9 January 1903: Nine-Month School Year and Night Schools Are Established in Clarke County

On this day in 1903, the Weekly Banner noted the changes to the Clarke County school year gave it the distinction of being "the only county in the state of Georgia...that can boast of a system of rural schools of nine months term each year."

 

(click to enlarge image)

Though the article comes across as more town bragging by the editors of the Banner, they were right that the nine-month school year was an outlier in American public education at the time. 

In the early 1900s, children in the United States encountered school years that were typically 4-5 months long (officially 147.2 days as an average), and attendance was closer to 3-4 months (101.7 days were average) every year. The low attendance is likely a side effect of the expectation that children had to help support their family, either with planting, harvesting, or other areas of the family business.

Also announced in this article were the night schools established at two of the primary factories in town. These schools were aimed at children who worked at the factories (and often lived close by) to make it possible for them to gain a basic education despite the economic demands placed on them. Children who worked elsewhere, such as making harnesses or buggies or being apprenticed to a blacksmith or another trade, were also welcome at these evening classes.

The National Child Labor Committee, a group advocating for child labor restrictions, formed in 1904, but federal regulations and oversight would not be passed in the United States until 1938.

Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Aug. 1902 - Dec. 1905 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Transition to an Industrial South by Michael Gagnon in the Heritage and general collections. 
• History of the Princeton Factory and the Princeton Methodist Church by Horace G. Crouch in the Heritage collection.
• The New South: A Chronicle of Social and Industrial Evolution by Holland Thompson in the  Heritage collection.
• The American Dream and the Public Schools by Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick in the general collection. 
• Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America by Mike Rose in the general collection. 
• The American Spirit in Education: A Chronicle of Great Teachers by Edwin E. Slosson in the general collection.
• Among Schoolchildren by Tracy Kidder in the general collection.
• Mother Jones and the March of the Mill Children by Penny Colman in the children's collection.
• Kids At Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor by Russell Friedman in the children's collection.
• Child Labor: An American History by Hugh D. Hindman via PINES.
• 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait (.pdf) by Thomas D. Snyder on the National Center for Education Statistics website.
• Child Labor Public Education Project website, part of the University of Iowa Labor Center.
• Georgia Child Labor Work Hour Restrictions website.

Rally to Save the Georgia Archives on October 3rd!

On this day, we'd like you to mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 3rd at noon when a rally to Save the Georgia Archives is planned for the Capitol Rotunda in Atlanta. Show up early, and bring as many friends as you can.

Though Governor Nathan Deal stated that he would restore funding for the Georgia Archives at the Georgia Archives Month proclamation signing on September 19th, no plans for funding before the closing date, and the termination date of the seven archivists who will leave the Archives without experienced staff, have been made. Secretary of State Brian Kemp remains committed to taking the entire 3% of his department's budget cut from the Georgia Archives. 

Without action in October, the people of Georgia will lose access to their own history and public records, while the professionals who have preserved and made available this collection will be forced to move on with their careers. As all researchers know, a knowledgeable staff makes all the difference for finding relevant, useful, and accurate information. 

For more information about the rally, and what else you can do to help save the Georgia Archives, please visit the Friends of Georgia Archives and History website and the Georgia Genealogical Society website.

What You Can Do About the Closing of the Georgia Archives

On this day we'd like to offer some suggestions about what actions you can take in light of the news that the Georgia State Archives will be closed to citizens as of November 1. 

To start, you can write to our Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State.

Though the Lieutenant Governor did not enact this budget cut, he may run for governor in the future, as may our current Secretary of State, Brian Kemp.  Write to them to ensure they all understand the importance of the Georgia Archives.

Governor Nathan Deal

Mailing Address:
206 Washington Street
Suite 203, State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334

Phone:
404-656-1776

Fax:
404-657-7332

Contact Us form:

http://gov.georgia.gov/contact-us-0

Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle

Mailing address:

240 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: 
(404) 656-5030
Fax: 
(404) 656-6739

Contact Us form (at bottom of the page below)

http://ltgov.georgia.gov/contact-lt-governor

Secretary of State Brian Kemp

Mailing address:
214 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: 
404-656-2881
Fax: 
404-656-0513

Contact Us form:

http://sos.georgia.gov/cgi-bin/email.asp

You can also contact your state representatives. To find the contact information for your State Senator and Representative, use this Find Your Legislator page. Our representatives must know that this budget cut is unacceptable.

