2025 GAH Annual Meeting
February 7-9, 2025 | Georgia College and State University | Milledgeville, Georgia
In Memory of Laura McCarty
The Georgia Association of Historians is saddened to report the death of longtime member and former president Laura Thomson McCarty whose thirty-year career at the Georgia Humanities Council made her an ambassador of the humanities throughout the state. Members will recall Laura as an eternally optimistic and cheerful person who always found something positive to say while being the hardest working organizer who knew literally everyone engaged in the liberal arts in Georgia.
Professional historians in Georgia crossed McCarty’s path at some point in their careers either at a conference, program, or exhibit sponsored by Georgia Humanities or as a judge at the regional and statewide National History Day competitions which she oversaw as state coordinator for decades.
Although a native of South Carolina, Laura descended from generations of leaders in the old Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with her grandparents buried in the city cemetery at Oxford College outside Covington, Georgia. Like the old itinerate circuit riders, her father, the Reverend Henry Mann Thomson, Jr. served several Methodist churches as pastor, moving the family to different congregations with one stint being just across the Savannah River from Augusta in Graniteville, the old mill town founded by southern industrialist William Gregg, a post Laura remembered with fondness.
Pursuing the liberal arts, Laura matriculated at the Methodist Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where her father and sisters also attended. She was graduated in 1988 and remained a devoted fan of the Terriers as well as other college athletic teams. Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree, she attended graduate school at the University of Georgia where she began in the doctoral program of the Department of English studying comparative literature and in particular Italian Futurism. Briefly she taught in the University system.
In 1993, the president of the Georgia Humanities Council, Dr. Ron Benson, hired Laura Thomson as his assistant and she began her decades of employment in downtown Atlanta’s Hurt Building. She quickly became a central figure in the office managing many of the Council’s activities. Old timers in the GAH will remember with nostalgia the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities, an annual celebration that packed the Georgia Depot next to the Capitol with scholars of many stripes, directors of numerous heritage groups, and others engaged in the state’s many humanities-oriented organizations in a swirl of activities that McCarty deftly managed.
Throughout her career, Laura Thomson McCarty remained an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta. She joined numerous academic organizations including the Southern Historical Association while serving on the boards of the Georgia Council for the Social Studies, the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries, the Georgia Center for the Book, and other professional groups.
When Dr. Jamil Zainaldin became the President of the GHC he named McCarty his executive vice president. Under Zainaldin, the Council pioneered the state online encyclopedia with its New Georgia Encyclopedia edited by Dr. John C. Inscoe. Laura became a frequent contributor of entries. When Zainaldin retired, she assumed the presidency of the renamed Georgia Humanities in 2018 and held the position until her own retirement February 15, 2024.
As president, McCarty calmly confronted the crises that came her way beginning with COVID and the need to shift the office to remote work while adjusting the numerous humanities grants to accommodate rescheduling. She oversaw the distribution of $1.67 million in federal funding to organizations through SHARP and CARES relief and safely managed the return of workers to the office.
In addition to her organizational skills running the statewide affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Laura proved herself to be an accomplished scholar. What began as the 2006 entry for the NGE became the first complete biography of Coretta Scott King. Published in the prestigious Greenwood Biographies series of Greenwood Press in 2009, McCarty’s Coretta Scott King: A Biography, provided the first complete picture of the human rights activist and widow of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not just of her life during the civil rights movement but also her decades of work building the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, her securing passage of the legislation that made the King National Holiday, her support for sanctions against South Africa and on behalf of women internationally, her advocacy for gay rights, and her death in 2006. A seminal work, the biography remains the standard academic account of Coretta Scott King’s life.
In 1999, Laura married her soulmate Phillip McCarty, a talented design and graphics technology expert and Auburn University graduate from Dothan, Alabama, who had connections with the Atlanta Rhythm Section. The two loved attending concerts of southern rock bands and other music events. They lived a “happily ever after” life in Decatur in a house on Cinderella Way on the corner with Fantasy Lane in Storybook Estates. While they enjoyed travel, especially to Hawai’i, their special place remained the Florida panhandle, although Phillip often accompanied Laura to National Humanities meetings around the country, sallying forth with his uncanny resemblance to Founding Father Ben Franklin.
When Phillip died from cancer in September 2021, Laura dealt with her grief by taking on more work but in time experienced her own health issues. In 2023 she took a leave of absence from Georgia Humanities, briefly returning before retiring in 2024.
Reflecting on her career, Laura said, “The joy of working in the humanities is the opportunity to learn something new every day. I look back on my time at Georgia Humanities with deep gratitude. It’s been a remarkable journey, connecting with people and collaborating with our dedicated board members, elected officials, community leaders, and many others who share a passion for the humanities.”
Funeral arrangements and memorials have yet to be announced by the family.
Glenn T. Eskew
Professional historians in Georgia crossed McCarty’s path at some point in their careers either at a conference, program, or exhibit sponsored by Georgia Humanities or as a judge at the regional and statewide National History Day competitions which she oversaw as state coordinator for decades.
Although a native of South Carolina, Laura descended from generations of leaders in the old Methodist Episcopal Church, South, with her grandparents buried in the city cemetery at Oxford College outside Covington, Georgia. Like the old itinerate circuit riders, her father, the Reverend Henry Mann Thomson, Jr. served several Methodist churches as pastor, moving the family to different congregations with one stint being just across the Savannah River from Augusta in Graniteville, the old mill town founded by southern industrialist William Gregg, a post Laura remembered with fondness.
Pursuing the liberal arts, Laura matriculated at the Methodist Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where her father and sisters also attended. She was graduated in 1988 and remained a devoted fan of the Terriers as well as other college athletic teams. Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree, she attended graduate school at the University of Georgia where she began in the doctoral program of the Department of English studying comparative literature and in particular Italian Futurism. Briefly she taught in the University system.
