Athens Historical Society and the Athens-Clarke County Library Heritage Room are proud to present “A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History 40th Anniversary” with the author, Michael Thurmond on Sunday, October 21.
This presentation by the author himself will cover the rich heritage and history of African-American Athenians, on the 40th anniversary of the publishing of Thurmond’s book, A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History. The event will be held from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Athens-Clarke County Library’s Appleton Auditorium with light refreshments after the program.
Raised as a sharecropper’s son in Clarke County, Thurmond graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and religion from Paine College before later earning a Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina’s School of Law. He also completed the Political Executives program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University before becoming the first African-American elected to the Georgia General Assembly from Clarke County since Reconstruction. In 1998, Thurmond was elected Georgia labor commissioner. In 2016, he won a landslide victory to become chief executive officer of DeKalb County.
Thurmond’s latest book, Freedom: Georgia’s Antislavery Heritage, 1733-1865, was awarded the Georgia Historical Society’s Lilla Hawes Award and The Georgia Center for the Book listed it as one of The 25 Books All Georgian’s Should Read.
