BAINBRIDGE – Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Bainbridge campus will host Dr. Boyd Murphree for his lecture “And who in the Devil is Joe Brown?: The Extraordinary Career of Joseph Emerson Brown, Georgia’s Most Resilient Nineteenth Century Politician.” The lecture will be at the Charles H. Kirbo Regional Center on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m.
Rising from political obscurity in the mountains of North Georgia, Brown was elected Governor of Georgia in 1857 and reelected to three more terms, leading the state into and through the Civil War. Brown’s obstinate defense of Georgia’s rights within the Confederacy made him the most outspoken critic of Confederate President Jefferson Davis among Southern governors.
The Confederacy died in 1865, but Brown survived. He jumped to embrace the Republican Party during Reconstruction. However, when Republican rule ended, Brown rejoined the Democrats and was elected to the U.S. Senate. Attacked by Republican and Democratic opponents as a political chameleon whose only goal was to stay in power, Brown defied them all. He remains one of Georgia’s most successful and controversial politicians.
Murphree is an archivist and historian with the Department of Special and Area Studies at the University of Florida’s George A. Smathers Libraries. He received his Ph.D. in history from Florida State University, where he focused on the politics of the Civil War Era. In 2020, the University Press of Florida published “The Governors of Florida”, a history of Florida’s governors from Andrew Jackson through Rick Scott, which Murphree coedited with Robert Taylor. The book received the Florida Book Awards’ gold medal for the top work in Florida non-fiction for 2020.
The Carter Arts & Lecture Series, now in its eighth season, is committed to enhancing the educational experience by bringing compelling speakers, distinguished authors, and performing arts to the ABAC Bainbridge campus. These events are designed to bring the campus and public together to educate, inspire, and spark imagination.
The Carter Arts and Lecture Series is sponsored by The Thomas M. and Irene B. Kirbo Foundation and the First Port City Bank.
The series will continue with Dr. Tracy Revels’ Mar. 14 lecture on Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; the Atlanta Chinese Dance Company, which will perform on Mar. 28; and the ABAC Jazz Ensemble performance featuring The Jim Gasior Trio on April 19. For more information visit www.artsatabac.com.
