, and the third will be helping
(05:26):
people from Cambodia. Well, Ray, he's born in nineteen twenty eight.
He's from des Moines. He's a des Moine guy, and
he just misses out on World War Two, but he
does join the service. And while he's in the service,
right after World War Two, he's in the East and
(05:48):
he really gets to see the devastation. So I think
that made an imprint on him as a as a
young man. It was something that it was impressionable to him.
He then goes to Drake University, and even before that,
I guess I should say at Roosevelt High School in
des Moines, he was known for sticking up for the
little guy. He wasn't interested in people bullying others. But
(06:09):
he goes on to Drake and then he studies law
and he becomes a lawyer and then basically a chairman
of the Republican Party, trying to get Republicans elected to office,
and then eventually he runs for governor and he wins
the governorship in nineteen sixty eight and serve for fourteen
straight years. For Ray, it kind of worked. He's a
(06:31):
Christian man, so those Christian ethics, I think are going
to be important for Ray helping out others. People complaining
about refugee resettlement. They were saying, why are you helping
out these foreigners? Why aren't you helping Iowans who you
were elected to serve? And Ray's response was, quote, we
don't have the heart or the spirit to save human lives,
(06:54):
then how can we be expected to help those whose
lives are already ashore? And if we're going to turn
our backs on people who are dying overseas, our allies
who are dying, well we're not going to be all
that kind to those who are in Iowa. So we
can do both and when we come back more of
(07:15):
this remarkable story, the story of Robert Ray and the
refugees here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
(07:37):
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life. And if you can't cut
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
learn more. And we returned to our American stories and
(08:11):
the story of Governor Robert Ray, the governor of Iowa
for fourteen years, and the refugees he brought into his state.
When we last left off, Ray had decided, even in
the face of criticism, to be the first governor to
take in refugees from Vietnam, and he would soon take
a flight overseas to take stock of the situation in
(08:32):
the refugee camps. Here again is Matthew R. Walsh to
continue the story. Well, the catalyst for Ray's trip overseas
is his work with the Thai Dom. He brings in
the Thai Doom starting in nineteen seventy five. But they
(08:54):
still have family, they still have friends, still have loved
ones who are coming in. So he's sitting these camps
where they're still Tai Dom, and there's a moving story.
They said, Ray, Governor, we want to show your symbol
of hope so Ray and the small delegation from Iowa,
they go look at the symbol of hope and this
thatched little hut. It's the State of Iowa Department of
(09:17):
Transportation map. That was their symbol of hope. And on
this map there are pins where different Thai Dom families
had resettled and where these folks hope one day they
would be reuniting with these loved ones. He's visiting the
Thai Dom and these in Thailand at the refugee camp
(09:40):
Non Kai, and then he makes an excursion to the
Cambodian refugee camp and that's when you know, he sees
one person died. A young girl died and her head
fell in the lap of one of Ray's aids. Governor
Ray very abt a photographer and he went around the
refugee camp and was snapping photo after or photo of
(10:00):
these kids crying, people sick, losing hope. They didn't have
running water, they had hardly anything, and they were escaping
a group of people called the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer
Rouge this is basically meaning red people. They were nasty
(10:23):
folks in Cambodia. They tore through that place. They were
cutting open people, and these Khmer rouge communists forced people
out of the cities and into the countryside to work
as slaves. They separated families. One man slit so many
people's throats that he developed arthritis in his forearm and
had to develop a different technique for plunging his knife
(10:45):
into people's throats to kill them. And many people starved
to death. And Ray visited the Cambodian refugee camps in
Thailand in nineteen seventy nine, and he was just devastated
by what he saw. He wrote a great speech and
delivered it to an assembly of his church. And this
(11:08):
is him talking about visiting the Sakeo refugee camp. Have
you ever stood in a small muddy spot about two
hours while five people died around you? I did two
days ago. Those deaths were only part of the more
than fifty that died in that one camp on that
(11:30):
one day. To see little kids with sunken eyes and
protruding tummies trying to eke out a smile will bring
a tear to the eyes of even the most callous.
And when he returned, he came up with this idea
of Iowa shares, and he handed out that film that
he had taken, didn't even know what was on it.
(11:51):
He gave it to the Des Moines Register, the major newspaper,
and they published an article and it showed some of
these photos in what governor saw in the refugee camp.
In the newspaper helped publicize and get donations for Iowah Shares,
and Shares stands for Iowa sends help to aid refugees
(12:12):
and end starvation. And what Iowans did is they purchased
a share in Humanity, which was the price of a
bushel of corn, and they donated money to the Governor's office,
and the governor's office used this money to send medicine
Iowa doctors and nurses and food to these starving Cambodian refugees.
(12:35):
And one woman sent in her engagement ring to the
governor's office and they had to give it back. They said,
if we can't accept this, A nine year old boy
named Eric Sharp donated his Christmas money as Ray basically
announced this Iowah Shares program. He said, in a world
where there is hate, there's more reason to love, and
(12:55):
a world where there is hunger, there is more reason
to share. Nineteen seventy nine, Iowans through this Iowa Shares
program raised over five hundred and forty thousand dollars. Some
people backed this movement because of Judeo Christian ethics. Some
(13:16):
in the Jewish community, you know, seeing those people starving
to death in Cambodia spark memories of the Holocaust, people
being liberated from the camps and looking so terrible because
of the mistreatment. So rabbis from synagogues, they helped out
people in the Christian Church. They served as as sponsors,
trying to help people get resettled. And a lot of
(13:39):
people felt guilty about Vietnam and destructive force America played there.
Helping refugees was a way for them to heal from
the wounds of the Vietnam War and raise work with
refugees also kind of gave people pride because to be
a public official in the early seventies, people were frowning
(14:01):
upon you. It wasn't much to be proud of. After
the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal. So Ray helped keep
people's faith in public government. And what I find amazing
is during this controversial era, rays of proval rating was
over eighty percent. It's quite fascinating but a lot of
people liked him, and that's why they were willing to help.
(14:27):
The Thai dom early on did fairly well. Within a
handful of years, they were able to have a vast
majority of people own their own automobiles and a majority
of Thai doom would become homeowners in just a short
time period. What they did is they pulled their resources.
They tried not to rent. They might be multiple families renting,
(14:50):
but just for a little bit, everyone will pitch in
and we'll get you your house. And then after you
have your house, you and others are going to pitch
in and then you're going to get me my house.
So they bought a lot of homes. They might be
modest homes, but they became homeowners, they became automobile owners.
