Georgia's Political Heritage Program
Georgia's Political Heritage Program is a collection of oral history interviews with prominent current and former Georgia political figures representing political history since World War II. Notable interviews include Lester Maddox, Herman Talmadge, Hosea Williams and the late House Speaker Tom Murphy.
Begun in 1985 by Dr. Mel Steely, Professor Emeritus of the UWG History Department, GPHP captures the memory of Georgia's political leaders as they relate their roles in the context of state and national political history. Interviews with all the former governors of Georgia since World War II are included with the exceptions of M. E. Thompson and Marvin Griffin, who died prior to the program's existence. The collection is currently being digitized and made available online under an agreement with Georgia Public Broadcasting.
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The Annie Belle Weaver Special Collections serves as repository for these interviews as well as the political papers of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Libertarian Bob Barr, and a number of U.S. Congressmen representing Georgia in the House and Senate, as well as state legislators such as J. Ebb Duncan, Bill Hamrick, Wayne Garner, Carolyn Lee, John Simpson, Tracy Stallings, and Charles Thomas.
The program's collections include the papers and office contents of long-time Georgia House Speaker Tom Murphy, who will be memorialized with an exhibit re-creation of his Capitol office under an $8 million library renovation plan.
