Welcome to From the Front Porch, a weekly conversational podcast on books, small business, and life in the South, produced by The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. more

Narrative Edge from Georgia Public Broadcasting highlights books with Georgia connections. Hosted by two of your favorite public radio book nerds who also happen to be your hosts of All Things Considered on GPB radio, Peter Biello and Orlando Montoya . In this podcast Peter and Orlando will introduce you to authors, their writings, and the insights behind their stories mixed with their own thoughts and ideas on just what gives these works the Narrative Edge. more

Author and historian Michael K. Shaffer shares accounts from his book 'Day by Day Through the Civil War in Georgia.' Each episode will cover social, political, economic, and military events in wartime Georgia. Recently in top 5 war podcasts: https://blog.feedspot.com/war_... more

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, he declared that he had been given the revelation of the mystery of God which was the uniting together of Jews and Gentiles through the redemptive work of Christ. The book of Acts is the Unveiling of that Mystery. This series of messages is an exegetical study of the book of Acts. This series of messages were presented at Family Bible Church located in Martinez, Georgia in 2022 and 2023. more

In 1964 at age 48, Carlton Lewis took an abrupt turn in life to become a policeman in a rural Georgia county - half white, half black that must cope with new federal civil rights laws. He was a roughneck Son of the South whose grandfather owned slaves. How would he perform in his new role? Would he treat all Greene County citizens fairly and equally regardless of their color? This is the true story of an exceptional police officer at a turning point in U.S. history.Recruited as a deputy to legendary Greene County Sheriff L. L. Wyatt, Carlton Lewis rose to become Wyatt's Chief Deputy before taking on the job of Chief of Police of the small Greene County town of Union point. His 22-year career led Carlton Lewis through many incidents and encounters ranging from murder and extortion to banishing a peacock. Along the way, Carlton's predilection for a good fight and equal justice for all of Greene's citizens exposed him to dangers mostly unknown to his family.When it was clear that federally-enforced integration of schools would occur in Georgia, the Greene County school superintendent stated that they would do the right thing without being ordered by having a few teachers volunteer to go the black and white schools to set examples for the community. Carlton's wife Eleanor was the first white teacher to volunteer to go to the black school. This was a clear indication of the Lewis family's attitude towards the societal changes coming their way. While Carlton would arrest and get in 'tussles' with many of Greene County African Americans throughout his policing years, he would make sure that they received the same treatment in the justice system as did the white citizens he arrested. When Sheriff Wyatt died in 1977, community black leaders encouraged Carlton to run for the vacant office. He was grateful for such support but decided to complete his career by staying on as the Union Point police chief.In early 1986, as Carlton was approaching retirement, his son Tom, then Chief of Staff to Georgia Governor Joe Frank Harris, sat down with his dad and recorded their conversation about Carlton's policing exploits. Two months later, and just two weeks after his retirement, Carlton Lewis collapsed and died while on one of his daily walks. He had been shot at, bludgeoned on the head, and bloodied in numerous knock-down-drag-outs but survived his policing career only to be taken down by a fatal heart attack. Those audio recordings were incorporated in the 2018 book Policing Greene written in a collaboration between Tom and his friend Hal McAlister, who worked together at Georgia State University where Tom was a senior Vice President and Advisor to the President and Hal was Regents Professor of Astronomy. Their book is available on Amazon.com. Now, you can hear Carlton, Tom, and others describe incidents and encounters from the book, brought back to life in their own voices in these five podcast episodes. This podcast is sponsored by Team BlueLine, a non-profit giving back to families of fallen officers physically or mentally injured in the line of duty. Visit teamblueline.org. The episodes were produced by Andrew (Drew) Nelson with the editing assistance of Marion (Mars) Rinaldi. Drew narrates the series, and Mars reads occasional passages from the book. You can learn more about the book at amazon.com and halmcalister.com. more