Brown Bag History Series Lecture to explore the growth of segregation in a Jim Crow South

As part of its continuing Brown Bag History Series, the Museum will present The Strange Career of Jim Crow in Augusta, a lecture given by Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell on Wednesday, July 1, 2009 at 12:30 p.m.

The lecture will explore the growth of segregation in the region, comparing the early possibilities of Reconstruction with the developments in race relations in the late nineteenth century. Using census materials, newspapers, city directories, memoirs, maps and other primary sources, this research seeks to understand the internal and external forces that coalesced to cause Jim Crowism to emerge in a place where more fluid race relations had existed.

Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell, a native of Augusta, is the Director of the Center for the Study of Georgia History at Augusta State University. She served as a History Professor at Paine College from 1980-1991, Augusta State University from 1991-2002, and as Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History, Geography and Philosophy at Georgia College & State University from 2002- 2008. She returned to Augusta in summer of 2008 to carry on the work of the late historian, Dr. Edward Cashin. She has authored essays and articles, presented many papers at scholarly conferences, and served on the boards of professional organizations. She is currently the co-editor of the Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians and the executive secretary of the Georgia History Consortium. Her current research includes a textbook on Georgia history for public schools to be published by Clairmont Press, an additional chapter covering the years 1980-2010 for Dr. Cashin’s Story of Augusta (which will be reprinted), and a book on family and race in late nineteenth century Augusta and Summerville.

The Brown Bag History Series is an educational lecture series provided monthly by the Augusta Museum of History, and is an ideal lunch-time break for downtown professionals, retirees, and students. The lectures are free to Museum members and $3 for non-members. Participants should bring a lunch and the Museum provides beverages and dessert. Refreshments are served beginning at 11:30 a.m.; the lecture runs from 12:30 – 1:00 p.m.