They helped each other out, so the community served as
a safety net initially. The first group of people who
(15:13):
came here they were professionals. That was very helpful. The
first way that first one hundred thirty thousand people that
I spoke about, a lot of them were officers in
the military, politicians, people with good careers. Early on, a
lot of them fell into becoming blue collar workers. So
there's stories of bank owners becoming janitors at banks. So
(15:36):
it's tough for that first generation. Now the second generation
did quite well, and you know they're flourishing. There are
people who are in the medical community that they're doing
great work. But we do have a very diverse and
rich state that and a lot of it stems from
this refugee resettlement that began in nineteen seventy five. There's
(15:57):
more tied down in Iowa than anywhere outside of Asia.
They created their own community center on the north side
of Des Moines and they named their community center the
Robert D. Ray Welcome Center. You can go there for
a festival. Every year, they have a big festival that
celebrates their coming to Iowa. They honored Ray at that festival.
There's also something called the Asian Gardens that we have
(16:20):
here in Des Moines that honors Ray's work with these refugees.
One woman, this is a quote from her, her name Sambacam.
She said about Ray, I love the man forever. He
will be our savior. He is almost like our Abraham Lincoln.
He freed us. They really do revere the man. When
he died, Governor Ay rested in state at the US
(16:41):
Capitol building, and all these refugees came to say farewell,
to lay their wreaths and ribbons and other things onto
to his burial site. He's a very beloved figure, especially
amongst the Southeast Asian refugee community. And terrific work on
(17:03):
the production by Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to
Matthew R. Walsh his book The Good Governor. Go to
local bookstores or go wherever you buy your books online.
Also a special thanks to our own Jim Watkins for
putting this story together. And what a story about what
happened after the Communists took over and it was America
and Iowa in particular who came to the rescue. What
(17:24):
a story about Iowa's heart, about the American heart, and
about love and compassion. What a story, the story of
a good governor and a good country. Here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories. Tommy
(18:12):
Doo's walking tour of Charleston, South Carolina has been praised
and recommended by the likes of the Wall Street Journal
to Trip Advisor. Tommy is here to share this story
of Charleston from the American Revolution to today. Here's Tommy Doody,
the South collapsed in eighteen sixty five and was left
for dead. Charleston paid a terrible price for her role
(18:34):
in the war. Secession began in Charleston. The first secession
document was signed in downtown Charleston December twentieth, eighteen sixty
and then the first shots are fired here at Fort Sumter.
So the political start to the war was in Charleston,
the military start, and we were a philosophical target. The
(18:55):
Federal government bomb Charleston for five hundred and eighty seven
consecutive days, the second longest artillery SiGe in modern warfare
after Leningrad. The Germans bombed the Russians for nine hundred
days during the War War two, and the Federals bombus
for five eighty seven, and by eighteen sixty five, it
is a ruin. And that's a for instance why Sherman
(19:16):
didn't come here. In large part, we were not viewed
as a viable target. He did not need to waste
his time on us. As much as he wanted to
raise Charleston, he did more harm to South Carolina and
the Confederacy by burning the middle of the state. He
cut a fire sixty miles wide through central South Carolina
and then we were occupied after the war for fourteen years.
It was a six thousand man federal occupying force martial law,
(19:40):
and then when they pulled out, the place was essentially
left for dead, and it took about one hundred years
to start to recover. Healthy cities in those hundred years
embraced urban renewal. They were inclined to tear down their
old stuff because it stood in the way of progress,
and Charleston couldn't participate. So as a result, we've got
about one hundred bill things downtown from before seventeen seventy
(20:02):
six and about one thousand from before eighteen sixty one.
But I think more, maybe more importantly than the architectural preservation,
is the cultural preservation. People understand that the South is different,
but they don't always understand why. And I would say
it's because it was uninfluenced, undisturbed by the outside world.
There was hardly any immigration here until relatively recently, and
(20:26):
even accents are impacted. Southern accents tend to be much
older because immigrants moved the tongue and there was just
not a lot of immigration here, and so when all
these fronts were frozen in time, architecture, culture, accents. If
we had been healthy, this would be anywhere USA. Everything
(20:47):
would have been bulldozed. We talk about slavery a lot
on my tour. You can't talk about Charleston without talking
about slavery. We were the number one slave trading city
for the United States. Herd of slaves that entered the
US entered through the port of Charleston, and that's a
shocking statistic, but it makes sense. Charleston was the largest
(21:08):
city in the South until eighteen twenty. That's when New
Orleans overtook US, and the slave trade had already concluded
as of eighteen o eight as part of the US Constitution.
So this was the largest Southern harbor through legal importation,
and the South, with the superior farming conditions, had an
appetite for that labor. The wealth here, and that's important understand.
(21:30):
These are the wealthiest Americans, these are the most educated Americans.
I liken it to what was happening really around the world.
But the plantation culture that evolved here is, in my estimation,
the repackaging of old world feudal culture. They're playing at
being English, French and German royals in a place where
(21:50):
that's possible. We have a year round growing season, we
have fifty to fifty five inches of annual rainfall, and
we have no rocks for one hundred miles. We're in
an alluvial plain where nothing but top soil and sand,
and so it's some of the finest farming in the world,
the Southeast coastal plain. And so they pick up old
world lens. In England, you would have large estates. You've
(22:12):
got royals in the big house. The peasants are in
the field. The peasants don't get to vote, they don't
own the land. They can be bound to the estate.
And then the royals would have a town him in
London or Paris or Vienna. So the royals of the
world would gather in the capitals after fall harvests. In
the capital you make your political relationships and then you
(22:33):
make your business deals, and then the social fruits are
in the city and the capital as well. So literary season,
debutante season, theatrical season, all that's dead of winter stuff.
So they come in with a mindset and they apply
it and it works. They're able to live like royals
in the New World. And it is seductive, and that's
(22:54):
ultimately the issue. They're not interested in new ideas. The
North was an agent of change in the mid hundreds,
and these families were prideful, and they were not great negotiators,
and they would rather fight than yield. They saw the
federal government as unconstitutional five hundred miles away, controlled by
people that lived even further away, and they were not
about to lie down before it, And so they ended
(23:16):
up fighting to the death. And by eighteen sixty five
it's over total collapse. And so the wealth here, the
prestige here, is absolutely built on forced labor. You can't
separate the two. But I do think it's important to
understand everybody now understands that slavery is immoral, it's not negotiable,
(23:39):
But two hundred years ago it was kind of fuzzy.
