Idgie Stands Up for What She Believes

The death of Buddy (Idgie's Brother):

This tragic event changed Idgie, Mrs. Cleo said that “she was never the same after that, not until she met Ruth, then she started getting back to her old self’ (Flagg, 1987, pp 37).  Idgie and Ruth became best friends and it was together that they eventually opened up the Whistle Stop Café with a little help from Idgie’s dad.  Idgie and Ruth ran the café, Sipsey and Big George two colored folks that stayed with the Threadgoode’s cooked.  The Sipsey began working for the Threadgoode’s when she was ten or eleven and momma Threadgoode allowed Sipsey to stay with them.  Big George was Sipsey’s adopted son.  Between the two of them Sipsey and Big George had some of the best food around.  As word traveled about the Whistle Stop Café word got out that Idgie was also serving colored folks out the back door of the café.   Mrs. Cleo told Evelyn about Idgie’s encounter with the Ku Klux Klan in regards to her selling to the coloreds.  Cleo said Idgie stood right up for herself and wouldn’t let them stop her (Flagg, 1987).  Then in 1933 Idgie agreed to give food to the colored’s that worked on the railroad.  Sipsey was very worried that Idgie was going to get in trouble again with the Ku Klux Klan.  After Sipsey gave the boys from the railroad barbecue she mumbled under her breath “You gonna get yourself in a whole bunch of trouble with the Ku Kluxes, and I’m gonna be gone. You ain’t gwine see me aroun’ no more, no ma’am” (Flagg, 1987).  Sipsey was terrified of the Klan I think partly because her mother was a slave and she knew what they were capable of. 

Three days later the local sheriff a friend of Idgie and Ruth’s named Grady Kilgore came in upset with Idgie.  He sat down in a booth and when Idgie brought coffee to him.

Grady said:

 Now, Idgie, you ought not be selling those niggers food, you know better than that.  And there’s some boys in this town that’s not too happy about it.  Nobody wants to eat in the same place that niggers come, it’s not right and you just ought not be doing it. (Flagg, 1987, pp 53).

            Idgie was upset by this she went on to tell Grady that “it’s funny how people do things they ought not to do” (Flagg, 1987, pp 54).  She then questioned him about cheating on his wife and the absurdity of the Klan members hiding behind white sheets but do not have the sense to change their shoes (Flagg, 1987).  Ruth eventually stepped in and tried to ration with Grady by saying that “They’re not hurting anybody” (Flagg, 1987, pp 54).  Eventually Grady backed down and said he would talk to the boys.  “After that day, the only thing that changed was on the menu that hung on the back door; everything was a nickel or dime cheaper.  They figures fair was fair….” (Flagg, 1987, 55). 

            It is my opinion that this example in the story was a great depiction of Idgie’s true identity.  She appeared rebellious and defiant as a child however, as an adult the stakes of her defiance were a little higher.  It was not uncommon in 1930’s for the Ku Klux Klan to try and strong arm businesses into not serving and giving equal right to Black Americans.  Cantor (1969) writes about the Ku Klux Klan in the novel Black Labor in America stating that: “The Georiga Ku Klux Klan declared war upon the Textile Workers Organizing Committee in 1939 for its interracial program” for trying to organize interracial worker unity (pp 155).  The Klan would threaten workers or owners to prevent them from having contact with the Black Americans. 

            Idgie was unlike many people of that era she did not fear the threats imposed by the Ku Klux Klan.  In the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) the Ku Klux Klan from Georgia comes to Whistle Stop.  One of its members Frank Bennett was married to Ruth and tried to take her baby away because she left him after he abused her.  The Ku Klux Klan takes Big George and tie him up in the middle of town and begin to beat him Idgie goes to where they have him with her friend Grady and demands that he be set free.  Big George is freed and the Klan leaves town.  After this event Frank Bennett returns to Whistle Stop again however he was by himself this time.  Again he tries to steal Ruth’s baby but Sipsey tries to stop him and he hits Sipsey in the face knocking her to the ground.  The movie Fried Green Tomatoes implies that Frank is killed by Sipsey and Big George cooks his body as barbeque but never really comes out and says for sure.  Flagg (1987) write in the book Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café  that Frank Bennett’s truck is found several years later around 1950 of 1956 while the police were looking for a drowned body in the river.  Grady still the sheriff at the time has to arrest Big George and Idgie and take them to Georgia to stand trial for Frank Bennett’s murder.  It turned out that “Idgie and Big George had threatened to kill him a couple of times, and the Georgia police has that on record, so when they found his truck, they had to bring them in..” (Flagg, 1987, 336).  Everyone was in fear that “if Big George was found guilty of killing a white man, he’d wind up in the electric chair” (Flagg, 1987, 336).  Idgie especially knew this, she knew that Big George’s only chance was that if she provided him with an alibi for that night (Flagg, 1987).  The trial was not going well for Big George and Idgie neither of them had a solid alibi to prove that they were not responsible for Frank Bennett’s murder, that was until Herbert Scroggins testified. (Flagg, 1987).  Herbert Scroggins was a pastor at the Whistle Stop Baptist Church, and Idgie’s sworn enemy that she had tormented for years (Flagg, 1987).  Idgie thought for sure when the pastor testified she was going down for sure and she could not understand why “her” lawyer would call him to the stand because he had nothing good to say about her, or at least so she thought (Flagg, 1987).  Mr. Scoggins told the court that Idgie and Big George could not have murdered Frank Bennett because they were at the church’s tent revival that lasts three to four days (Flagg, 1987).  This statement by the pastor was enough to get George and Idgie off the hook for Frank Bennett’s murder even though it was not true, but who was going to question a pastor and his congregation (Flagg, 1987).

            Critics of this story specifically Lu Vickers in the review Fried Green Tomatoes Excuse me, did we see the same movie?, say that Flagg tries to appeal to whites’ attitudes about blacks and straight peoples‘ attitudes about same sex partnered ships (Vickers, 1994).  I disagree with this assumption I feel that Flagg was simply trying to tell a story about true friendships regardless of color or sex.