OVERVIEW

The Class Of ’65 by Jim Auchmutey is a history lesson told through the turbulent days of the Civil Rights Movement and as played out in the south Georgia town of Americus, where a white kid and the dissident religious community he came from were persecuted for believing in freedom for all. Our interview with Jim, an author and former AJC writer, explores bullying, American bifurcation, the navigation of an era, and the tension and entanglement caused by desegregation in the deep South.

This near hour-long discussion covers everything from racial politics and alternative religion to the author’s personal experience with bullying (he was on “the fringe of the peanut gallery” in school). Most of all, it focuses on the emotional trauma faced by the story’s main character and his unexpected reconciliation years later with students who had once scorned or ignored him. 

The Class of ’65 as a book and this as an interview go well below the surface and in doing so let us know how quickly things can change, how powerful our words and actions can be, and why we must not forget from where we come. Enjoy.