The  U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Gregg v. Georgia —which involved a prosecution for a double murder committed in the course of a robbery—rejected the legal argument that capital punishment in and of itself constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” and thus violated the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Some observers had predicted that the Court’s earlier ruling in Furman v. Georgia (1972)—which struck down state systems that afforded juries sweeping discretion in imposing the death penalty—would spell the end of capital punishment in the United States.

Henry Ellis, the second royal governor of Georgia, has been called “Georgia’s second founder.” Georgia had no self-government under the Trustees (1732-52), and the first royal governor, John Reynolds (1754-57), failed as an administrator. Under the leadership of Ellis (1757-60) Georgians learned how to govern themselves, and they have been doing so ever since. As a teenager Ellis left his irascible father in Monaghan County, Ireland, to take to the sea.

Independent Presbyterian Church in Savannah, pictured circa 1930, counted Mary Telfair, the benefactor of Telfair Museums, as a member in the nineteenth century. U.S. first lady Ellen Axson Wilson, whose paternal grandfather began serving as pastor in 1857, was born in the manse of the church in 1860 and married there in 1885. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print.

The soul musician and Georgia Music Hall of Fame inductee Isaac Hayes broke new ground in the 1960s and 1970s with his unmistakable “Memphis soul” sound, which continues to influence artists today. Hayes was born on August 20, 1942, in Covington, Tennessee, to sharecropper parents who died while he was still an infant. He and his younger sister, Willette, were reared by their maternal grandparents, Rushia Addie-Mae and Willie Wade, in Memphis, Tennessee, where Hayes started singing in the church choir at the age of five.

James Brown, who grew up in Augusta, was one of the most influential musicians of the last half of the twentieth century. An original artist, fascinating showman, and tireless performer, Brown achieved legendary status, inspiring a generation of younger musicians. An inductee into both the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he created a solid body of work that has withstood the passage of time and popular music trends.