“I hadn’t so much forgot as I couldn’t bring myself to remember.”
(Maya Angelou)
Interviews with people who knew Cornell Lawson paint a consistent picture of a man of unusual character. Shorty’s daughter Carolyn said that she has the best stories. Her memories are full of life. She remembers the exacting rules by which her father taught her to swim. She recalls daily events from worming tobacco to bank fishing in vivid detail, providing a treasure of oral history. Others who worked with Shorty Lawson describe his legendary work ethic, his farming knowledge, his ability to repair or create anything he needed, and how he instructed his children. Community members of his era and present day provide political context in which the Lawson family lived, survived and thrived.