Sewanee: The Last Bastion of The Lost Cause?

My own University, Denison, resolved these issues long before I arrived my Freshman year, 1973. But the University of the South, owned by the 28 dioceses of the Episcopal Church covering what was once known as The Old South, still wrings its hands over its Confederate Heritage.

But while Chancellor Cunningham acknowledges that "we benefit from the literary tradition, the warmth, the friendliness," he makes no mention of Tennessee Williams' friendliness or the gift the playwright left Sewanee. The bequest, now worth approximately $150 million, includes responsibility for the administration of the intellectual property rights (The plays! The plays!).

With two friends and the encouragement of Denison University's administration, I started the first gay student group there in 1972. I'd be afraid to try that at Sewanee. Even now. In 2009--almost 2010.

From The New York Times, November 30, 2005:

"The flags from Southern states disappeared from the chapel. The ceremonial baton dedicated to a Confederate general who helped found the Ku Klux Klan vanished. The very name of the University of the South was tweaked, becoming Sewanee: The University of the South, with decided emphasis on Sewanee."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/education/30sewanee.html?pagewanted=print