People didn't see it the way we see it. Just
as an example, in eighteen forty, only two percent of
northern people were abolitionists, just two percent critically opposed to
slavery in the North in eighteen forty, and at the
same time, across the South, less than ten percent son
(24:00):
of white families own slaves. That's see that is probably
the biggest misconception people assume that the average white guy
in the South was a slave owner, and it's not close.
Over ninety percent did not own slaves. If you look
at the mountains of the South, the Appalachian counties were
slave free. Literally, county after county has zero slaves. Because
you can't own slaves in the mountains and make money,
(24:22):
just like you can't own slaves in New England and
make money. And so the conditions here were ripe, high volume,
industrial level farming with sort of a feudal patriarchal lens.
And it's a pretty dagon good fit. And so it
is logical where the number one slave trading city for America.
(24:45):
And there's always going to be pushback on that. You know,
I noticed it, and I'd probably notice it more now
than before because people are increasingly talking about these things.
I think we up it under the rug for a
long time. I think people just maybe even try to
(25:06):
try to pretend like it didn't happens. I've never had
that approach. I love talking about slavery, and I find
that my guests, particularly if I have black tourists, they
want you talking about this stuff. They don't want you
shying away from it. Those are My favorite compliments when
I have black tourists and afterwards they say, thank you
so much for being frank, thank you so much for
(25:27):
not mincing words. It's refreshing because you don't learn if
you don't discuss it. So I think one of the
great joys for giving tours in Charleston is outside people
do not understand the significance of Charleston because it collapsed
in eighteen sixty five. This was the fourth largest city
(25:48):
in the United States in seventeen ninety Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston.
South Carolina educated more children in Europe than the other
twelve colonies put together. O nine of the ten wealthiest
families in America were living in South Carolina for a
period of time prior to seventeen seventy six, all at once,
(26:09):
nine out of ten, and so the role of Charleston
is not well understood. The American Revolution, I think offers insight.
This is the bloodiest theater of the Revolution. There were
more battles in South Carolina, more people were killed in
South Carolina than any of the other twelve colonies. And
that's just a huge surprise for guests. We had four
(26:32):
signers of the Declaration Independence from Charleston, four signers of
the Constitution from Charleston, and that's not well understood. George
Washington spent a week in Charleston in seventeen ninety one,
and he wrote that he had never been entertained more lavishly.
He said the most elegant parties he had ever attended
were in Charleston, and that the prettiest ladies he'd ever
(26:55):
seen were in Charleston. And you're listening to Tommy Doo
and it's not a walking tour, but you're getting a
great chronological tour, a great economic tour, and a great
social tour of one of America's great cities. When we
come back more with Tommy Doos Walking Tour of Charleston,
South Carolina, and we continue with our American stories and
(27:40):
with Tommy Doos Walking Tour of Charleston, South Carolina, which
has been praised and recommended by everyone from the Wall
Street Journal to Trip Advisor. Let's return to Tommy with
more of the story of his hometown. Another really big
surprise for outsiders is the permissiveness of Charleston. We have
so many social first the first theater in America, first racetrack,
(28:03):
in America, first golf club in America, widespread gambling city
back lotteries. The oldest profession was legal from the beginning
through World War Two. Our navy base matriculated hundreds of
thousands of soldiers post World War Two, and they were
riddled with STDs and so because of medical concerns they
(28:24):
had to write laws against it for the first time.
That's in the nineteen forties. The French called us the
Paris of the New World. The British called us the
crown Jewel of America. But at the same time New
Englanders culture Alston, Sodom and Gomoor. They saw Charleston as
centers on a biblical level, Sodom and Gomoor. And what
(28:45):
surprises people the confusion comes from the fact that they're
now inclined to call us the Bible Belt, but really
the North was the Bible Belt for the first one
hundred and fifty years. So the real question is what
happens wide in the North and the South swap personalities,
and that's about immigration. Once again, we stopped getting people
in the early eighteen hundreds when they started industrializing and
(29:06):
building factories, immigrants going north. They also invest in infrastructure railroads, canals,
and it's a magnet for immigration, and the South is
back ordered. So basically, from the eighteen twenties to the
nineteen seventies, there's one hundred and fifty years where the
Southeast is not receiving people at the same rates as
(29:26):
everybody else. And so the southern families grow deep roots,
and they tended to have a longer, more traditional view.
And the North, which had been uptight, was overwhelmed by
immigration two hundred years ago and suddenly found herself to
be multicultural, more liberal, more progressive, and the South was
increasingly homogeneous, conservative, and moralistic. It impacts everything. Accents talked
(29:53):
about that a little bit. But the southeast coastal accent
is Elizabethan English. So my accent coming from Richmond, I've
got a form of It's called the Toddwater accent, so
around the Chesapeake Bay. That accent was established by people
from southern England in the early sixteen hundreds. It's called
a non rhodic accent. It's very soft. You drawl, you
hold your vowel and you pull the R out of
the word. I throw a ball. I don't throw a ball.
(30:17):
I'll go to the bathroom. Not the bathroom. My grandfather
loved to go down into the river Tomatas and Patatas,
and that's Elizabethan English English. It's linguistically closer to Elizabethan
English and what is currently being spoken in England. And
I know that's difficult to believe, but it is a
linguistic fact. And if you go up into the mountains
of the South, it becomes Scottish, the Scots of the
(30:38):
next great migration, and they go up the rivers looking
for available land, and the mountains catch them and it
suits them. There's an old saying in the South, the
glen and Glade of Apelacha settled by the scot And
so instead of drawling and holding your vowel you lilt,
you get it up into the back of your mouth
(30:59):
more like thy. It's a brogue. And so you have
a Scottish brogue in the mountains of the South and
an English drawl on the coast. And they're old because
they were generally undisturbed. Another subtlety of the South and
the lack of immigration, is how we view ourselves. Southerners
tend not to be ethnic people. We don't care about
(31:19):
where we came from. Overseas, we care about being Southern.
So the joke is Southerners of Southern Yanks or ethnic
Northern people are consistently more newly rived people, and they
tend to get excited romanticize where their grandparents are born.
So Northern people tend to have these little flavors attached
to them. Irish American, Italian, American, Puerto Rican, American, Chinese, American,
(31:42):
and Southerners tend not to see themselves that way. We've
been here long enough to be from here. You definitely
notice it. If you ask a Northern or where they're from,
it's usually where they woke up this morning. And if
you ask a Southern or where they're from, it's whether
people are. People always say, are you from Charleston. I say, no,
I'm from Richmond. Well you've lived here for thirty five years,
(32:03):
you're from Charleston. And I will say, no, I am not.