This Saturday, September 15th, 2012, is the Annual Meeting of the Friends of the Georgia Archives & History at the Archives building in Morrow. The meeting is expected to end around noon, and a brainstorming session will take place afterwards. For more information, contact the organization via email, at FriendsofGeorgiaArchives@yahoo.com, or by phone, at 678-364-3732.

Please also sign the petition to keep the Georgia Archives open to the public, and follow events on the Facebook page, Georgians Against Closing the State Archives. 

PLEASE NOTE: Even if you aren't in Georgia, you are still encouraged to sign the petition and write to our Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Secretary of State. Many people had ancestors who came through Georgia and just because you don't live in Georgia, doesn't mean you will never need these Archives. It also sets a terrible precedent that other states may try to follow. Politicians need to know that citizen access to their government records is important.

19 April 1912: Legislating Lifeboats "might save many others"

On this day in 1912, as Congress began its official inquiry into the Titanic disaster, the Athens Banner editorial staff came out in favor of lifeboat legislation:

(click to enlarge image)

Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan began to subpoena White Star Line executives and surviving crew members the day the Carpathia docked in New York with the survivors of the disaster. He would spend six weeks on the investigation, and regulations involving lifeboats, ship construction, ice monitoring, and the Radio Act of 1912 were the result. Similar regulations were passed by Great Britain, and later other nations around the world.




Learn More:

• Athens Banner, Apr. 1912 - Jun. 1912 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• Building the Titanic: An Epic Tale of the Creation of History's Most Famous Ocean Liner by Rod Green in the general collection.
• Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic by Steven Biel in the general collection.
• Titanic Legacy: Disaster as Media Event and Myth by Paul Heyer in the general collection.
• Her Name, Titanic: The Untold Story of the Sinking and Finding of the Unsinkable Ship by Charles Pellegrino in the general collection.
• Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History by Nick Barratt in the general collection.
• Titanic Survivor: The Newly Discovered Memoirs of Violet Jessop Who Survived Both the Titanic and Britannic Disasters by Violet Jessop in the general collection.
• Titanic: 100 Years on the National Georgraphic website.

1 April 1940: Census Workers Start Work in Athens

On this day 72 years ago, Enumerators hired by the U.S. Census Bureau started going door-to-door across Athens and Clarke County and the rest of the nation, asking questions of the city's residents such as:

• Number of hours worked the previous week
• If workplace was "Emergency Employment," such as the WPA, CCC, etc.
• Income in the previous year
• Value of home
• Highest grade of school completed

For those born abroad, Enumerators were told to "give country in which birthplace was located on January 1, 1937." Therefore, someone who was born in Prague or Vienna would give their birth nation as Czechoslovakia or Austria, rather than Germany, which had occupied both nations in 1938. Enumerators were also instructed to distinguish between French and English Canada, and Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State. 


Because it has been 72 years since the 1940 Census was taken, at 9am on Monday, April 2nd, 2012, the National Archives will be releasing for free the digitized images of the 1940 Census. Due to privacy laws, the Census could not begin to be indexed before this date, but those who know where someone lived in 1940 have a couple of ways to shorten their search for the right Enumeration District they need.


The easiest way is using Steve Morse's Unified 1940 Census ED Finder. By entering address information, or the 1930 Enumeration District, the corresponding 1940 Enumeration District or Districts can be found.  


You can also find the reference map used by the U.S. Census Bureau to create Enumeration Districts by using Steve Morse's Viewing 1940 Enumeration District Maps in One Step utility. These maps have most street names, prominent structures such as schools and factories, lines indicating wards or districts within a city or county, and the Enumeration District for each area. 


So even if all you know is Aunt Katie "lived near the old Check Factory," you can still narrow down which ED is the place to begin your search. The National Archives estimates it will take at least six months to index the 1940 Census, so name searches should be available by the end of 2012.  


Next Saturday, 7 April 2012, the National Archives Southeast in Morrow, Georgia, will host a free workshop on the 1940 Census from 10am to noon. Registration is required, so call (770) 968-2100 or email atlanta.archives@nara.gov to reserve your seat or get more information.




Learn More:

• Official 1940 Census website. (An opening event webcast will be shown at 8:30am)
• United States Census Bureau's 1940 Census web page.
• National Archives 1940 Census Information web page.
• FamilySearch.org's 1940 Census page.
• 10 Interesting Facts about the 1940 Census from the NARAtions blog.
• 1940 Census Records Include 21 Million Still Alive from the Boston Globe.
• 1940 Census Is the First That Will Be Free Online from the Kansas City Star.

