Lauren Preller Stoop Story Telling, Art and Social Justice at the American Visionary Art Museum
"I watched Shannon Faulkner burn in effigy..." Story at 7:29
Lauren Preller Stoop Story , Art and Social Justice at the American Visionary Art Museum
"Daughters of the New South"
was a protest shoot where I took the sacrilegious action of putting women in confederate uniforms on the battle ground of Battery Gasden.
 In 1997, the heated argument to allow women to attend The Citadel Military was raging in Charleston, SC and in the Supreme Court. The prospect of allowing women to attend the military school was so intense, I watched Shannon Faulkner burn in effigy at a Citadel football game. Shannon Faulkner was the female plaintiff in the law suit which sought to allow women to attend The Citadel."I watched Shannon Faulkner burn in effigy at a Citadel football game!"I attended the game with a good friend and civil rights attorney, Kathleen Cahill. While Shannon was burning in effigy on the field, Cathleen was explaining to another football fan and former Citadel cadet that the Supreme Court would have no choice but to allow women to attend the military school. With that explanation from Cathleen, the Citadel alumnus stood up and yelled, "Take yourself and your damn Yankee values up North where they belong!" The crowd in the row behind us started cheering. We left the stadium.
Being relatively new to Charleston, I was in culture shock at the attitude towards women attending a military school. I felt compelled to do something. This was no easy feat. I found a theatre costume rental place that provided the Confederate uniforms for the movie, "North and South." Some of the uniforms were authentic and very expensive to rent. I bartered with the rental place to provide photography in exchange for the uniforms.
I needed the women. I wanted visually strong-looking women, who were fit and had good jawlines., the jawline visually strength. At the time, I was shooting for the local women's magazine SKIRT!. They published a public service announcement for me; a full page of my self portrait in a Confederate uniform with the title, "Looking For a Few Good Women." The response from women was amazing!
The women and I gathered at my home on Sullivans Island, SC to change into the uniforms and went to the weathered walls of Battery Gasden for the shoot. The resulting protest exhibit, "Local Heroes" was held at The Roxy Theatre in Charleston, South Carolina in 1997.