Erwin Mitchell & The Georgia Project

Erwin Mitchell of Dalton, Georgia is proof positive that there are second acts in American lives, and that public service can be a lifetime endeavor of enriching and improving communities. From Solicitor General then Judge on the Cherokee Judicial Circuit, to Congress, and back to Dalton -- public service has been a lifetime endeavor, one that enriches and improves communities.

In 1997 Mitchell lead a campaign to educate the Latino children of Dalton’s public schools. Famous for its thriving carpet industry, Dalton had attracted a Hispanic work force valued by employers but often neglected by the rest of the community. With children caught on the wrong side of a language barrier, Mitchell used his influence and energy to lead the Georgia Project, an initiative which brought teachers from the Universidad de Monterrey in Mexico, to teach not only Latino children but also teach the Anglo teachers how to teach the Latino children. While the Georgia Project is no longer funded, its influence endures in this community.

The Georgia Project Papers were donated by Erwin Mitchell to the Russell Library in February 2009. The video clips included here highlight Mitchell talking about his experience with the Georgia Project, and are excerpted from a 2008 interview of Mitchell by Bob Short, recorded for the Reflections on Georgia Politics oral history series.

For more on the Georgia Project, see this article from the March 1999 issue of UGA’s Georgia Magazine: http://www.uga.edu/gm/399/FeatPos.html









For more information on Erwin Mitchell, click here or visit April's Outside the Box post.
Post by Craig Breaden, Head of Media and Oral History, Russell Library

History in the First Person

Reflections on Georgia Politics is a project that began in the fall of 2006 at Young Harris College, as a lecture and discussion program hosted by Georgia political veteran Bob Short. In late 2007, the Richard B. Russell Library began producing the program as an oral history series, traveling across Georgia to videotape interviews. Former governors, constitutional officers, congressmen, state legislators, political organizers, and journalists sit down with Short -- sometimes during a quick break between committee meetings, other times for a lengthy period of calm reflection on a back porch -- and share their experiences in Georgia and national politics. These conversations are captured and the Russell Library serves as a repository for the resulting tapes - making decades of political history, strategy, and stories of back-room-politics accessible to the public.

These personal perspectives on public policy and leadership have resulted in the creation of a unique resource that will continue to grow and benefit students of Georgia's history. In the weeks and months to come, and for as long as this project continues, selections from these interviews will be posted regularly to this blog along with commentary from project supervisor Craig Breaden, Head of Media and Oral History for the Russell Library. In addition, you'll see announcements for further developments in the project, its newest directions, and manifestations in exhibits and other displays.

Up Next: Interview with Erwin Mitchell

Expressing Opinions on Health Disparities

Click here for an opinion piece written by UGA student Jordan Sarver, commenting on health disparities and reflecting on the opening event from our Unnatural Causes program series.

Working Toward a Common Language

This Sunday marked our third event in the 2009 Unnatural Causes Film & Discussion Series. We screened Episode 3: Becoming American, which examines the “Latino paradox” – that recent Mexican immigrants tend to be healthier than the average American, but those health advantages erode in as little as five years after they enter the U.S. The episode examines what causes immigrants to become less healthy as they become more American.

We had three amazing panelists on hand to talk with the audience about immigrant health and experiences throughout Georgia: Sharon Gibson (UGA Cooperative Extension & FACS), Sister Margarita Martin (Oasis Católico Santa Rafaela), and Coti Perez-Espinoza (Positive Impact Atlanta). With varied experiences, these women were able to cover a broad range of topics and carry on an engaging discussion, moderated by planning committee member Patricia Thomas (Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, UGA).


Some Memorable Moments of Discussion…

Sister Margarita opened by commenting that the film skipped over one very important element - the ominous threat of deportation in immigrant communities, especially here in Georgia. Recent legislation has made it easier to deport, while making something as simple as obtaining a driver’s license nearly impossible for illegal immigrants. When people constantly live in fear of being ripped from their American-born children, they tend not to seek help from healthcare providers who might report their illegal status. Such situations put not only these individuals and their families at risk, but also the wider community they come into contact with.

One attendee asked if the Mexican government provided any assistance to its citizens living in the United States – advocating for their rights, or sending teachers over to help educate this population.

• Sheryl Vogt mentioned the Georgia Project, founded by former Georgia congressman Erwin Mitchell, which promoted the exchange of teachers between Mexico and Georgia. This endeavor ended because of cuts in funding and increased restrictions of teacher certifications for those teaching at schools in Georgia. (Congressman Mitchell just donated the Georgia Project Papers to the Russell Library).

• Panelist Coti-Perez commented that the Mexican Embassy does sponsor a healthcare week annually, during which time all citizens are invited to attend free health screenings in Atlanta.
  