Fourth Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's fourth class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is Finding Those Who Served: Military Records.

If you missed the first class, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you are set on the basics, but want to know more about service records or using draft cards and pension records in your research, just sign up now for the April 4th class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our forth installment, we'll demonstrate the width and breadth of the war-related information available and useful for genealogical research. Our overview will cover what the records are, what sort of information they contain, and where they are located going back to Colonial times.

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

Third Heritage Room Genealogy Class at the Athens Community Council on Aging

On this day, we'd like you to know that the Heritage Room's third class at the Athens Community Council on Aging will be on Wednesday, March 21st, 2012, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm in the Harris Room's ACCA Hoyt Street location. The title of the class is The Genealogical Benefits of Bureaucracy: Government Records.

If you missed the earlier classes, don't worry! Each class is independent, so if you want to know more about court records or using wills in research, just sign up now for the March 21st class.  The class is free to members of the ACCA's Center for Active Living. Though free for members of CAL, pre-registration is required.

In our third installment, we'll discuss how to use for our own research needs the records created by local, state, and federal levels of government. We will cover the types of records available, how to use them, and where to find them, including tax records, deeds and land records, wills and estate records, other court records, and much more. 

For more information about the classes, please call us at the library, (706) 613-3650, extension 356; to register, please call the Athens Council on Aging at (706) 549-4850 or consult their online program catalog, Senior Center Scene.

27 February 1942: Charlayne Hunter-Gault Is Born

On this day 70 years ago, in Due West, South Carolina, Charlayne Hunter-Gault was born to Althea Ruth and Charles S. H. Hunter, Jr. Her father's position as an Army chaplain caused the family to move frequently, so Charlayne and her younger brothers Henry and Franklyn, spent much of their childhoods living with their maternal grandmother in Covington and Atlanta, Georgia.


Charlayne attended Henry McNeal Turner High School in Atlanta, where she graduated 3rd in her class in 1959. That year, she and class valedictorian Hamilton Holmes were approached by local civil rights leaders who wanted to challenge Georgia's segregated system of higher education. Both Charlayne and Hamilton applied to the  University of Georgia in 1959 and were denied admission based on their race. 


In Fall of 1959, Charlayne Hunter enrolled at Fort Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and she and Hamilton Holmes continued to apply to UGA every quarter, with their attorneys in Atlanta challenging their denied admission in court. In January of 1961, Judge William Bootle ruled that Holmes and Hunter were qualified to attend UGA, and therefore entitled to be admitted to the University. Three days later, both students enrolled at UGA, becoming the first African-American students to attend the school.


In 1963, Charlayne Hunter graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Journalism, and took a job as an editorial assistant at the New Yorker magazine. She would later work as a reporter and anchor for WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. In 1968, she joined the New York Times, and while there, married Ronald Gault. She left the Times in 1978 to be a national correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer Report on Public Television. In 1992, she wrote a memoir, In My Place.


In 1997, her husband was transferred to South Africa, and Hunter-Gault left PBS to become the Africa correspondent for National Public Radio. From 1999 to 2005, she was CNN's Africa correspondent, and still occasionally files reports for NPR. In 2006, she published New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance. She currently contributes to TheRoot.com.


Over her career, Charlayne Hunter-Gault has received more than two dozen honorary degrees and earned many journalism awards. She's won the New York Times' Publisher Award, the National Urban Coalition Award for Distinguished Urban Reporting, two National News and Documentary Emmy awards, and two Peabody awards.

Despite her experiences as a student at the University of Georgia, Hunter-Gault has stayed involved with her alma mater. In 1985, as part of UGA's Bicentennial Celebration, the Holmes-Hunter Lecture was created, and has been held annually ever since, focusing "on race relations, black history, and education with implications for inclusion and diversity." In 1988, Charlayne Hunter-Gault became the first African-American invited to speak at UGA commencement, 25 years after her own graduation.


In 2001, as part of the celebration of 40 years since desegregation, the Academic Building on North Campus was renamed the Holmes-Hunter Academic Building. In 2007, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer-in-Residence chair was created in the Grady College of Journalism, and in 2011, Hunter-Gault donated her papers to the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies.