In 1993, the president of the Georgia Humanities Council, Dr. Ron Benson, hired Laura Thomson as his assistant and she began her decades of employment in downtown Atlanta’s Hurt Building. She quickly became a central figure in the office managing many of the Council’s activities. Old timers in the GAH will remember with nostalgia the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities, an annual celebration that packed the Georgia Depot next to the Capitol with scholars of many stripes, directors of numerous heritage groups, and others engaged in the state’s many humanities-oriented organizations in a swirl of activities that McCarty deftly managed.
Throughout her career, Laura Thomson McCarty remained an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Atlanta. She joined numerous academic organizations including the Southern Historical Association while serving on the boards of the Georgia Council for the Social Studies, the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries, the Georgia Center for the Book, and other professional groups.
When Dr. Jamil Zainaldin became the President of the GHC he named McCarty his executive vice president. Under Zainaldin, the Council pioneered the state online encyclopedia with its New Georgia Encyclopedia edited by Dr. John C. Inscoe. Laura became a frequent contributor of entries. When Zainaldin retired, she assumed the presidency of the renamed Georgia Humanities in 2018 and held the position until her own retirement February 15, 2024.
As president, McCarty calmly confronted the crises that came her way beginning with COVID and the need to shift the office to remote work while adjusting the numerous humanities grants to accommodate rescheduling. She oversaw the distribution of $1.67 million in federal funding to organizations through SHARP and CARES relief and safely managed the return of workers to the office.
In addition to her organizational skills running the statewide affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Laura proved herself to be an accomplished scholar. What began as the 2006 entry for the NGE became the first complete biography of Coretta Scott King. Published in the prestigious Greenwood Biographies series of Greenwood Press in 2009, McCarty’s Coretta Scott King: A Biography, provided the first complete picture of the human rights activist and widow of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not just of her life during the civil rights movement but also her decades of work building the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, her securing passage of the legislation that made the King National Holiday, her support for sanctions against South Africa and on behalf of women internationally, her advocacy for gay rights, and her death in 2006. A seminal work, the biography remains the standard academic account of Coretta Scott King’s life.
In 1999, Laura married her soulmate Phillip McCarty, a talented design and graphics technology expert and Auburn University graduate from Dothan, Alabama, who had connections with the Atlanta Rhythm Section. The two loved attending concerts of southern rock bands and other music events. They lived a “happily ever after” life in Decatur in a house on Cinderella Way on the corner with Fantasy Lane in Storybook Estates. While they enjoyed travel, especially to Hawai’i, their special place remained the Florida panhandle, although Phillip often accompanied Laura to National Humanities meetings around the country, sallying forth with his uncanny resemblance to Founding Father Ben Franklin.
When Phillip died from cancer in September 2021, Laura dealt with her grief by taking on more work but in time experienced her own health issues. In 2023 she took a leave of absence from Georgia Humanities, briefly returning before retiring in 2024.
Reflecting on her career, Laura said, “The joy of working in the humanities is the opportunity to learn something new every day. I look back on my time at Georgia Humanities with deep gratitude. It’s been a remarkable journey, connecting with people and collaborating with our dedicated board members, elected officials, community leaders, and many others who share a passion for the humanities.”
Funeral arrangements and memorials have yet to be announced by the family.
Glenn T. Eskew
John C. Inscoe Professorship in History Fund
Please consider donating to this fund, established in honor of Dr. John Inscoe, professor emeritus in the Department of History,
former officer, and long-time member and supporter of the GAH.
It supports a professor in the Department that is engaged in teaching history of the American South and similar topics.
Please consider donating to this fund, established in honor of Dr. John Inscoe, professor emeritus in the Department of History,
former officer, and long-time member and supporter of the GAH.
It supports a professor in the Department that is engaged in teaching history of the American South and similar topics.
The Georgia Association of Historians (GAH) was organized in 1973 as a statewide professional organization for the study of history. The purpose of the organization, according to the Constitution, is “to strengthen the historical profession and to enhance the professional lives of historians in Georgia by any of all of the following:
Holding meetings, conferences, seminars, or symposia concerned with historical topics.
Members of the GAH are not required to live in the state of Georgia, nor are they topically limited to the study of the history of Georgia. Members of the society currently pursue a variety of historical interests, including the United States history, public history, European history, Middle Eastern history, Latin American history, to name a few. Annual meetings, held since 1974, are the primary venue of face to face communication between members.
In 1980, the GAH began publication of Proceedings and Papers of the Georgia Association of Historians as a venue to place in print the scholarship of the organizations members. In 1994, the name of the publication changed to the Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, which is currently a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually.
Holding meetings, conferences, seminars, or symposia concerned with historical topics.
- Encouraging and promoting historical research, preservation, record keeping, and publication.
- Publishing journals or magazines devoted to history.
- Encouraging and promoting high standards in the teaching of history.
- Sponsoring the appearance in Georgia of outstanding historians.
- Recognizing excellence in historical research and publication, in service to the profession, and in teaching of history by appropriate awards or prizes.
- Encouraging and promoting public history.
- Fostering professional and social communication among historians.
- Encouraging and promoting historians in training.
- Engaging in other appropriate activities which are in keeping with the purpose of the association.”
Members of the GAH are not required to live in the state of Georgia, nor are they topically limited to the study of the history of Georgia. Members of the society currently pursue a variety of historical interests, including the United States history, public history, European history, Middle Eastern history, Latin American history, to name a few. Annual meetings, held since 1974, are the primary venue of face to face communication between members.
In 1980, the GAH began publication of Proceedings and Papers of the Georgia Association of Historians as a venue to place in print the scholarship of the organizations members. In 1994, the name of the publication changed to the Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians, which is currently a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published annually.