Located in central Georgia, Jasper County was created in 1807 as the state’s thirty-first county from part of Baldwin County on land formerly held by Creek Indians. It is one of the “antebellum trail” counties, which stretch from lower northeast Georgia to the center of the state. The 370-square-acre county was named for Revolutionary War (1775-83) sergeant William Jasper, a hero of the 1776 Battle of Sullivan’s Island (also known as the Battle of Fort Moultrie) who died during the Siege of Savannah in 1779.

Kathy Wilde, attorney for Michael Hardwick, speaking at a gay rights demonstration in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision for Bowers v. Hardwick (Georgia sodomy law case), Richard B. Russell Federal Building, Atlanta, Georgia, July 3, 1986 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. Requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource should be submitted to Special Collections and Archives at Georgia State University.

No southerner was more outspoken in expressing moral indignation about the region’s injustices and inequities during the pre–civil rights era than the writer Lillian Smith, and in no work did she articulate that indignation more fully than in Killers of the Dream. First published in 1949, and revised and expanded in 1961, it is arguably the most influential and enduring of the many writings this self-described “tortured southern liberal” produced over her three-decade career.

The artist Lamar Dodd pictured with Charles D. Hudson of the Calllaway foundation and former LaGrange College president Waights G. Henry Jr. at groundbreaking for Lamar Dodd Arts Center in 1981. Courtesy of LaGrange College 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. All requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource must be submitted to the rights holder.

The Leviston Sawmill in Miller County, pictured between 1905 and 1910, produced lumber, rosin, and turpentine for the booming naval stores market. By the 1930s, the timber industry was also involved in the production of paper. 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. Requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource should be submitted to the Georgia Archives.