Georgia

Dept. of Ed Charges Georgia Book Removal May Violate Civil Rights

A review by the department's civil rights unit concludes that Forsyth County, Georgia may have created a hostile learning environment for Black and LGBTQ students through its book removal policies. 

Gullah Geechee of Sea Islands Fight for their Post-Slavery Legacy

by DeNeen L Brown

The Gullah Geechee people were chosen for enslavement in the Sea Islands because of their experience cultivating rice in Africa, and maintained a distinctive culture with strong African elements through slavery and emancipation. Development and gentrification threaten that legacy today. 

The Local Roots of Marjorie Taylor Greene's "National Divorce" Rhetoric

by Michan Connor

To understand her embrace of secessionist rhetoric, don't look to the Civil War; look to the political conflict that erupted in Atlanta's suburbs in the 1990s and 2000s. 

Georgia Grand Jury to Recommend Indictments in Trump Effort to Overturn Vote

The grand jury forewoman suggested that the identities of the parties recommended for indictment were "not rocket science" and that no one will be surprised when the names are revealed.

The Racist Origins of Georgia's Runoff System

by Steven F. Lawson

Runoff elections were installed in Georgia to ensure that Black voters could not elect their preferred candidates, allowing white voters a second chance to consolidate support around white candidates. 

From the Archives: Bob Maurer on Charles Sherrod and New Communities Farm

Nearly 50 years ago, activist Robert Maurer reported on the successes and challenges of a Georgia agricultural cooperative conceived as a step toward securing Black economic empowerment in the post-civil rights South. 

Charles Sherrod: An Unheralded Giant of the Civil Rights Struggle

by Ansley L. Quiros

"Charles Sherrod is the most important civil rights figure you've never heard of"--fighting for six decades in southwest Georgia, persevering through incremental gains after the publicity of the Albany Movement faded. 

After Winning as An Activist Preacher, Can Warnock Win Again as an Effective Pragmatist?

After winning a close special election, Raphael Warnock needs to find a way to notch small victories in a nearly deadlocked Senate as he seeks election to a full term. 

Trump's Incitement Against Shaye Moss over the Georgia Vote Count Carries on a Dark American Tradition

by Tera W. Hunter

Whether for casting ballots or counting them, Trump was quick to blame Black Americans for his defeat, carrying on an ignominious tradition of casting Black political participation as illegitimate and dangerous. 

Black Clergy's Presence at Trial of Arbery's Killers is Nothing Unusual

by Keisha N. Blain

Black clergy have always taken leadership in challenges to racist violence; the trial judge has no good reason to bar their attendance.

Citizen's Arrest Law at Center of Trial of Arbery's Killers Originated in Slavery

by Alan J. Singer

The three men on trial for killing Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia are counting on a jury to accept their claim that they were executing a citizen's arrest on Arbery. Georgia's citizen's arrest law, since repealed, shares in the racist history of similar laws across the nation. 

African American Museum in Georgia Honors Forgotten History

"It all goes back to when I was a child growing up in White Plains," said Mamie Hillman, executive director of the museum. "I always wanted to know — how did I enter into history?"

My University's Policies Undermined the Lessons I Was Trained to Teach, so I Quit

by Cornelia Lambert

"I could use our own university system as a case study in how political power often wins out over scientific knowledge. This would be a powerful lesson, one students would be unlikely to forget. But did I want to be part of that?"

The "Leesburg Stockade Girls" Locked Up in Georgia in 1963

15 girls aged 12-15 were locked up in appalling conditions, for 45 days or more, and often without their families' knowledge, in southwest Georgia in 1936. This is their story.

The Odd Place of one Savannah Neighborhood in the History of Redlining

by Todd Michney

The history of the Cuyler-Brownville area shows that HOLC risk assessments and Federal lending practices were responsive to local banks' perception of lending risk and desire for profit, factors which resulted in the rarity of an African American community retaining a "green" rating. 

Under Columbus, Georgia: What Folklore Erases

by Bryan Banks

Subterranean tunnels under Columbus, Georgia have been repurposed as part of dramatic stories of crime, emancipation, and war, tales which obscure the more prosaic and violent aspects of the town's history. 

Her Family Owned Slaves. How Can She Make Amends?

"For almost three years now, with the fervor of the newly converted, Ms. Marshall has been on a quest that from the outside may seem quixotic and even naïve. She is diving into her family’s past and trying to chip away at racism in the Deep South, where every white family with roots here benefited from slavery and almost every Black family had enslaved ancestors."

If It’s Not Jim Crow, What Is It?

by Jamelle Bouie

NYT Columnist Jamelle Bouie relies on the historical writing of J. Morgan Kousser, who showed that disenfranchisement after 1877 affected African American and poor white southerners, was implemented through color-blind means, and had partisan, rather than simply racial, goals. But it was still Jim Crow, and the comparison to Georgia's new law is fair and valid. 

Hank Aaron’s Name Will Replace a Confederate General’s on an Atlanta School

“Names do matter,” Jason F. Esteves, Atlanta’s school board chairman, said at Monday’s meeting.

The Painful History of the Georgia Voting Law

by Jason Morgan Ward

The new wave of vote suppression bills, like the one in Georgia, reflect a less obvious but important aspect of Jim Crow law: the use of superficially race-neutral language to keep specific groups from voting. The danger is that courts today will similarly fail to see these bills for what they are.