The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia [Paperback]

MARK CLEGG is an Athens-based writer who has published three previous books: The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia (Georgia), Mountain Miles: A Memoir of Section Hiking the Southern Appalachian Trail, and The View from Hadrian’s Wall: Two Friends Hike Along the Ancient Roman Frontier. Outside his writing, Clegg, who holds an MBA in International Business from Georgia State University, works in financial services and co-owns an antiques and collectibles business in Atlanta, Georgia. In addition to Athens, Clegg has lived in Atlanta, Houston, and London.

Winner of the Award for Excellence in Local History Advocacy given by the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council, The Crimson and Gold is a comprehensive narrative detailing the struggle for integration in Athens, Georgia, in the context of highly competitive football as experienced by athletes, their fellow students, teachers, journalists, and school administrators at (predominantly White) Athens High School and (African American) Burney-Harris High School and eventually Clarke Central High School—formed after the two legacy schools were forced to merge. The proud sports traditions of two high schools—both adored by their respective communities—eventually become inextricably linked with the larger battle for equal rights during the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s.

In addition to the relatively well-known stories of the University of Georgia’s integration in 1961, Mark Clegg details Freedom of Choice transfers in the early 1960s, desegregation of businesses like the iconic Varsity restaurant, the violence perpetrated by the local chapter of the KKK, the first athletic competitions between Burney-Harris and Athens High, the resistance by large portions of both the Black and White communities to the phasing out of their beloved scholp