Putnam County is home to Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, as well as Joel Chandler Harris, who popularized the Uncle Remus stories he learned from enslaved people on a local plantation. And throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Putnam County’s people fought to end segregation, contributing greatly to the Civil Rights Movement. With funding from the NEH, a partnership between the University of Georgia and the Putnam County School system is giving rural African American youth the chance to delve into their region’s significant literary and cultural history. At the same time, the program is bringing that history to a larger audience both within and outside of Putnam County, helping people better understand both the past and presence of this unique American place.
“The NEH has funded parts of this work that otherwise we couldn’t have done. It shines a spotlight on the work we are doing, and has provided us with the really sharp focus that we need to make this program sustainable.”
–Christopher Lawton
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Through the partnership, students in the Putnam County School system are working with humanities sources firsthand. They are documenting oral histories by interviewing older generations, spurring intergenerational dialogue. And they are working with both local archives and the National Archives, using a collection of photographs taken of Putnam County in 1941 to illuminate the county’s past. Their work provides significant context for the stories told by both Walker and Harris at the same time that it uncovers other, significant local histories that tell new stories about Putnam County’s place in the history of Georgia and the nation. The goal, through this place-based curriculum, is to provide public school students with unique, rich opportunities to consider how the past speaks to the present. And according to Christopher Lawton, director of experiential learning for the school system and director of this project, the aim is broader than affecting one or two groups in a high school system. In collaboration with teachers and the school superintendent, the project aspires to reshape the local curriculum and affect generations of students.
The professional-quality oral histories created by the students will be stored by the University of Georgia for future researchers. The knowledge they are gaining has already had an impact on the town. In 2017, the project created and was able to place a large, public exhibition featuring the student’s work on store windows in downtown Eatontown. The exhibition was on view during the annual Christmas parade, a major local event.