Another member of the audience suggested that extending greater health care opportunities to illegal immigrants would, in the end, decrease the tremendous spending the in overall healthcare system. When someone has insurance, they don’t wait until an illness is incapacitating before visiting a doctor or rely on emergency room visits. Increases in preventative medicine and regular checkups, for anyone, reduces the bottom line in healthcare costs distributed to taxpayers.

Several in the audience asked what efforts were being made in Georgia to help aid immigrant communities, specifically those in Athens, and what we can all do in the future to help. A few suggestions from the panel:

• Write to Your Representatives – ask them to advocate for immigrants’ rights, to make healthcare for these populations (including non-legal residents) a priority that benefits our entire society. If you feel local representatives won’t take you seriously, take it to the top – President Obama!

• Be the First to Reach Out -- Sister Margarita shared positive stories of the interactions between students from UGA (who act as tutors) and the children who participate in her afterschool programs. “These children are their parents’ treasures,” she said, and when the parents can see that not all “gringos” are out to harm them – but in fact some are committed to helping their children achieve in school – that builds a base of trust that can lead to communication.
  

• Working Toward a Common Language – Many addressed the apparent language barrier. Sharon Gibson submitted one way the Cooperative Extension encourages use of the English language – employing useful reading materials that engage! When you teach someone to read using a document that teaches them other useful skills – such as how to protect their families from pesticides – they are more willing to spend what little free time they might have available to learn the language.
  

The next program of the series, Episode 4: Bad Sugar, will take place on April 19th at 3 p.m. at the Athens Clarke County Public Library (2025 Baxter Street, Athens, GA 30606). This episode follows the lives of O’odham Indians, living on reservations in southern Arizona – a population with perhaps the highest rate of Type 2 diabetes in the world. For more information on this program, visit the Film & Discussion Series webpage or call (706) 542-5788.

Click here for more images from the event!
Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Unnatural Causes Interview on WUGA

Click here to listen to audio from March 19, 2009, of Mary Kay Mitchell interviewing Jan Levinson, (Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library) and Dr. Claude Burnett (Director, Northeast Georgia Health District) about the Russell Library's 2009 Unnatural Causes Film & Discussion Series on WUGA.

Outside the Box - April

Object: AMVETS Silver Helmet Award
Collection: Erwin Mitchell Papers

Harlan Erwin Mitchell was born in Dalton, Georgia, on August 17, 1924. He served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps (1943-46) during World War II. He returned to Georgia in 1946 and earned an L.L.B at the University of Georgia School of Law. Following further service in the U.S. Air Force (1951-52), Mitchell became solicitor general, and briefly served as a Superior Court judge, for the Cherokee Judicial Circuit.

In early 1958 Mitchell was elected as a Democrat to the 85th Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henderson L. Lanham (7th District) in November 1957. He won re-election the following year and during his term in the House (1958-61), he served as the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Patents and Scientific Inventions, as well as a member of the Committee on Science and Astronautics and the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. After leaving Congress, Mitchell served as a State Senator in the Georgia General Assembly (1960-61) and then returned to Dalton to resume practicing law.

"The Veteran's Oscar"...
Also known as American Veterans, AMVETS is a volunteer led organization which has provided wide-ranging assistance to American veterans and their families since its founding in 1947. The Silver Helmet Award, often called “the Veterans Oscar,” is presented annually by the organization to recognize excellence in “Americanism, defense, rehabilitation, congressional service and other fields.” Erwin Mitchell received this honor in 1960 for his service on the Veterans Affairs Committee in the U.S. Congress.

Erwin Mitchell's Account of the Award Ceremony: “The award ceremony was held as a luncheon in the majestic old Mayflower Hotel, and no detail was left unattended. The attendance of Members of Congress and the Executive Branch was significant. If memory serves me correctly, in addition to the honorees, among those addressing the luncheon was Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee Olin (Tiger) Teague of Texas, and Congresswoman Edith Norse Rogers of Massachusetts.

Presidential politics was the main course of the luncheon. This was 1960 before the political party nominations at which Vice-President Nixon and Majority Leader Johnson were the "odds on" favorites to be the nominees. I was first to speak and began by announcing that I was not seeking the Presidency this year. This seemed to loosen the crowd and we all were warmly received. Neither the Vice-President nor the Majority Leader made openly political speeches but Richard Nixon, who followed me to the podium, did comment "if I could make a speech like Congressman Mitchell, I would have no problem being elected." This was the most generous statement which I, of course, greatly appreciated. However, my appreciation was not great enough to cause me to support the Vice-President in the General Election in November. I spent all my efforts during the campaign working in behalf of Jack Kennedy, whom you will recall carried the State of Georgia by a greater percentage than any others, including his home state of Massachusetts.” -- Erwin Mitchell, 3/23/2009

April's "Outside the Box" object will be on display in the lobby gallery of the Russell Library, open 8:30am-4:30pm, Monday through Friday, until May 1st. For further information on the Erwin Mitchell Papers, please contact russlib@uga.edu or visit http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/.

