Saving the Soul of Georgia: Donald L. Hollowell and the Struggle for Civil Rights

Acknowledgments

While the impetus for this book stems from the importance of chronicling the phenomenal work of Georgia’s foremost unsung civil rights activist and lawyer, the work was also inspired by the influence of unsung grassroots activists on my own upbringing. I was especially inspired by my parents, Eddie Daniels Sr. and Maggie C. Daniels, who grew up on small farms in rural Georgia. My paternal and maternal grandparents had little formal education and struggled to make ends meet. Nevertheless, they valued education and made it possible for my parents to attend Fort Valley State College (fvsc), Georgia’s underfunded “separate but equal” land grant college for black students. Though fvsc had nowhere near the resources available at the land grant university for white students, the University of Georgia, my parents and other fvsc students came under the influence of eminent educators and race leaders such as fvsc presidents Horace Mann Bond and Cornelius V. Troupe, who shaped the college into an oasis in south rural Georgia for blacks seeking to improve their lot. My father, a school principal, and my mother, an elementary school teacher, reared my siblings and me in Rochelle, Georgia, a thoroughly segregated community. As in most rural southern towns in the 1950s and 1960s, blacks did not sit in at segregated establishments or march on picket lines, and there were few opportunities to join the naacp, the sclc, or sncc. Nonetheless, despite the rigid racial caste system that relegated blacks to second-class citizenship, in their own quiet but steadfast way my parents, like other black parents across the South, instructed their progeny to have faith in God and guided us to develop self-confidence and embrace a sense Acknowledgments xvi ] acknowledgments of racial pride. Their resolve to educate their children and prepare them to overcome racial inequality was itself an influential form of activism that advanced the cause of social justice. My parents carefully tutored us on how to survive and surmount Jim Crow obstructions. At the same time, they relentlessly urged us to get a good education, which they insisted would not only help us earn a good living but would also increase our capacity to overcome racial injustice. To this day the names of many community activists across the South who helped advance the black freedom struggle remain unknown and their stories remain untold . Despite their anonymity, however, they are indeed heroes who helped shape a world that makes the promises of democracy more of a reality for all Americans. Many individuals helped me in researching and writing this book. I was privileged to be guided by Donald L. Hollowell, who provided valuable insights into his civil rights work and activism. In addition to the firsthand information secured from interviews with him, he introduced or directed me to many of his contemporaries, who also provided rich accounts of his civil rights lawyering. Equally invaluable were my interviews with his wife, Louise T. Hollowell, to whom he was married for sixty-two years. My thanks to her for allowing me to come into her home on several occasions to sift through Hollowell’s personal papers, which now have been archived at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta. Among the rich sources for this study to whom Hollowell directed me is his former law clerk, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., who provided keen insights on Hollowell. Jordan has been a great mentor and friend throughout this research process. Hollowell also guided me to his law partners, Horace T. Ward and Howard Moore Jr., who provided vital insights for the study, critiqued drafts of the manuscript, and went far beyond the call of duty to provide personal accounts of their work with Hollowell. My deepest appreciation goes to all the individuals I interviewed for this book who generously shared their experiences with me. Their candor and insights were vital to telling this story. I am particularly grateful to Superior Court of Fulton County judge Marvin Arrington, Julian Bond, Robert Brisbane, federal judge William A. Bootle, Mary Frances Early, Jesse Hill, Dr. Hamilton Earl Holmes, Isabella Holmes, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Carol King, Chevene B. King Jr., Lonnie King, Preston King, Congressman John Lewis, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, federal judge Constance Baker Mot- acknowledgments [ xvii ley, Georgia Court of Appeals judges Herbert Phipps and John Ruffin, Reverend Charles Sherrod, Frank Smith Jr., former Georgia governors Herman Talmadge and...