The Violent Bear It Away is a novel written by Flannery O’Connor, one of Georgia’s most distinguished writers of the twentieth century. O’Connor was born in Savannah and lived most of her life in the central Georgia town of Milledgeville. When she wrote The Violent Bear It Away, O’Connor was living with her mother on a dairy farm called Andalusia, near Milledgeville. She began the novel in the summer of 1952, and it was published in 1960.

Since World War II (1941-45) third parties in Georgia have played pivotal roles in elections. In 1948 the prosegregation States’ Rights Democratic “Dixiecrat” Party nominee Strom Thurmond received 20.3 percent of the vote in Georgia in his bid for U.S. president. Thurmond garnered a higher percentage of votes in Georgia than in any of the other eight states in which he appeared on the ballot as the Dixiecrat Party nominee, although his vote percentages were higher in the four states (Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana) where he was the nominee of the Democratic Party.

The Tift County Courthouse, located in Tifton, was completed in 1913. Designed by W. A. Edwards, it is the only courthouse ever to be constructed in Tift County. Courtesy of Don Bowman 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.

During Tom Murphy's forty-two-year career as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives, he was known as a man with a quick wit and a sharp tongue. He conducted his politics in a style familiar to the rural South. 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 Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Towns County, which borders North Carolina in northeast Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, is the state’s 118th county and comprises 167 square miles. It was created in 1856 from Rabun and Union counties. Originally inhabited by Cherokee Indians, the newly formed county was named for George W. Towns, the governor of Georgia from 1847 to 1851. The first white settlers, attracted by the promise of free land, arrived after the Indian cessions of 1818 and 1819.