Oconee County, GA Politics

If you support Civil Rights in Oconee, Clarke or Walton County, I am sure you would be welcome. Just let Rich Rusk know what you are bringing to this Christmas gathering. Sincerely,  Dan Matthews From: richrusk@charter.net To: ; Subject: PLEASE ATTEND 15th Annual MFMC Xmas party Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 07:03:27 -0500 Please Attend Dec. 10 Moore's Ford Christmas Party To reply, please use richrusk@charter.net Dear Moore's Ford members and Friends,    Preparations are underway for our 15th Annual Moore's Ford Christmas Party, set for 6 p.m. this coming Saturday, December 10.    Thanks to Susan Tate, we are gathering at her lovely home on the Oconee River, 140 River Oak Way, Athens, GA 30605. See directions below.    Whether coming or not, PLEASE RSVP. Our November 17 email invitation elicited exactly one RSVP. That is a little spooky, folks. I did make some phone calls, and yes, there are Moore's Ford people h...

To reply, please use richrusk@charter.net Please Attend April 26 Moore's Ford Scholarship Banquet Dear folks,    Final call for attending our April 26 banquet. We've got at least 45 finalists and their guests coming, but we could use more Moore's Ford people to bear witness. We had 47 applications this year, a record number.    My apologies for running late with invitations. Have been busy with rentals this Spring and working on global climate change - a new focus for me.    But please know...the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee still lives. Our scholarship program is alive and growing.       In addition, at our May 12 meeting, we will review a proposal to co-host, with others, "The Gathering," yet another meeting of grass roots, memorial groups from around the country that have successfully revisited and memorialized their own histories of racial violence. This meeting will occur in Georgia. ...

A Moore’s Ford Christmas Message of Hope        Our Christmas greeting card this year, used to thank our many donors and supporters, was first seen in 1998. The Moore's Ford Memorial Committee had just hosted memorial services and installed gravemarkers for two African American couples killed by a lynch mob at the Moore's Ford Bridge in 1946 - the infamous "Monroe Massacre."      Was our work over? Our 1998 greeting card claimed otherwise: "There's something more a'calling /A'waiting to explore / There's new ways to move on from here / A new hope at our core."    We grassroots Georgians did indeed move on. We sponsored high school talent show/MLK celebrations, public forums on racial issues, cemetery work projects, calls for justice and renewed FBI and GBI investigations. We encouraged other communities to revisit their own legacies of racial violence and co-organized three national conferences that brought memorial groups together. ...

I am not even sure if I am attending this year due to a lingering cold I have had for the last fortnight. I hope for continued recovery. Apparently there is something of an epidemic decimating local school sports teams, too. Woven brightly,  Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. From: richrusk@charter.net Subject: DON'T MISS MFMC Xmas party TONIGHT, DEC. 10! Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 To reply, please use richrusk@charter.net DON'T MISS 13th Annual MFMC Christmas Party TONIGHT - Friday, December 10 Dear Moore's Ford friends,    Our Thirteenth Annual  Moore's Ford Memorial Committee Christmas Party will be held TONIGHT - Friday, December 10, 2010 at the Community Center in Farmington, GA.     The Center is ten miles south of Athens, just off Hwy 441 in Farmington. For directions, click on "MF - Christmas party plans."  See also "MF - Christmas message of hope,"  an inspiring letter from Monroe Area High School senior Thad...

High School Seniors from North Oconee and many other schools gathered at the Monroe Community Center to vie for Merit Awards and $1,000.00 scholarships awarded by the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee in their 11th Annual Scholarship Banquet. Among the recipients were finalists Terese Berger of Oconee County High School, Margracious Brown of North Oconee High School, Kayla Nightingale of Oconee County High School, Emily Radcliffe of North Oconee, and other students from Monroe Area, Morgan County, Clarke County, Cedar Shoals, Loganville and Social Circle. Among the Oconee County residents - present or former - donating time and efforts would include Rich Rusk and his wife Janice, Becky Vaughn, John English, Fred Johnson, Heather Kleiner, Lawrence Stueck and Kathleen McQuiston.

Always been a big supporter of Moore's Ford Memorial Scholarships, and I believe you should be as well. Please consider sending them a sizable or small donation to continue to educate and support their efforts to show our recent history, warts and all. Oconee County is on the border of the infamous Walton County bridge where four African-American people were lynched by a white mob sixty some odd years ago. Woven brightly, Daniel J. Matthews, Jr. Subject: support Moore's Ford scholarships Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:13:30 -0400 Please reply to richrusk@charter.net April 15, 2010 Dear Friends, Springtime has arrived and we are fundraising again - for our 11th Annual Moore's Ford Memorial Scholarship program. With our banquet only two weeks away, and dealing also with hard economic times and growth in our program, we send this annual appeal for donations. If you have already given what you can, please accept our thanks! The respected Moore's Ford Memorial ...

After getting harassed in our local grocery store yesterday ~ Publix ~ by a bunch of teenage Bishop baseball players with the last name of Poynter for wearing a shirt with our President on it and then subsequently being told by a friend's 16 year old daughter with the worst frown on her face she could not be seen with me because of the same shirt and she joined the College Republicans - yes you Madison Hood - the need for education for and enlightening our Oconee, Walton and Clarke County youth is greater than ever. Please attend or at least donate to the Moore's Ford Memorial Committee banquet this Thursday. From: "Rich Rusk" < richrusk@bellsouth.net > Date: April 20, 2009 6:21:20 AM EDT To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;> Subject: please attend April 23 banquet -   news about FBI investigation   Dear folks,    Sometime today or tomorrow, many of you should receive a hard copy mailer inviting you to our Tenth Annual Moore's Ford Scholarship Banquet, set f...

Thanks, Rita, for writing up the minutes. Dr. Larry Nackerud, the professor who will be speaking about Obama's   Cabinet, will be our speaker on Sunday, May 17th -- at 4 o'clock at the   Oconee Library, which has been booked for the event. I'll get out some   publicity soon about that. I was glad to see our group's outreach to Rich Rusk and his   justice-based work with others. The Oconee book group will be reading a   wonderful and sobering book about the Moore's Ford lynching (called Fire   in the Canebrake) on August 26th. (Our updated book list is posted on the web-site. Thanks, Steve!)

Son of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson's Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Rich Rusk just sent this letter collection of articles from the Walton Tribune newspaper: Dear Moore's Ford friends, In an April 5, page one story, the Walton Tribune published news that a letter from Walton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Little has "called for justice in the Moore's Ford lynching." "The proclamation is believed to be the first such action for any governing body in the county," wrote the Tribune. Managing Editor Brian Arrington also wrote a column calling upon other Walton County leaders to step up, and thanking Mr. Little for having done so. Both stories are attached below. This action came one week after our March 28 film screening/public forum in Monroe. Remember the name of our event? "When justice rolls down..." Folks, I am thinking of the hundreds of phone calls and emails over the years, personal visits and pleas, urging ...