Campaigning the Old Fashioned Way

Although the 2008 elections are over, I am often reminded of campaign season in the Hugh Peterson, Sr. Papers through memorabilia from the Congressman’s bids for a seat in the U. S. House of Representatives in the 1930s and 1940s. These items are unique reminders of a time when campaigning was live and in person instead of on television and the internet. Among the items are campaign flyers from his bids for Congress as well as those of his opponents. Photographs from a rally in Lyons, Georgia in the 1930s show a day-in-the-life on the campaign trail.

Some of the most interesting items donated by the Peterson family are five hand-painted cloth campaign banners used for rallies in the First Congressional District of Georgia, which included Bryan, Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Chatham, Effingham, Emanuel, Evans, Jenkins, Liberty, Long, McIntosh, Montgomery, Screven, Tattnall, Toombs, Treutlen and Wheeler Counties. Three of the banners contain vibrant blues, greens and yellows and measure 35 inches by 17 inches. The fifth banner is 6 feet by 35.5 inches and is painted in red, black and gold, and states that Peterson is “Young, Bold, Brainy, Sincere, and Patriotic” – good things in a politician!

Here is a brief timeline of Peterson's career in politics...

1898 - Hugh Peterson is born in Montgomery County, Georgia

1918 - He Graduates from the University of Georgia with a law degree and enters the military for the remainder of World War I.

1922 - Peterson is elected to Georgia General Assembly, where he serves as a Representative (1923-31) and Senator (1931-33)

1934 - He is elected to represent Georgia’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives (1934-46), where he serves on Committees on Public Lands, Territories, Public Roads, and River and Harbors.

1946 - Peterson loses the campaign for re-election to Prince Preston of Bulloch County. He spends the rest of the 1940s working in Germany with General Lucius Clay. Until his death in 1961, Peterson spent his final years practicing law, managing his businesses in South Georgia an lobbying in Washington for several Georgia businesses.

Post by Renna Tuten, Project Archivist, Russell Library

We Need a Vision!

On a blustery Sunday afternoon a group of 70 of us gathered at the Athens Public Library to consider the damage that the chronic stress racism and other types of discrimination can inflict on our bodies as part of the Russell Library’s second event in the 2009 Unnatural Causes Film & Discussion Series.

We watched, “When the Bough Breaks,” the second episode in the Unnatural Causes documentary that focuses on the connections between the stress of racism that African American women experience throughout their lives and statistics that indicate high rates of premature delivery, low birth-weight babies, and high infant mortality among African American mothers. The film describes research studies indicating that genetics, education, or economics play a role in these birth outcomes but cannot alone, or in concert, account for such high statistics among African American women.

The film revisits the social programs of the 1960s and 1970s, when efforts by government and community empowered African Americans and provided greater opportunities and support. During this time period the overall health and maternal health of African American women improved significantly. Since 1980s, as many of these government programs lost funding and many areas of the United States have become unofficially re-segregated, these gains in health and wellbeing among African Americans have declined significantly. According to the documentary, “Each year, babies in the U.S. die at twice the rate of those in Japan or Sweden – most because they are born premature. Although our numbers are better today than they were in 1970, we fare worse relative to other countries...Of the premature babies who survive, many face a lifetime of learning and medical problems, including increased risk for hypertension, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.”

Following the film, acting as moderator, I introduced a panel of three women whose work is directly related to the challenges laid out in the episode. Dr. Carol Hogue, an epidemiologist at Emory University, and Dr. Fleda Jackson, a psychiatrist who works at Emory and Atlanta Regional Health Forum, were featured in the episode and are actively engaged in research and outreach efforts connected to this topic. Our third panelist, Dr. Lia Fasse, is a neonatologist at Athens Regional Medical Center, provided a local perspective. The panelists offered some initial commentary and then I opened up the discussion to the group.

Highlights from our discussion:

• A Somber Note: At the onset of our discussion, one woman remarked that the fight to end racial injustice always comes down to money, or a lack thereof. She expressed a sense of frustration, not knowing what might help us move forward.
  
  
• Strategies for Daunting Problems:Dr. Jackson raised the importance of building greater awareness of the connection between racism and health as a key first step in tackling the problem. She shared information about the “Save 100 Babies Symposium” in Atlanta that is raising awareness of this problem much as our Unnatural Causes series is trying to do in Athens.
  
  
• Moments in the Everyday: Others in the audience talked about the need to find teachable moments where we as individuals can raise these issues with family, friends and community -- using personal examples to get the point across.
  
