Civil Rights Institute at Georgia Southwestern State University

By Jessica Sherry
The University of Georgia Archway Partnership recently announced its plan to partner with
Georgia Southwestern State University in constructing an institute of civil rights on the schools
campus. The mission of the institute is to commemorate the history of the Americus Civil Rights
Movement of the 1960s and serve as an educational resource center for the Americus
community, southwest Georgia and the nation.
Meirav Goldhour-Shvorin, a graduate student at UGAs Lamar Dodd School of Art, is
undertaking the institutes design. Her work marks the start of a process to promote the concept
of the civil rights institute to potential future funders, patrons, community supporters and other
stakeholders.
Along with a masters degree in interior design, Goldhour-Shvorin is pursuing a
certificate in historic preservation through the UGA College of Environment and Design. Due to
these interests, Goldhour-Shvorins professor and advisor Thom Houser, who is also the head of
the department of interior design at Lamar Dodd, recommended her to Archway Partnership.
Archway then offered Goldhour-Shvorin a graduate assistantship working on the design of the
civil rights institute in Americus, Georgia, which involves the redesign of the Florrie Chapel
Gymnasium on GSWs campus.
This assistantship is a strong link to what I hope to do in the future, said GoldhourShvorin. Americus is a town that suffered from unequal civil rights and slavery back in history,

and I have a full emotional understanding of the importance of having a space to remember the
history of the time and pass the information on to the next generation.
The Americus Civil Rights Movement was one of the most significant social movements
of its era and led to two of the most important civil rights legal victories during the Civil Rights
Movement, which helped facilitate the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 and the Voting
Rights of 1965. An important part of the institutes mission is to portray the past in a healing and
non-divisive manner to reduce prejudices and improve intergroup relations in the communities,
schools and universities, while revealing the harsh realities that African Americans faced in
Americus during this era. The institute will house memorabilia that is collected from Americus
and around the country that documents the movement, including photographs, historic trial
transcripts, newspaper articles, jail records, artifacts, films and video recordings of oral histories.
These memorabilia are envisioned to channel students toward research of the Americus
Movement and its relationship with and impact on similar movements throughout the South.
Students will be challenged to use the institute as a resource to work toward conflict resolution
for civil rights issues of today, such as homelessness, voting rights and health care.
I think it is important to provide a space to the community that focuses on the history
and memory of past times, said Goldhour-Shvorin. It is also important to raise awareness
towards this topic as well as educating the second generations.
Goldhour-Shvorin began work on this project in the beginning of the fall 2014 semester,
and has recently completed the technical designs. The formal presentation of the project will take
place on May 13 in Americus, where two design concepts will be proposed to the community.