Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia English associate professor Barbara McCaskill and English doctoral student Christina L. Davis have been named winners of a state “Excellence in Research Using the Holdings of an Archives” award.
The honor was presented in Oct. 4 ceremonies in Atlanta. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board chair Kaye Minchew announced the award during the ninth annual GHRAB Archives Awards ceremony at the Georgia Archives. The GHRAB awards recognize outstanding efforts in archives and records work in Georgia.
McCaskill and Davis wrote “Joseph Richardson Jones (c. 1901-1948): The Atom Bomb of Auburn Avenue,” a paper about the accomplishments and life of an African-American civil rights activist in Atlanta during the early 1900s. Jones was a reporter and photographer for the Atlanta Daily World, the largest circulating African-American newspaper in the south, where he earned the nickname “The Atom Bomb of Auburn Avenue.”
In preparing their project, McCaskill and Davis used resources from a variety of archives, libraries and other historical organizations, including the Middle Georgia Archives, Georgia Tech, UGA, Emory University, the Atlanta History Center, the Auburn Avenue Research Library and the Atlanta University Archives.
GHRAB works to promote the educational use of Georgia’s documentary heritage and to support efforts to improve the condition of records statewide. The Board is charged with advising the governor, secretary of state and the Georgia Archives on records and policy issues. For more information, see http://www.sos.ga.gov/archives/who_are_we/ghrab/default.htm.
