Americus,GA:

Two days ago we arrived in Americus, GA, a pretty little town (population: 15,703) just nine miles from Plains, GA, the home town of our 37th President Jimmy Carter.

We met the former Americus Mayor Bill McGowan and his wife, while stopping in for lunch at the Buffalo Cafe in Plains. They were very friendly and very humble- he had lots to say about his downtown hotdog joint and his kids but he did not mention that he was elected in 2016 to the Georgia House of Representatives as a Democrat. In fact, he managed to flip the House Blue with his win.

Here are some interesting facts about Americus. I suggest you click on the inks for some very interesting stories:

• Habitat for Humanity was founded in Americus and the international headquarters is there.
• Charles A. Lindbergh bought his first airplane and made his first solo flight there during a two-week stay in May 1923.
• Souther Field (now Jimmy Carter Regional Airfield) was used for British Royal Air Force pilot training (1941–1942) as well as US pilot training before ending the war as a German prisoner of war camp
• Shoeless Joe Jackson served as the field manager for the local baseball team after his banishment from professional baseball
• Americus in one of 29 places that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was jailed.
• Koinonia Farm, an interracial Christian community, was organized near Americus in 1942 by Clarence Jordan.  Its interracial nature occasioned much opposition from local residents.
• The Leesburg Stockade incident occurred in 1963 when a group of African-American girls, aged 12 to 15, were arrested in Americus after trying to buy movie tickets at a theatre’s whites-only window as a form of civil protest. 

You can read more about the Americus Movement, a lesser known part of the civil rights movement here.