Learn More:

• In My Place by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the biography collection.
• New News Out of Africa: Uncovering Africa's Renaissance by Charlayne Hunter-Gault in the general collection.
• We Shall Not Be Moved: The Desegregation of the University of Georgia by Robert A. Pratt in the Heritage and general collections.
• An Education in Georgia: Charlayne Hunter, Hamilton Holmes, and the Integration of the University of Georgia by Calvin Trillin in the Heritage and general collections.
• Civil Rights Digital Library in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• New Georgia Encyclopedia: Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
• American Program Bureau Speakers: Charlayne-Hunter Gault.
• Crusades in the Courts: How a Dedicated Band of Lawyers Fought the Civil Rights Revolution by Jack Greenberg in the general collection.
• The University of Georgia: A Bicentennial History, 1785-1985 by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• African-American Firsts: Famous, Little-Known, and Unsung Triumphs of Black America by Joan Potter in the general collection.
• Celebrating Courage: The 50th Anniversary of Desegregation at UGA website.
• WLTX (Columbia, SC) Interview with Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
• Atlanta Mayor to Deliver This Year's Holmes-Hunter Lecture announcement in UGA Columns online newspaper.

27 December 1936: New Social Security Office to Open in Athens

On this day in 1936, more than a year after the act was signed into law, news that the Social Security Board would be opening an office in downtown Athens made the front page of the Athens Banner-Herald. 


The Social Security Act had been signed into law on 14 August 1935, but Georgia's governor at the time, Eugene Talmadge, had been adamantly against most New Deal programs. However, in 1936, Georgia Speaker of the House Eurith D. Rivers was elected governor with 60% of the vote promoting New Deal programs such as rural electrification, and supported Georgia participating in the Social Security Program.


According to the brief story in the paper, a long-term lease had been signed for offices in Athens, in "a suite of rooms ... next to Lumpkin street" on the first floor of the Holman Hotel. No employee names had been announced, but the office would open after January 1st, 1937.  The paper reported that "it is expected that the office will have charge of Social Security activities for this immediate territory." Today, there are 33 SSA offices in the state of Georgia.


Located on the corner of Clayton and Lumpkin Streets, the nine-story Holman Hotel was built in 1913 by William S. Holman, originally intended to be office spaces. The top floor was arranged for meetings, banquets, dances or other social functions that provided a view of the city. It was converted into a hotel, and "became the major competitor of the Georgian Hotel which had opened in 1908."


Holman came to Athens from Kentucky after the Civil War, was on the Board of Commissioners, helped develop the northwest part of town, and was one the major investors in the Athens Electric Railway Company, which later became the Athens Railway and Electric Company. He died in 1931, and is buried at Oconee Hill Cemetery.


The Holman building was fully renovated in the 1960s when Citizens & Southern National Bank took over the property. In 1991, it became NationsBank, which later became Bank of America, who still has offices on the property.




Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, November 1936 - March 1937 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• The New Deal in Georgia: An Administrative History by Michael S. Holmes in the Heritage collection.
• Social Security Applications: A Genealogical Resource by Desmond Walls Allen and Carolyn Earle Billingsley in the Heritage collection.
• The Great Depression: America in the 1930s by T. H. Watkins in the general collection.
• Social Security, Medicare, and Government Pensions by J. L. Matthews in the general collection.
• The Coming of the New Deal by Arthur M. Schlesinger in the general collection.
• Everyday Law for Seniors by Lawrence A. Frolik and Linda S. Whitton in the New Books collection.
• The Battle for Social Security by Nancy Altman in the general collection.
• A Post Card History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage and Reference collections.
• Athens: A Pictorial History by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• Oconee Hill Cemetery of Athens, Georgia, Volume I by Charlotte Thomas Marshall in the Heritage and general collections.
• Social Security History page on the Social Security Administration website.

29 November 1945: "Cheer Up! Bacon Long Dreamed of Is Coming Soon"

On this day in 1945, the Athens Banner-Herald announced that "the supply of pork has overtaken the demand," so bacon, and other pork products such as lard, would finally become more available in the near future. According to the story, "cold weather has brought on a heevy [sic] hog slaughter on southeastern farms, but...most of the meat and fats would be used replenish home shortages." Thus, the paper's encouraging headline to "Cheer up!"


During World War II, many items were rationed by the United States government, including meat, rubber, sugar, shoes, metal, dairy products, and gasoline. An Office of Price Administration was established in 1941 to place ceilings on prices for some goods to keep prices within the reach of most Americans, and to ration the items that were most needed by the troops during the conflict. Though meat rationing ended in November, 1945, labor shortages meant lower crop yields in the months following the end of the war. 




Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, August - December 1945 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• World War II on the Home Front: Rationing web page from the University of North Carolina School of Education.
• The Home Front War: World War II and American Society by Kenneth Paul O'Brien in the general collection.
• The War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick in the DVD collection.
• The Second World War: A Complete History by Martin Gilbert in the general collection.
• Pork & Sons by Stephane Reynaud in the general collection.
• The Useful Pig by Roberta Wolfe Smoler in the general collection.
• Living With Pigs: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Porkers by Chuck Wooster in the general collection.
• Storey's Guide to Raising Pigs by Kelly Klober in the general collection.
• Don't Forget the Bacon! by Pat Hutchins in the children's picture book collection.

11 November 1934: Report from the Athens CCC Camp

On this day, the Athens Banner-Herald published updates from the Civilian Conservation Corp Camp Company 485,  located in Athens at Sandy Creek.  Included was a list of the young men stationed at the camp and their nicknames. 


Alas, the microfilm cut off the last several letters of their nicknames, but this is the list as it appears, with the partial nicknames, some of which are easy guesses, some are lost to time:

Crawford ... Pun-

Linton ... Smokey J-

Patterson ... Uncle B-

Love ... Ju-

Lowry ... Wild C-

Nalley ... To-

Parker ... Possu-

Reynolds ... Preach-

Barton ... Bro-

Benton ... Diz-

Boswell ... Thirty-Fi-

Buggs ... D-

Champion ... Cha-

Cole ... Monkey Ma-

Culbertson ... Salty D-

Free ... Bal-

Foster ... Handso-

Gilbert ... Sli-

Harrison ... Chick-

Head ... Knock O-

Hunt ... Sha-

Jarrrard ... Fess-

Jones, Evans ... Pecker Fa-

Jones, J. C. ... Big-

Jones, R. B. ... Ninety-S-

Jordan ... Flat Fo-

Mann ... Pu-

Motes ... Whistle Britch-

McFails ... Speed-

McKeehan ... Wi-

Padgett ... P-

Potts ... R-

Queen ... Ridge Runn-

Rainey ... Hard Ro-

Ray, S. F. ... Ba-

Reagin ... Pe-

Rider ... Bu-

Sumake, Sam ... Shor-

Spruill ... Evoluti-

Strickland, Hoyt ... Crick-

Tipton ... Pie Fa-

Washington ... Georg-

Wiley, Hamp ... Pecker Ne-

Wiley, J. T. ... Fa-

Williams, R. B. ... Soldi-

In 1933, it was estimated that 25% of American men aged 15-24 were unemployed, and another 29% of men in that age range had only part-time employment.  At the same time, the United States had lost 700,000,000 acres of virgin timberlands, causing massive soil erosion, causing 3,000,000,000 tons of soil to be washed away every year. President Franklin Roosevelt believed he could remedy both problems with the Emergency Conservation Work Act that created the CCC. It passed within President Roosevelt's first month in office.

Most men who enlisted were between the ages of 17 and 28, single, and could enlist for up to four six-month terms. They were paid a maximum of $30 per month, with $25 of that check sent home to their dependents. They were given physicals and health care upon their arrival at the camp, and also received work clothes, room, board, and education opportunities. 

Each camp had an Education Advisor to assist those who wanted to take lessons in everything from basic literacy to college-level work, and vocational education was offered through the camp work itself or from businesses in the neighboring towns. The program was successful not just in putting money back into the local economies of the men's hometowns and the towns around the camps, but an estimated 40,000 men also learned to read and write while enlisted.

In Georgia, the camps offered employment to 78,630 men. They also built parks still enjoyed by Georgians today, including Indian Springs State Park in Flovilla, F.D.Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Fort Mountain State Park in Chatsworth, A. H. Stevens Historic Park in Crawfordville, Little Ocmulgee State Park and Lodge in Helena, and Vogel State Park in Blairsville.


Until the program was absorbed into the War Department in 1942, 3.5 million unmarried men and 225,000 World War I veterans served the corps. They built fire roads, installed telephone lines, built parks, and planted over 3,000,000,000 trees across the country. 


The National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni is currently raising funds to put a statue honoring the work of CCC in every state. In Georgia, the statue is located at FDR State Park in Pine Mountain, where they are offering hayrides the evenings of November 18th and 19th.

Learn More:

• Athens Banner-Herald, Oct. 1934 - Feb. 1935 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• State Parks & Historic Sites website of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
• Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement by Neil M. Maher via PINES.
• The Coming of the New Deal by Arthur M. Schlesinger in the general collection.
• The Tree Army: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942 by Stan Cohen via PINES.
• Civilian Conservation Corps section of the National New Deal Preservation Association website.
• The New Deal in Georgia: An Administrative History by Michael Holmes in the Heritage collection.
• Georgia's Civilian Conservation Corps by Connie M. Huddleston via PINES.
• The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America by T. H. Watkins in the general collection.
• The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Alter in the general collection.
• Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942 by Perry H. Merrill via PINES.
• Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days that Created Modern America by Adam Cohen in the general collection.
• The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey in the biography collection.
• FDR by Jean Edward Smith in the biography collection.
• Hitch by Jeanette Ingold in the fiction collection.
• Civilian Conservation Corps History section of the National Park Service website.
• Georgia Camps page of the CCC Legacy website.

25 October 1892: Outsmarting the Jailbreakers

On this day in 1892, the Weekly Banner  explained the problems faced by Sheriff John W. Wier in his jail:

At the time, the courthouse and jail were on Prince Avenue; the jail Sheriff Wier was trying to secure is still standing on Meigs Street, where it now houses offices for the Oconee River Land Trust, the Georgia Land Conservation Center, and the studio for artist Charles Pinckney. The bars are still on the windows.

John W. Wier was elected Sheriff of Clarke County in 1880, and served a total of 26 years. He died while in office, and was replaced in a special election one month later by Walter E. Jackson. His family was allowed to stay in the Sheriff's house on the courthouse square during the election period. Wier was also known for keeping several pets in the jail, including a frog.

Learn More:

• Weekly Banner, Jul. 1892 - Dec. 1893 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Banner, Mar. 1906 - Dec. 1907 on Microfilm in the Heritage collection.
• Athens Historic Newspaper Archive collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• A Postcard History of Athens, Georgia by Gary L. Doster in the Heritage collection.
• Athens, Georgia: A Pictorial History, 1801-2001 by James K. Reap in the Heritage and general collections.
• The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society, edited by Norval Morris in the general collection.
• Mastering Hand Tool Techniques by Alan and Gill Bridgewater in the general collection.
• Civil War Prisons and Escapes: A Day-by-Day Chronicle by Robert E. Denney in the general collection.
• A Museum of Early American Tools by Eric Sloane in the general collection.
• The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill in the general collection.
• The Great Escape in the DVD collection.
• Voices from a Southern Prison by Lloyd C. Anderson in the general collection.
• Getting the Most Out of Your Abrasive Tools by Rockwell Manufacturing Company in the general collection.
• Escape from Davao: The Forgotten Story of the Most Daring Prison Break of the Pacific War by John D. Lukacs in the general collection.
• Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: A Story from Different Seasons by Stephen King in the large print collection.
• The Shawshank Redemption in the DVD collection.
• You Got Nothing Coming: Notes from a Prison Fish by Jimmy Lerner in the biography collection.
• Tools: A Tool-By-Tool Guide to Choosing and Using 150 Home Essentials by Steve Dodds in the general collection.
• Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War by Bruce B. Henderson in the general collection.
• Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America's Most Dangerous Prisoners by Ralph Blumenthal in the general collection.
• Handy Manny's Pet Roundup in the children's DVD collection.

23 September 1884: Eugene Talmadge Is Born

On this day in 1884, Eugene Talmadge was born outside Forsyth, Georgia, to Carrie and Thomas Talmadge. Fifty-six years later, he would ignite the largest crisis in the University of Georgia's history, causing UGA and all other state-funded schools to lose their accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), and dooming his re-election chances in 1942.


The controversy began in the summer of 1941 when Governor Talmadge, then a member of the recently created Board of Regents, acted to remove UGA's Dean of Education, Walter Dewey Cocking, on the charge that Cocking had advocated integrating a demonstration school near the University campus. Though the assertion had originally been made by a disgruntled former teacher without any evidence, and a ally of Talmadge on the Board had told him that the allegation had no merit, the Board voted to remove Dr. Cocking from his post. 


When the popular and respected UGA President Harmon Caldwell heard what had occurred, he sent word to the Board that he would resign if Dr. Cocking was fired without a chance to address the charges. The Board reconvened and conducted a four-hour inquiry that included testimony on behalf of Dr. Cocking from 16 College of Education faculty, President Caldwell, and the Presidents of Emory University and Agnes Scott College. The only person to testify against Dr. Cocking was the fired staff member, and the Board voted to rehire.



Incensed at this result, Governor Talmadge insisted that by fall quarter, Dr. Cocking would no longer be in office. He initiated changes to the Board of Regents in order to appoint more people who would vote for removal, and any other changes he wanted to make to the system. He asked for the resignation of three members, but was refused, and even altered the papers of appointment for one member to show the regent's term ending in 1941 rather than 1947, calling it a clerical error. His next vote to remove Dr. Cocking, with his newly constituted Board, passed 10-5.


At the same time, Talmadge was using Dr. Cocking's relationship with the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which had a large program of building schools for rural African-American students, to prove that Dr. Cocking was untrustworthy, and insisted that communist conspiracies meant that all state-funded libraries must remove any books or periodicals that he deemed as advocating "social equality" or communism . He also began removing more people from their positions in the University System, insisting that the schools be rid of "foreigners," which to Governor Talmadge meant that they were not from Georgia. 


On campus, tempers ran high. In October, the Southern University Conference had dropped the University of Georgia from its rolls, which caused outrage on campus. Students burned effigies of Talmadge on at least three separate occasions, and protested in Atlanta with motorcades 120 cars long. 


On October 31, 1942, the Red and Black published 16,000 copies of a state-wide edition distributed to all state colleges, alumni, and members of the General Assembly. The special edition included editorials, letters, articles about protest plans and solidarity pledges from private schools such as Emory and Mercer, poems about the situation, and excerpts of articles taken from state newspapers, the New York Times, Life magazine, and Time magazine. A front page editorial called for "all honest people of the state to cooperate with the students in the University System to put their power against the present 'dictator,'" and called those who did Governor Talmadge's bidding "a bunch of stooges," warning that "A tyrant always loses in the end and the small mice that follow the rat lose with him."


The Southern Association of Schools and Colleges created a committee to investigate what was happening in higher education in Georgia. At their December meeting, SACS voted unanimously to revoke accreditation at the University of Georgia and all other state-funded institutions. In order to allow current seniors to graduate, the invalidation would not go into effect until Fall Quarter, 1942. 


Though many schools had drops in enrollment due to the United States entry to World War II, UGA's dropped by 37%. Both the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association withdrew their support from Georgia's professional schools, and the situation received national attention. 


The lost accreditation was a step too far for most citizens of Georgia. During the 1942 gubernatorial race, Governor Talmadge was challenged by 36-year-old state Attorney General Ellis Arnall, and lost decisively due to the accreditation issue and the enthusiastic student campaign support for Arnall. On the day of his inauguration, Governor Arnall took the time to meet with two young University students, George O. Marshall and George Doss, just as Marshall, having enlisted in the Army, was about to report to Fort MacPherson.


Governor Arnall's first act was to pass reforms to the Board of Regents that diminished the influence of the governor and legislators on the schools, changes that were added to the Georgia constitution and passed by the citizens of Georgia in the next election.


Eugene Talmadge ran for governor again in 1946 and won. However, he died just weeks before taking office on December 21, 1946. His son was eventually elected by the legislature to take his place.


Learn More:

• A Bicentennial History of the University of Georgia by Thomas G. Dyer in the Heritage and general collections.
• Red and Black archives collection in the Digital Library of Georgia.
• New Georgia Encyclopedia, hosted by GALILEO.
• Historical Development of the University System of Georgia, 1932-1990 by Cameron Fincher in the Heritage collection.
• The University of Georgia under Sixteen Administrations by Robert Preston Brooks in the Heritage collection.
• The Governors of Georgia, 1754-2004 by James F. Cook in the Heritage collection.
• Red Galluses: A Story of Georgia Politics by Allen Lumpkin Henson via PINES.
• The Wild Man from Sugar Creek: The Political Career of Eugene Talmadge by William Anderson via PINES.
• Talmadge: A Political Legacy, A Politician's Life: A Memoir by Herman E. Talmadge in the Biography collection.
• Georgia Governors in an Age of Change: From Ellis Arnall to George Busbee, edited by Harold P. Henderson in the general collection.
• My World War II: The Home Letters of George O. Marshall, Jr., U.S. Army, 1943-1945 in the general collection.