Tag: Georgia

The Civil War and Reconstruction in Georgia, Part 1

Above: Sherman’s March to the Sea (Savannah Campaign), 1864 This post is excerpted from The Way It Was in the South: The Black Expericience in Georgia by Donald L. Grant and Jonathan Grant (University of Georgia Press, 2001). All rights reserved. Publishing to critical acclaim, The Way It Was in the South: The Black Experience in Georgia was an American Heritage Editors’ Choice selection and also won Georgia’s “Author of the Year” honors for Dr. Grant. About the Author:  Donald Grant (1919?88) received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Missouri and was professor of history at Fort Valley State College (now University) in Middle Georgia.  He was also the author of The Anti?Lynching Movement: 1883-1932.  And how this book came to be published after my…

Read More→

Share

Protesting Kafka for kids: Atlanta’s huge “Families Belong Together” march, rally

By Jonathan Grant @Brambleman Families belong together. Across the United States, that was the message at 750 protests protesting the Trump Administration’s horribly cruel immigration policies that includes separating families, keeping kids in cages and putting toddlers on trial without an attorney. The sheer ugliness of the “zero tolerance” plan is beyond belief, even surreal: Kafka for kids. Several million marchers across the U.S. I haven’t seen any authoritative crowd estimates for the march and rally here in Atlanta (AJC gave a lame “several thousand”) but it was huge. I was in the middle of the march and I’d guesstimate it was at least 7,500 and maybe 10,000. (DIY crowd estimate.I didn’t see the doll babies in cages some protesters marched with,…

Read More→

Share

Sydney, the vote-grabbing dog

After a town hall meeting the other night, a woman told me she was torn between supporting John Noel and his Democratic primary opponent in a statewide Georgia Public Service Commission race —until she received John’s flyer. It has a lot of information, but it was this picture on the front that convinced her to back John, because a man with a dog like that is a man worth voting for. BTW, the lady is a veterinarian. It’s true. Sydney is a great dog. I think she laughs a lot. Her tale and whiskers make her look like a dog from a fantasy story, and the expression she has in the photo? Pretty much constant. She is one happy dog. It is…

Read More→

Share

On the road with John Noel: Savannah’s historic First African Baptist Church

Savannah’s First African Baptist Church is a special place, thriving and historic, so I was excited about my visit on the next-to-last day of April. I was on the road with John Noel, who is running for a seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission, and he had scheduled a visit to the church during a three-day road trip. Due to over-scheduling and whatnot, we arrived late, in the middle of the service on a blue-skied Sunday morning. When we entered, the first thing I saw besides the ushers was a bunch of white folks sitting in back—tourists who slipped in and out, hoping to catch a little—but probably not a lot—of the history and spirit of the oldest black church in…

Read More→

Share