Uncle Remus Regional Library System Uncle Remus Regional Library System The Uncle Remus Regional Library System (URRLS) is a collection of ten public libraries located partially in the Atlanta metropolitan area and Central Georgia. It is headquartered in Madison, Georgia and serves the counties of Greene, Hancock, Jasper, Morgan, Putnam, and Walton, of which 35% of the population are members of the library. The library system is named for Uncle Remus, a fictional title character and narrator of many African-American folktales, whose stories were compiled by post-Reconstruction Atlanta journalist Joel Chandler Harris in the late 1880's. The logo for the library system is Br'er Rabbit,
Joel Chandler Harris a problematic and contradictory figure: sometimes a mouthpiece for white paternalism, sometimes a stereotype of the black entertainer, and sometimes poetically subversive. Julius Lester, a black folklorist and university professor, sees the Uncle Remus stories as important records of black folklore. He has rewritten many of the Harris stories in an effort to elevate the subversive elements over the purportedly racist ones. Regarding the nature of the Uncle Remus character, Lester said, There are no inaccuracies in Harris's characterization of Uncle Remus. Even the most cursory reading of the slave narratives collected by the Federal Writer's Project of the 1930s