I am from Richmond. My people are from Virginia. I
live here, but I'm from there. And that's a subtlety.
It's where your people are, that's where you're from, it's
not where you live. Right now. I get so many
tourists who will say, this is my favorite city. I
(32:24):
love it so much, You're so fortunate to live here.
There's a secret sauce. There is a feeling I get
when I come to Charleston, and I can't explain it.
What is that? And I would say, ultimately it is
the defense of the human scale. So in the late
eighteen hundreds, engineering really improved. They invented the I beam
(32:46):
and the elevator, and the first skyscraper comes to fruition
in Chicago eighteen eighty. This place was so screwed up
it was boarded up in bankrupt There was no money
to justify a big building, and that would not come
until after War two. And by the time there was
some desire to go big, it was too late because
(33:09):
preservation laws and zoning laws were well crafted. Preservation says,
if you're building is seventy five, you're not going to
tear it down, and you can't corrupt the facade. You
can't do anything to the exterior of an older building
that's going to compromise its accuracy. And so to put
a skyscraper in downtown Charleston, you'd have to tear it
down a block of old things, and that directly violates
(33:31):
preservation and there is a four story threshold through much
of the city, and that's called the human scale. Until
the I beam and the elevator were invented, cities around
the world built to four stories and stopped. Because the
great materials of human history, or wood, brick and stone.
(33:52):
Wood brick and stone have the same load potentials. They
get you to four stories efficiently, and then you've got
to stop. You can actually add a story, but it
would double the cost of construction. You had to make
the foundation so massive to carry that fifth layer. It
just did not make sense. And so there's always been
an economic efficiency of four stories or less around the
(34:12):
world for thousands of years, and so cities around the
world had very similar, very predictable densities. If you maintain
a four story threshold, your population will live, worship, work,
go to school, socialized shop within a one two three
(34:33):
mile radius. The bulk of your existence will be in
one place. You're not spread too thin, and as a citizen,
you can pour yourself into that piece of turf. Big
cities embraced the new technology, ripped out the human scale,
and started going vertical. They created jobs, but they also
(34:53):
created commuters. So now large cities suffer from millions of
anonymous workers, people who often album more than an hour
to get to work. The commute was awful, it was busy.
That had to be aggressive to be competitive, and unfortunately
they're anonymous, and civility inherently breaks down in that situation.
(35:14):
In a place like Charleston, you don't get to be anonymous.
You see the same people day after day, and you
know them in various ways. You cannot walk the streets
of Charleston without seeing people that you know, and so
you'll have frequent and often deep engagements block to block,
and that enhances civility. The reason that this has been
(35:36):
voted the most mannered city in America is because the
human scale provides accountability. You do not get to be anonymous,
and so when you live in Charleston, you feel like
you live in a village. Yet we have the amenities
and the cultural impact of a city that's millions and
(35:57):
millions of people. I think one of the most interesting
barometers of civility is how people use their car horn.
People in Charleston refrain from using their horn. They'll give
you a little toot to say hi, or they may
honk the horn if there's an emergency, but they don't
use the horn to express themselves block to block. I
(36:19):
had a tourist from Philadelphia on my tour a few
years ago, and the night before the tour, she had
pulled into town and she was lost, and she was
at a stoplight five o'clock rush hour traffic. Couldn't find
her hotel. She was buried in her map, and she
spaced out, and when she looked up, the light was
(36:40):
yellow and turned red. She sat at the front of
the line, through an entire green light, and she looked
in the rear view mirror and they were a line
of cars and not one car blew its horn. Every
car behind her gave her the benefit of the doubt,
and it blew her mind. She had an epiphany. She said,
(37:01):
this is the way that life is supposed to be.
And so I feel people come to Charleston from busy situations,
these large metros, long commutes, spread utterly too thin, and
they come here and it nurtures their soul. This is
(37:22):
the way that life used to be and perhaps is
supposed to be. And what a beautiful piece. A special
thanks to Tommy doo Is Walking Tour of Charleston South Carolina,
captured by our own Philip Graham, who moved from San
Diego to Charleston. And a special thanks to Greg Hangler
for the production on the piece as well. And by
(37:43):
the way, we learned so much historically about this city
and culturally about this city. If you've not been, by
all means, visit but that idea of the defense of
the human scale, and it's true when you go there,
you'll be struck most by the fact that there are
just no tall buildings, and there's a lot of light
because of that, and there's a lot of intimacy because
of that. Tommy Doo's story here on our American Story
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
And we'd love to hear stories from our listeners. That's
you send them to our American Stories dot com. That's
our American Stories dot Com. There's some of our favorite
After the United States withdrew from Vietnam in the nineteen seventies,
(00:31):
their allies around the region who had fought against the
communists faced torture, involuntary servitude, and death. They were on
their own. The man to lead the charge to save
them the governor of Iowa, Robert Ray. Here's our own
Monty Montgomery with the story of the good governor, Take
it away, Monty. In the state of Iowa, there's a
(00:53):
unique ethnic group. In fact, there are more in Iowa
than anywhere outside of Asia. They're called the Thaidon. But
how did they end up there? Here's Matthew R. Walsh
with the rest of the story. Thai Daon means black tie,
and they're called black tie because of the clothing worn
by their women. Now, this ethnic minority was from northwest
(01:15):
to Vietnam. That's their ancestral homeland around the place called
dB Fu but they ended up in Laos after North
Vietnam fell to the communists. But what happens is South
Vietnam falls to communism, and these Thaidam are very scared
because they know that the Communists remember them and how
(01:39):
they fought against them in North Vietnam. These Thai dam
A Orri Laos is going to be next. And in
May of nineteen seventy five, they actually crossed the border
into Thailand seeking asylum. And it is from Thailand that
they write letters to thirty US governors. They want to
be resettled as a group. They want all these Tai
(02:00):
dom they want their fellows to be able to go
to the same place. And nobody listened except for the
governor of Iowa, Robert Ray, and he agrees to resettle
these Thai dom, but he couldn't undo it immediately because
the US government was only accepting refugees from places that
(02:23):
had fallen to communism, and the Thai Dom had fled
in May of seventy five. Laos did not officially fall
to communism until December of nineteen seventy five, so the
governor had to kind of bend the rules and say, well,
can you let me bring these people in, and Kissinger
and Ford agreed, and they basically just said, well, these
(02:46):
people are originally from Vietnam and that place has fallen
to communism, and we'll bring them in. And this Thai
dom group ultimately comes to Iowa in nineteen seventy five.