  
• Local Matters: Several comments came from a handout we distributed with local statistics, provided by Dr. Claude Burnett and the Northeast Georgia Health District, that suggest that African American women and their babies who live in the Athens area have much better health than African American women in general in the United States. What programs have worked well in our local community?
  
  
• We Need a Vision: A final comment from an audience member summed up the spirit of the group: we need a new vision to move forward. In response to this call to action, I shared that the Russell Library and the other conveners for this series were all committed to continuing to build on the conversations and ideas expressed in the series in future programs. Everyone has to keep these issues in mind and continue this type of productive discussion. We’ve made a good start; now let’s keep the momentum going!

The next program of the series, “Becoming American” will take place on April 3rd at 3 p.m. at the Paul Coverdell Center located at the corner of D. W. Brooks Drive and Carlton Drive just east of the Coliseum. There is a parking deck next to the Center and parking is free there on Sunday. This episode compares the health of recent immigrants to that of the average American, demonstrating that health advantages erode the longer immigrants remain in the US. Our guest panelists will help us explore what causes health to worsen as immigrants become American?

Click Here for More Images from the Event!
Post by Jill Severn, Head of Access & Outreach, Russell Library

Film & Discussion Series Kicks Off!

An audience of nearly a hundred gathered in the main auditorium of the Athens Clarke County Public Library this past Sunday to kickoff The 2009 Unnatural Causes Film & Discussion Series! Our opening event began with introductions and thanks to all of our partner organizations from Jill Severn, Head of Access and Outreach at the Russell.

From there, we jumped right into the screening of “In Sickness and Wealth,” the first episode in the seven-part documentary series Unnatural Causes – which introduces the audience to four individuals from different socioeconomic classes living in Louisville, Kentucky. During the next hour, we see how their social class, race, and neighborhood shape their health and explore the broader themes addressed throughout the other sections of the documentary.

Dr. Camara Jones, Research Director on Social Determinants of Health and Equity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave a stunning keynote address. Jones opened her portion of the program by asking viewers what struck them most about the film – what were they taking away from the opening episode? From there, she used definitions, stories, and analogies to describe what social determinants are and how they can affect health.

She put forth her own “Cliff Analogy” -- a simple explanation of the multiple levels of health intervention available and why some individuals or groups fall through the cracks of the healthcare system. She concluded with “The Gardner’s Tale” – a story based on her own experiences which describes levels of racism and how we, as a society, can combat racism.

The event closed with a few more questions from the audience and a reception of healthy snacks – vegetable & fruit trays! We were overwhelmed by the size and diversity of our audience, and hope that it only continues to grow (in both ways) as our series continues.

Our next program will take place this Sunday, March 29, 3PM at the ACC Public Library. We’ll be screening Episode 2: When the Bough Breaks, and talking with Dr. Carol Hogue and Dr. Fleda Jackson, both featured in this episode of the film, as well as local neonatologist Dr. Maria Faase. For more information on this program, visit: http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/exhibits/uncauses/index.shtml

Click Here for More Images from the Event!
Post by Jan Levinson, Assistant Outreach Archivist, Russell Library

Progress on Peterson - An Introduction

Greetings! I'm Renna Tuten, Project Archivist at the Russell Library. In 2007 I was hired to process the Hugh Peterson, Sr. Papers for a period of two years. This entry marks the beginning of a new segment on the Russell blog -- Progress on Peterson -- which will serve as a public journal of my daily work, the discoveries and challenges I encounter while readying the collection for researchers. By documenting my own work, I hope to give readers a glimpse of what goes on behind-the-scenes at an archives and the chance to discover the treasures in this new collection alongside the archivist.

Let's start at the very beginning: what does it mean when an archivist says "process" in reference to an archival collection? Well, processing involves organizing, arranging, and describing items in a person, family or organization's collection so that researchers can locate information. The collections we receive here at the Russell contain everything from paper items like newspapers, letters, and ticket stubs to everyday objects such as t-shirts and pens as well as photographs and films. Some of these things are considered rare and unique based on factors like age and condition but every item contributes to the telling of a story. The Hugh Peterson, Sr. Papers reveal a story about state and national politics from the 1920s into the 1940s - years Peterson spent serving as a Legislator in the Georgia General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives.

A few treasures I've come across so far are these photographs. The first (above) was used on the cover of Le Monde Illustre in the 1930s. It depicts Peterson and his staff in 1938, eating watermelons brought to Washington from the Congressman's hometown of Ailey, Georgia -- a yearly treat for everyone. The second photo shows Peterson and his son, Hugh Peterson, Jr., looking over paperwork in the Congressman's Capitol Hill office in 1937.

Over the next few months, I hope to share more unique items I find in the collection -- so stay tuned! Here's to Hugh!