Adolph Reed on Glory, and Free State of Jones

reed:https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-trouble-with-uplift-reed

September 2018

The Trouble With Uplift

Occasionally, on a boring flight, I’ll rewatch the Battle of James Island scene from the magnificent 1989 film, Glory. The scene depicts the first engagement of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first Northern regiment of black troops organized by the Army of the United States to fight against the Confederate insurrection. James Island was a fateful battle outside Charleston, SC, on July 16, 1863. I pulled up the clip on a recent flight and was moved yet again by the powerful imagery of black men finally able to strike a blow against the slaveocracy. Imagining what that felt like for the soldiers of the 54th is always intensely gratifying.

Watching it this time, I remembered how startled I had been when Glory was released to learn that many people, including blacks and people on the left, dismissed or even disparaged the film as a “white savior narrative”—a phrase that is now a routine derogation of certain cross-racial sagas of resistance to white supremacy. In Glory’s case, this complaint arose mainly in response to the (historically accurate) depiction of the regiment’s commanding officers as Northern whites.
This objection left me dumbfounded. After all, the 54th Massachusetts was a real historical entity. As a compromise to ensure political support, it was stipulated that its officers be white. Nonetheless, prominent abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and the free black community of Boston, were enthusiastic about its formation and instrumental in recruiting its ranks.

The Myth of the Birth of the Hero

Notwithstanding some artistic license (e.g., including freed slaves within the 54th, when it was actually composed entirely of free black men), Glory’s director Edward Zwick clearly intended it to be an historical film. How could it not feature white officers?

Nevertheless, the indictment of Glory as white-savior propaganda was common on the left—with the allied claim that the story was….see link…