[Marxism] A Man Named Pearl

[Louis Proyect]

n 1976, Pearl Fryar, an African-American, moved to Bishopville, South 
Carolina to take a job with a factory that made soda cans. This was a 
step up from the sharecropping livelihood his father pursued in North 
Carolina. In keeping with his new, better-paying job, Fryar (a man-named 
after his uncle), tried to buy a house in a nice neighborhood that 
turned out to be all-white. After his real estate agent discovered that 
he was not welcome because “Black people don’t keep up their yards”, 
Pearl decided to buy a house in a Black neighborhood.

Still stung by the bigotry of the white homeowners, he decided to show 
them up by becoming the first African-American to win Bishopville’s 
“Yard of the Month Award”. After watching a 15-minute video on the art 
of topiary at a local plant nursery, Pearl decided that he could do that 
himself. Not long after he sculpted his initial garden topiary on his 
front lawn, he received the coveted award. It didn’t stop there. For the 
rest of his life, until the present day, he has become one of America’s 
most highly regarded artists in the field without any formal training in 
topiary or horticulture.

full: http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/a-man-named-pearl/