The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Insider's History of the Florida-Alabama Coast

7. Sorting Out after the Storm

114 After frederic, peoplealongthecoastcollectedthemselves, surveyed the scene, and took off in different directions. In Destin traditional redneckery rocked along despite a controversy created by a song sung by the Trashy White Band that used the “N word” to lament interracial love gone bad. Around the same time, a visionary with a block of undeveloped sand and scrub next door to Seagrove Beach set out to recreate the simple Florida of his youth and ended up creating something else altogether, something that was anything but simple. Meanwhile, over at the repaired and reopened FloraBama , singer-songwriter Jimmy Louis suggested that one of the dullest weekends of the year could be livened up a bit by throwing a fish across the state line. He was right. First, the song. It was around 1980. I was down at the coast and a buddy who lived there told me we needed to go to Destin and hear the Trashy White Band, so we did. Although I knew of the group, knew that they had helped transform the Green Knight from an aspiring upscale eatery into a top-notch redneck bar, it was the first time I heard them. They were good. But when they launched into what I soon found out was their signature song I was, to put it mildly, taken aback. “She Ran Off (with a Nigger)” was a sad account from the perspective of a man whose wife had left him for a black man. As the slur bounced around the room, I recall looking about to see if there were any s e v e n Sorting Out after the Storm sorting out after the stor 115 black folks in the audience. There weren’t. I didn’t know at the time, but if all the black residents of Destin had been present, they barely would have filled a table. According to the 1980 census, only four of the town’s 3,672 citizens were African Americans. That figure had doubled since 1970, when there were two. Then, at the end, the singer lamented, “I never shoulda married that black little bitch anyway.” Introspection and irony. Not what I expected. The song, like the Redneck Riviera itself, appealed to and repelled people on many levels. But it is unlikely that folks outside Trashy White’s circle of fans paid it much mind until early 1982, when the Pensacola Journal published an article titled, “Racist Song Lyrics Put Destin Band High on Local Charts.” The article caught the attention of civic leaders and caused some to fear that the song might revive a controversy, which at that moment was just settling down. A few months before “She Ran Off” hit the news, a “racist pamphlet” that was circulated by an Okaloosa County deputy sheriff had threatened “to ignite racial tensions” in the area. To calm things down the Florida Human Relations Commission set up a local version of itself and told members to head off trouble when they saw it coming. Hearing of what was going on at the Green Knight, the Okaloosa council met and discussed the matter. However, “unsure if the song would come under their purview,” they decided to wait for a formal complaint before taking action. None came. When asked, an African American club owner said he did not think the song would make much of a stir among his clientele. In his opinion it was “just one more gimmick to try to make money.” The song was recorded, a few bars put it on their jukeboxes, and that was that until 1989, when the controversy flared again. The owner of a restaurant within earshot of the Green Knight sued to have the song banned, or at least muted, so diners would not hear it. The court refused to intervene, so the band played on. It plays on still. Whilethesagaof“SheRanOff”playedout,afewmonthsbeforethe“racist pamphlet” appeared, a man named Robert Davis dropped in at the office of the Destin Log to tell the newspaper about his plans for the eighty-acre parcel of vacant Gulf-front property he owned between Grayton State Park and Seagrove Beach. Now the Log had heard development plans before, but what Davis wanted to do was different. Instead of another high-rise, he wanted to 116 chapter seven build “a village of some 350 homes and various public buildings including a meeting center, restaurants and shops.” He...