A memorial near the Georgia State Capitol’s Liberty Plaza honors the 1,937 Georgians who gave their lives in World War I.
More than 77,000 Georgians served in the “Great War,” which the United States entered in 1917, three years after European armies began bloody trench warfare. While the conflict was known as “the war to end all wars,” that tragically didn’t prove true, with World War II the aftermath of the troubled peace reached in 1919.
Georgia’s World War I centennial would be commemorated under a bill sponsored by Sen. Hunter Hill, R-Smyrna. Hill’s Senate Bill 203 would create a six-member state commission that would develop and coordinate centennial events, programs and publications.
The World War I experience burned brightly in the state’s memory before World War II. But Hill told InsiderAdvantage Georgia that the war is now often overlooked, with all of the attention given the Civil War and World War II.
“We have a rich history in Georgia on World War I, and we need to remember that and honor it appropriately, because it is bracketed by two major conflicts that sometimes overshadow it,” Hill said.
The bill would create the Georgia World War I Centennial Commission, for which the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House would appoint two members each. The commission would not receive state funds but could gather contributions.
The Georgia commission will work in concert with a federal panel planning the bicentennial of America’s entry into the war. Hill said that one of his constituents serving on the federal panel asked him to sponsor the state legislation. The bill, approved by the Senate, unanimously passed the House Defense and Veterans’ Affairs Committee Monday and will now go to the entire House.
Historians say the American entry in April 1917 broke the European stalemate, winning the war for France and Great Britain, the allies fighting Germany on the Western Front. The war ended on Armistice Day in November 1918.
The World War I legacy touched Georgia communities. Hill said Fort Gordon in Augusta and Fort McPherson in Atlanta initially served as training camps for soldiers, not just from Georgia.
The commission will find other war legacies. The Flame of Freedom at the Pete Wheeler Georgia War Veterans Memorial Plaza behind the state’s twin towers office building blazes night and day atop a granite column that recalls World War I’s heroes, along with those of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Midtown’s Pershing Point Park, originally commissioned in 1918, was named in honor of American Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing and features a memorial to Fulton County’s World War I dead.
The Waldo Slaton American Legion Post at Buckhead’s Chastain Park was named for a son of former Gov. John Slaton who served in the war. Waldo Slaton died in the worldwide influenza epidemic that followed in 1918.
The commission if established will shine new light on those memorials, and uncover other stories from a century ago, when thousands of young Georgians answered the call of duty from a distant shore.
Opportunity School District Advances: The House Education Committee Monday passed legislation that would create a state opportunity school district to intervene in local schools, if voters approve a proposed constitutional amendment.
Senate Bill 133, which sets up the school district’s procedures, was amended to change “chronic failing schools” to “qualifying schools,” and to encourage more community involvement.
The bill allows local school systems to receive state waivers to take creative action to improve underperforming schools in an effort to head off state intervention.
The committee also approved the companion Senate Resolution 187, which sets up the vote on the proposed constitutional amendment. The committee decided to kept the term “chronically failing schools” in the ballot language. House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones and other Republicans called the wording clear and precise, heading off Democratic efforts to make changes similar to that approved for SB 133.
A sizable group of teachers, parents, students and principals gathered Monday morning to oppose the legislation, chanting “my school belongs to me.”
Sid Chapman, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, which sponsored the rally along with the Georgia PTA, said the bill will help corporate charter schools take over local public schools. “We’re not going to give over our schools to private entities to take over,” he said.