So Governor Ray brings in these Thai Dam Vietnam false
(03:06):
to communism in nineteen seventy five, but it takes a
while for the Communists to really gain a firm hold
on the South, and thus began a second refugee crisis
in Asia. People were fearful that their sons were going
to be drafted into this military and have to fight
for the communists. So what do they do. They take
(03:28):
to the seas, and it was incredibly dangerous for them.
They got in these small boats, some of them are
very rickety, unseaworthy, so pirate attacks, rape, murder, people, dying
of thirst, dying of disease. Hundreds of thousands of people
took to the seas, and it's estimated that one in
three actually died. And some people, right when they're about
(03:50):
to get to landfall, there's this joy, but then a
boat comes and they actually tow the refugees back at
sea because these places like Sapoor, they didn't want refugees.
Malaysia doesn't want refugees. They're poor. They resent these people
coming in taking resources. Some of them will actually be
stoned to death when they arrive on shore. So Governor
(04:21):
Ray watches a basketball game at Drake University and then
he returns from this game and watches a sixty minutes program.
It's a special report on the boat people done by
Ed Bradley, and they're talking about all that these people
had been through. Well, Ray was very moved and he's like,
we have to do something. He had already created this
(04:42):
refugee resettlement program to help the tie down in nineteen
seventy five. It's still running. So what he says is,
I WA will agree to accept fifteen hundred extra refugees.
And he then wrote letters to every governor to do
more to help the boat people. And he wrote to
as a Carter to do more to help the boat people.
(05:03):
He's one of the first politicians to stand up and
say we need to help these volks. So that's the
kind of the second thing that he did, was helping
the boat people. It's the second of basically three big
things that Ray did as governor of Iola. Bringing him
the Tai Dam was first. Helping these boat people refugees
come in was second, and the third will be helping
(05:26):
people from Cambodia. Well, Ray, he's born in nineteen twenty eight.
He's from des Moines. He's a des Moine guy, and
he just misses out on World War Two, but he
does join the service. And while he's in the service,
right after World War Two, he's in the East and
(05:48):
he really gets to see the devastation. So I think
that made an imprint on him as a as a
young man. It was something that it was impressionable to him.
He then goes to Drake University, and even before that,
I guess I should say at Roosevelt High School in
des Moines, he was known for sticking up for the
little guy. He wasn't interested in people bullying others. But
(06:09):
he goes on to Drake and then he studies law
and he becomes a lawyer and then basically a chairman
of the Republican Party, trying to get Republicans elected to office,
and then eventually he runs for governor and he wins
the governorship in nineteen sixty eight and serve for fourteen
straight years. For Ray, it kind of worked. He's a
(06:31):
Christian man, so those Christian ethics, I think are going
to be important for Ray helping out others. People complaining
about refugee resettlement. They were saying, why are you helping
out these foreigners? Why aren't you helping Iowans who you
were elected to serve? And Ray's response was, quote, we
don't have the heart or the spirit to save human lives,
(06:54):
then how can we be expected to help those whose
lives are already ashore? And if we're going to turn
our backs on people who are dying overseas, our allies
who are dying, well we're not going to be all
that kind to those who are in Iowa. So we
can do both and when we come back more of
(07:15):
this remarkable story, the story of Robert Ray and the
refugees here on our American Stories. Folks, if you love
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
(07:37):
our stories about American history, from war to innovation, culture
and faith, are brought to us by the great folks
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life and all the things
that are good in life. And if you can't cut
to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their free
and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu to
learn more. And we returned to our American stories and
(08:11):
the story of Governor Robert Ray, the governor of Iowa
for fourteen years, and the refugees he brought into his state.
When we last left off, Ray had decided, even in
the face of criticism, to be the first governor to
take in refugees from Vietnam, and he would soon take
a flight overseas to take stock of the situation in
(08:32):
the refugee camps. Here again is Matthew R. Walsh to
continue the story. Well, the catalyst for Ray's trip overseas
is his work with the Thai Dom. He brings in
the Thai Doom starting in nineteen seventy five. But they
(08:54):
still have family, they still have friends, still have loved
ones who are coming in. So he's sitting these camps
where they're still Tai Dom, and there's a moving story.
They said, Ray, Governor, we want to show your symbol
of hope so Ray and the small delegation from Iowa,
they go look at the symbol of hope and this
thatched little hut. It's the State of Iowa Department of
(09:17):
Transportation map. That was their symbol of hope. And on
this map there are pins where different Thai Dom families
had resettled and where these folks hope one day they
would be reuniting with these loved ones. He's visiting the
Thai Dom and these in Thailand at the refugee camp
(09:40):
Non Kai, and then he makes an excursion to the
Cambodian refugee camp and that's when you know, he sees
one person died. A young girl died and her head
fell in the lap of one of Ray's aids. Governor
Ray very abt a photographer and he went around the
refugee camp and was snapping photo after or photo of
(10:00):
these kids crying, people sick, losing hope. They didn't have
running water, they had hardly anything, and they were escaping
a group of people called the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer
Rouge this is basically meaning red people. They were nasty
(10:23):
folks in Cambodia. They tore through that place. They were
cutting open people, and these Khmer rouge communists forced people
out of the cities and into the countryside to work
as slaves. They separated families. One man slit so many
people's throats that he developed arthritis in his forearm and
had to develop a different technique for plunging his knife
(10:45):
into people's throats to kill them. And many people starved
to death. And Ray visited the Cambodian refugee camps in
Thailand in nineteen seventy nine, and he was just devastated
by what he saw. He wrote a great speech and
delivered it to an assembly of his church. And this
(11:08):
is him talking about visiting the Sakeo refugee camp. Have
you ever stood in a small muddy spot about two
hours while five people died around you? I did two
days ago. Those deaths were only part of the more
than fifty that died in that one camp on that
(11:30):
one day. To see little kids with sunken eyes and
protruding tummies trying to eke out a smile will bring
a tear to the eyes of even the most callous.
And when he returned, he came up with this idea
of Iowa shares, and he handed out that film that
he had taken, didn't even know what was on it.
(11:51):
He gave it to the Des Moines Register, the major newspaper,
and they published an article and it showed some of
these photos in what governor saw in the refugee camp.
In the newspaper helped publicize and get donations for Iowah Shares,
and Shares stands for Iowa sends help to aid refugees
(12:12):
and end starvation. And what Iowans did is they purchased
a share in Humanity, which was the price of a
bushel of corn, and they donated money to the Governor's office,
and the governor's office used this money to send medicine
Iowa doctors and nurses and food to these starving Cambodian refugees.
