Robert Smalls lived an action-hero life. Why isn’t he a household name?
The life and legacy of Robert Smalls are the stuff of a made-for-TV movie. There’s the thrilling seizure of a Confederate ship, a literal vessel of freedom for a man born into slavery. His political career after the Civil War – first in the South Carolina statehouse and then in the halls of Congress in Washington – resulted in a legacy of free public education for all U.S. schoolchildren.
In a different world, Smalls would be a household name, mentioned in the same breath as Barack Obama and Harriet Tubman.
Last summer, that different world was the San Diego Comic-Con.
Outside of the San Diego Convention Center, rebellion was in the air. Outside, the writers’ strike was at a fever
