Clarke Central High School in Athens, GA, has announced a Summer Book Club for student athletes featuring The Crimson and Gold: Football and Integration in Athens, Georgia (UGA Press, 2024) by local author Mark Clegg (Economics A.B., University of Georgia). What started as a conversation in August 2025 with Assistant Head Football Coach Damien Gray and Clarke Central High librarians Angela Pendley and Naomi Craver evolved into a desire to educate students and the community about the history of integration at Clarke Central.
The Crimson and Gold details the struggle for integration in Athens, Georgia, in the context of highly competitive football, as experienced by athletes, students, teachers, journalists, and school administrators. The predominantly white Athens High and African American Burney-Harris High were eventually forcibly merged to form Clarke Central High School. The proud sports traditions of the two high schools—both revered by their respective communities—eventually become inextricably linked with the larger battle for equal rights during the tumultuous 1960s and early 1970s.
Since its publication, The Crimson and Gold has received widespread attention regionally, including coverage in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as well as an Award for Excellence in Local History Advocacy from the Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council in 2025.
“While the integration of high schools and their sports programs in the South happened in hundreds of communities, Clarke Central's story was unique in the sense that the African American school approached the merger with its white counterpart on something approaching equal footing,” says Clegg. “This respect was largely earned through sports competitions between the two legacy high schools "
Pendley estimates at least 500 student athletes from athletic teams including softball, cross-country, basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, marching band, and color guard, will participate in the book club. Several community groups, including the Interfaith Book Club and Athens Athletic Hall of Fame, have also added The Crimson and Gold to their reading lists, and will participate in book discussions with students.
Each student will receive a copy of the book along with annotation kits, thanks to funds raised by CCHS librarians and community members in an effort to keep students engaged and continue developing literacy skills.
Clarke Central High School will host an author visit with the author during Homecoming Week this fall along with a community panel event moderated by journalism students and community members who were part of the integration of Burney Harris and Athens High. The Crimson and Gold will be the first student book club offered through the high school’s media center and will appear as a part of the curriculum in the AP African American Studies class. The details of these events will be announced later this summer.
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