(12:35):
And one woman sent in her engagement ring to the
governor's office and they had to give it back. They said,
if we can't accept this, A nine year old boy
named Eric Sharp donated his Christmas money as Ray basically
announced this Iowah Shares program. He said, in a world
where there is hate, there's more reason to love, and
(12:55):
a world where there is hunger, there is more reason
to share. Nineteen seventy nine, Iowans through this Iowa Shares
program raised over five hundred and forty thousand dollars. Some
people backed this movement because of Judeo Christian ethics. Some
(13:16):
in the Jewish community, you know, seeing those people starving
to death in Cambodia spark memories of the Holocaust, people
being liberated from the camps and looking so terrible because
of the mistreatment. So rabbis from synagogues, they helped out
people in the Christian Church. They served as as sponsors,
trying to help people get resettled. And a lot of
(13:39):
people felt guilty about Vietnam and destructive force America played there.
Helping refugees was a way for them to heal from
the wounds of the Vietnam War and raise work with
refugees also kind of gave people pride because to be
a public official in the early seventies, people were frowning
(14:01):
upon you. It wasn't much to be proud of. After
the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal. So Ray helped keep
people's faith in public government. And what I find amazing
is during this controversial era, rays of proval rating was
over eighty percent. It's quite fascinating but a lot of
people liked him, and that's why they were willing to help.
(14:27):
The Thai dom early on did fairly well. Within a
handful of years, they were able to have a vast
majority of people own their own automobiles and a majority
of Thai doom would become homeowners in just a short
time period. What they did is they pulled their resources.
They tried not to rent. They might be multiple families renting,
(14:50):
but just for a little bit, everyone will pitch in
and we'll get you your house. And then after you
have your house, you and others are going to pitch
in and then you're going to get me my house.
So they bought a lot of homes. They might be
modest homes, but they became homeowners, they became automobile owners.
They helped each other out, so the community served as
a safety net initially. The first group of people who
(15:13):
came here they were professionals. That was very helpful. The
first way that first one hundred thirty thousand people that
I spoke about, a lot of them were officers in
the military, politicians, people with good careers. Early on, a
lot of them fell into becoming blue collar workers. So
there's stories of bank owners becoming janitors at banks. So
(15:36):
it's tough for that first generation. Now the second generation
did quite well, and you know they're flourishing. There are
people who are in the medical community that they're doing
great work. But we do have a very diverse and
rich state that and a lot of it stems from
this refugee resettlement that began in nineteen seventy five. There's
(15:57):
more tied down in Iowa than anywhere outside of Asia.
They created their own community center on the north side
of Des Moines and they named their community center the
Robert D. Ray Welcome Center. You can go there for
a festival. Every year, they have a big festival that
celebrates their coming to Iowa. They honored Ray at that festival.
There's also something called the Asian Gardens that we have
(16:20):
here in Des Moines that honors Ray's work with these refugees.
One woman, this is a quote from her, her name Sambacam.
She said about Ray, I love the man forever. He
will be our savior. He is almost like our Abraham Lincoln.
He freed us. They really do revere the man. When
he died, Governor Ay rested in state at the US
(16:41):
Capitol building, and all these refugees came to say farewell,
to lay their wreaths and ribbons and other things onto
to his burial site. He's a very beloved figure, especially
amongst the Southeast Asian refugee community. And terrific work on
(17:03):
the production by Monty Montgomery. And a special thanks to
Matthew R. Walsh his book The Good Governor. Go to
local bookstores or go wherever you buy your books online.
Also a special thanks to our own Jim Watkins for
putting this story together. And what a story about what
happened after the Communists took over and it was America
and Iowa in particular who came to the rescue. What
(17:24):
a story about Iowa's heart, about the American heart, and
about love and compassion. What a story, the story of
a good governor and a good country. Here on our
American stories, and we continue with our American stories. Tommy
(18:12):
Doo's walking tour of Charleston, South Carolina has been praised
and recommended by the likes of the Wall Street Journal
to Trip Advisor. Tommy is here to share this story
of Charleston from the American Revolution to today. Here's Tommy Doody,
the South collapsed in eighteen sixty five and was left
for dead. Charleston paid a terrible price for her role
(18:34):
in the war. Secession began in Charleston. The first secession
document was signed in downtown Charleston December twentieth, eighteen sixty
and then the first shots are fired here at Fort Sumter.
So the political start to the war was in Charleston,
the military start, and we were a philosophical target. The
(18:55):
Federal government bomb Charleston for five hundred and eighty seven
consecutive days, the second longest artillery SiGe in modern warfare
after Leningrad. The Germans bombed the Russians for nine hundred
days during the War War two, and the Federals bombus
for five eighty seven, and by eighteen sixty five, it
is a ruin. And that's a for instance why Sherman
(19:16):
didn't come here. In large part, we were not viewed
as a viable target. He did not need to waste
his time on us. As much as he wanted to
raise Charleston, he did more harm to South Carolina and
the Confederacy by burning the middle of the state. He
cut a fire sixty miles wide through central South Carolina
and then we were occupied after the war for fourteen years.
It was a six thousand man federal occupying force martial law,
(19:40):
and then when they pulled out, the place was essentially
left for dead, and it took about one hundred years
to start to recover. Healthy cities in those hundred years
embraced urban renewal. They were inclined to tear down their
old stuff because it stood in the way of progress,
and Charleston couldn't participate. So as a result, we've got
about one hundred bill things downtown from before seventeen seventy
(20:02):
six and about one thousand from before eighteen sixty one.
But I think more, maybe more importantly than the architectural preservation,
is the cultural preservation. People understand that the South is different,
but they don't always understand why. And I would say
it's because it was uninfluenced, undisturbed by the outside world.
There was hardly any immigration here until relatively recently, and
(20:26):
even accents are impacted. Southern accents tend to be much
older because immigrants moved the tongue and there was just
not a lot of immigration here, and so when all
these fronts were frozen in time, architecture, culture, accents. If
we had been healthy, this would be anywhere USA. Everything
(20:47):
would have been bulldozed. We talk about slavery a lot
on my tour. You can't talk about Charleston without talking
about slavery. We were the number one slave trading city
for the United States. Herd of slaves that entered the
US entered through the port of Charleston, and that's a
shocking statistic, but it makes sense. Charleston was the largest
(21:08):
city in the South until eighteen twenty. That's when New
Orleans overtook US, and the slave trade had already concluded
as of eighteen o eight as part of the US Constitution.
