About the Author

MICHAEL L. THURMOND is the chief executive officer of DeKalb County, Georgia. He is the author of James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia, Freedom: Georgia’s Antislavery Heritage, 1733–1865, and A Story Untold: Black Men and Women in Athens History. Thurmond has previously served in the Georgia legislature, as director of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services, Georgia labor commissioner, and as superintendent of DeKalb schools. In 1997, Thurmond became a distinguished lecturer at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government. He lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia.