News

  Three area lynching victims are being remembered this weekend. Aron Birdsong, Wes Hale and George Lowe were murdered near Watkinsville 100 years ago Saturday. John Vodicka is co-coordinator of the Athens Area Court Watch Project and Organizer of the event. He says Birdsong shot at a posse that gathered outside his house to lynch him before trying to hide in the woods. 

“And then the chase began,” Vodicka said. “Birdsong left his house and tried to run away to hide, and they eventually captured him that afternoon on December 4th.” 

  The University Cabinet voted unanimously today to recommend that two facilities at the University of Georgia be named for several of the institution’s early African American graduates.

It recommended that the Science Library be named the Shirley Mathis McBay Science Library, in honor of the woman who became the first African American to earn a doctorate from UGA. McBay earned her doctorate in math in 1966 and went on to teach at Spelman College and later became MIT’s dean for student affairs. 

  The State Botanical Garden located on the UGA campus, is hosting a new holiday experience. The inaugural Winter Wonder Lights show kicks off this evening. Jenny Cruse Sanders is the Director of the garden. 

 “The winter lights show at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia creates a new opportunity for guests to come and explore the State Botanical Garden in a whole new light,” Cruse Sanders said. 

The garden is decorated with nearly a million lights for the show.  

The Director of the Performing Arts Center at the University of Georgia, Jeffrey Martin recently dropped by our studios to talk with WUGA's Michael Cardin about the upcoming PAC's Holiday Music Festival.