So this was the largest Southern harbor through legal importation,
and the South, with the superior farming conditions, had an
appetite for that labor. The wealth here, and that's important understand.
(21:30):
These are the wealthiest Americans, these are the most educated Americans.
I liken it to what was happening really around the world.
But the plantation culture that evolved here is, in my estimation,
the repackaging of old world feudal culture. They're playing at
being English, French and German royals in a place where
(21:50):
that's possible. We have a year round growing season, we
have fifty to fifty five inches of annual rainfall, and
we have no rocks for one hundred miles. We're in
an alluvial plain where nothing but top soil and sand,
and so it's some of the finest farming in the world,
the Southeast coastal plain. And so they pick up old
world lens. In England, you would have large estates. You've
(22:12):
got royals in the big house. The peasants are in
the field. The peasants don't get to vote, they don't
own the land. They can be bound to the estate.
And then the royals would have a town him in
London or Paris or Vienna. So the royals of the
world would gather in the capitals after fall harvests. In
the capital you make your political relationships and then you
(22:33):
make your business deals, and then the social fruits are
in the city and the capital as well. So literary season,
debutante season, theatrical season, all that's dead of winter stuff.
So they come in with a mindset and they apply
it and it works. They're able to live like royals
in the New World. And it is seductive, and that's
(22:54):
ultimately the issue. They're not interested in new ideas. The
North was an agent of change in the mid hundreds,
and these families were prideful, and they were not great negotiators,
and they would rather fight than yield. They saw the
federal government as unconstitutional five hundred miles away, controlled by
people that lived even further away, and they were not
about to lie down before it, And so they ended
(23:16):
up fighting to the death. And by eighteen sixty five
it's over total collapse. And so the wealth here, the
prestige here, is absolutely built on forced labor. You can't
separate the two. But I do think it's important to
understand everybody now understands that slavery is immoral, it's not negotiable,
(23:39):
But two hundred years ago it was kind of fuzzy.
People didn't see it the way we see it. Just
as an example, in eighteen forty, only two percent of
northern people were abolitionists, just two percent critically opposed to
slavery in the North in eighteen forty, and at the
same time, across the South, less than ten percent son
(24:00):
of white families own slaves. That's see that is probably
the biggest misconception people assume that the average white guy
in the South was a slave owner, and it's not close.
Over ninety percent did not own slaves. If you look
at the mountains of the South, the Appalachian counties were
slave free. Literally, county after county has zero slaves. Because
you can't own slaves in the mountains and make money,
(24:22):
just like you can't own slaves in New England and
make money. And so the conditions here were ripe, high volume,
industrial level farming with sort of a feudal patriarchal lens.
And it's a pretty dagon good fit. And so it
is logical where the number one slave trading city for America.
(24:45):
And there's always going to be pushback on that. You know,
I noticed it, and I'd probably notice it more now
than before because people are increasingly talking about these things.
I think we up it under the rug for a
long time. I think people just maybe even try to
(25:06):
try to pretend like it didn't happens. I've never had
that approach. I love talking about slavery, and I find
that my guests, particularly if I have black tourists, they
want you talking about this stuff. They don't want you
shying away from it. Those are My favorite compliments when
I have black tourists and afterwards they say, thank you
so much for being frank, thank you so much for
(25:27):
not mincing words. It's refreshing because you don't learn if
you don't discuss it. So I think one of the
great joys for giving tours in Charleston is outside people
do not understand the significance of Charleston because it collapsed
in eighteen sixty five. This was the fourth largest city
(25:48):
in the United States in seventeen ninety Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Charleston.
South Carolina educated more children in Europe than the other
twelve colonies put together. O nine of the ten wealthiest
families in America were living in South Carolina for a
period of time prior to seventeen seventy six, all at once,
(26:09):
nine out of ten, and so the role of Charleston
is not well understood. The American Revolution, I think offers insight.
This is the bloodiest theater of the Revolution. There were
more battles in South Carolina, more people were killed in
South Carolina than any of the other twelve colonies. And
that's just a huge surprise for guests. We had four
(26:32):
signers of the Declaration Independence from Charleston, four signers of
the Constitution from Charleston, and that's not well understood. George
Washington spent a week in Charleston in seventeen ninety one,
and he wrote that he had never been entertained more lavishly.
He said the most elegant parties he had ever attended
were in Charleston, and that the prettiest ladies he'd ever
(26:55):
seen were in Charleston. And you're listening to Tommy Doo
and it's not a walking tour, but you're getting a
great chronological tour, a great economic tour, and a great
social tour of one of America's great cities. When we
come back more with Tommy Doos Walking Tour of Charleston,
South Carolina, and we continue with our American stories and
(27:40):
with Tommy Doos Walking Tour of Charleston, South Carolina, which
has been praised and recommended by everyone from the Wall
Street Journal to Trip Advisor. Let's return to Tommy with
more of the story of his hometown. Another really big
surprise for outsiders is the permissiveness of Charleston. We have
so many social first the first theater in America, first racetrack,
(28:03):
in America, first golf club in America, widespread gambling city
back lotteries. The oldest profession was legal from the beginning
through World War Two. Our navy base matriculated hundreds of
thousands of soldiers post World War Two, and they were
riddled with STDs and so because of medical concerns they
(28:24):
had to write laws against it for the first time.
That's in the nineteen forties. The French called us the
Paris of the New World. The British called us the
crown Jewel of America. But at the same time New
Englanders culture Alston, Sodom and Gomoor. They saw Charleston as
centers on a biblical level, Sodom and Gomoor. And what
(28:45):
surprises people the confusion comes from the fact that they're
now inclined to call us the Bible Belt, but really
the North was the Bible Belt for the first one
hundred and fifty years. So the real question is what
happens wide in the North and the South swap personalities,
and that's about immigration. Once again, we stopped getting people
in the early eighteen hundreds when they started industrializing and
(29:06):
building factories, immigrants going north. They also invest in infrastructure railroads, canals,
and it's a magnet for immigration, and the South is
back ordered. So basically, from the eighteen twenties to the
nineteen seventies, there's one hundred and fifty years where the
Southeast is not receiving people at the same rates as
(29:26):
everybody else. And so the southern families grow deep roots,
and they tended to have a longer, more traditional view.
