The trouble with the South, said Alabama's New Dealing Aubrey Williams in 1947, was that most of its brains and talent went North. That, he added modestly, included himself. By faithfully serving Franklin D. Roosevelt in the left wing of the New Deal, Williams had risen high in the WPA, was National Youth Administrator for five years. But in 1945, when the Senate rejected his nomination as Rural Electrification Administrator because of his leftish views, his northern political star blinked out. Williams packed up his talents and headed south again.
With a loan from Marshall Field, Williams bought the decrepit old...
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