And the North, which had been uptight, was overwhelmed by
immigration two hundred years ago and suddenly found herself to
be multicultural, more liberal, more progressive, and the South was
increasingly homogeneous, conservative, and moralistic. It impacts everything. Accents talked
(29:53):
about that a little bit. But the southeast coastal accent
is Elizabethan English. So my accent coming from Richmond, I've
got a form of It's called the Toddwater accent, so
around the Chesapeake Bay. That accent was established by people
from southern England in the early sixteen hundreds. It's called
a non rhodic accent. It's very soft. You drawl, you
hold your vowel and you pull the R out of
the word. I throw a ball. I don't throw a ball.
(30:17):
I'll go to the bathroom. Not the bathroom. My grandfather
loved to go down into the river Tomatas and Patatas,
and that's Elizabethan English English. It's linguistically closer to Elizabethan
English and what is currently being spoken in England. And
I know that's difficult to believe, but it is a
linguistic fact. And if you go up into the mountains
of the South, it becomes Scottish, the Scots of the
(30:38):
next great migration, and they go up the rivers looking
for available land, and the mountains catch them and it
suits them. There's an old saying in the South, the
glen and Glade of Apelacha settled by the scot And
so instead of drawling and holding your vowel you lilt,
you get it up into the back of your mouth
(30:59):
more like thy. It's a brogue. And so you have
a Scottish brogue in the mountains of the South and
an English drawl on the coast. And they're old because
they were generally undisturbed. Another subtlety of the South and
the lack of immigration, is how we view ourselves. Southerners
tend not to be ethnic people. We don't care about
(31:19):
where we came from. Overseas, we care about being Southern.
So the joke is Southerners of Southern Yanks or ethnic
Northern people are consistently more newly rived people, and they
tend to get excited romanticize where their grandparents are born.
So Northern people tend to have these little flavors attached
to them. Irish American, Italian, American, Puerto Rican, American, Chinese, American,
(31:42):
and Southerners tend not to see themselves that way. We've
been here long enough to be from here. You definitely
notice it. If you ask a Northern or where they're from,
it's usually where they woke up this morning. And if
you ask a Southern or where they're from, it's whether
people are. People always say, are you from Charleston. I say, no,
I'm from Richmond. Well you've lived here for thirty five years,
(32:03):
you're from Charleston. And I will say, no, I am not.
I am from Richmond. My people are from Virginia. I
live here, but I'm from there. And that's a subtlety.
It's where your people are, that's where you're from, it's
not where you live. Right now. I get so many
tourists who will say, this is my favorite city. I
(32:24):
love it so much, You're so fortunate to live here.
There's a secret sauce. There is a feeling I get
when I come to Charleston, and I can't explain it.
What is that? And I would say, ultimately it is
the defense of the human scale. So in the late
eighteen hundreds, engineering really improved. They invented the I beam
(32:46):
and the elevator, and the first skyscraper comes to fruition
in Chicago eighteen eighty. This place was so screwed up
it was boarded up in bankrupt There was no money
to justify a big building, and that would not come
until after War two. And by the time there was
some desire to go big, it was too late because
(33:09):
preservation laws and zoning laws were well crafted. Preservation says,
if you're building is seventy five, you're not going to
tear it down, and you can't corrupt the facade. You
can't do anything to the exterior of an older building
that's going to compromise its accuracy. And so to put
a skyscraper in downtown Charleston, you'd have to tear it
down a block of old things, and that directly violates
(33:31):
preservation and there is a four story threshold through much
of the city, and that's called the human scale. Until
the I beam and the elevator were invented, cities around
the world built to four stories and stopped. Because the
great materials of human history, or wood, brick and stone.
(33:52):
Wood brick and stone have the same load potentials. They
get you to four stories efficiently, and then you've got
to stop. You can actually add a story, but it
would double the cost of construction. You had to make
the foundation so massive to carry that fifth layer. It
just did not make sense. And so there's always been
an economic efficiency of four stories or less around the
(34:12):
world for thousands of years, and so cities around the
world had very similar, very predictable densities. If you maintain
a four story threshold, your population will live, worship, work,
go to school, socialized shop within a one two three
(34:33):
mile radius. The bulk of your existence will be in
one place. You're not spread too thin, and as a citizen,
you can pour yourself into that piece of turf. Big
cities embraced the new technology, ripped out the human scale,
and started going vertical. They created jobs, but they also
(34:53):
created commuters. So now large cities suffer from millions of
anonymous workers, people who often album more than an hour
to get to work. The commute was awful, it was busy.
That had to be aggressive to be competitive, and unfortunately
they're anonymous, and civility inherently breaks down in that situation.
(35:14):
In a place like Charleston, you don't get to be anonymous.
You see the same people day after day, and you
know them in various ways. You cannot walk the streets
of Charleston without seeing people that you know, and so
you'll have frequent and often deep engagements block to block,
and that enhances civility. The reason that this has been
(35:36):
voted the most mannered city in America is because the
human scale provides accountability. You do not get to be anonymous,
and so when you live in Charleston, you feel like
you live in a village. Yet we have the amenities
and the cultural impact of a city that's millions and
(35:57):
millions of people. I think one of the most interesting
barometers of civility is how people use their car horn.
People in Charleston refrain from using their horn. They'll give
you a little toot to say hi, or they may
honk the horn if there's an emergency, but they don't
use the horn to express themselves block to block. I
(36:19):
had a tourist from Philadelphia on my tour a few
years ago, and the night before the tour, she had
pulled into town and she was lost, and she was
at a stoplight five o'clock rush hour traffic. Couldn't find
her hotel. She was buried in her map, and she
spaced out, and when she looked up, the light was
(36:40):
yellow and turned red. She sat at the front of
the line, through an entire green light, and she looked
in the rear view mirror and they were a line
of cars and not one car blew its horn. Every
car behind her gave her the benefit of the doubt,
and it blew her mind. She had an epiphany. She said,
(37:01):
this is the way that life is supposed to be.
And so I feel people come to Charleston from busy situations,
these large metros, long commutes, spread utterly too thin, and
they come here and it nurtures their soul. This is
(37:22):
the way that life used to be and perhaps is
supposed to be. And what a beautiful piece. A special
thanks to Tommy doo Is Walking Tour of Charleston South Carolina,
captured by our own Philip Graham, who moved from San
Diego to Charleston. And a special thanks to Greg Hangler
for the production on the piece as well. And by
(37:43):
the way, we learned so much historically about this city
and culturally about this city. If you've not been, by
all means, visit but that idea of the defense of
the human scale, and it's true when you go there,
you'll be struck most by the fact that there are
just no tall buildings, and there's a lot of light
because of that, and there's a lot of intimacy because
of that. Tommy Doo's story here on our American Story
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