As nationwide awareness of the attractions, communities, and natural beauty of Georgia’s coast increased in the early twentieth century, visitors flocked to the area—including some of the most well-known figures of their time. Some, like future president Dwight D. Eisenhower and flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, came here for vacations. Others, like Zora Neale Hurston and B.B. King, visited Coastal Georgia for their careers. The expansion of tourism transformed the Golden Isles into both a destination and a crossroads. When these trailblazers visited, they brought the spotlight with them.
The 2025 Chautauqua Lecture Series will view our region through the eyes of these four fascinating Americans, exploring what their temporary stays can tell us not only about their lives and accomplishments but about the place we call home.
The programs in this year’s Chautauqua series will take place on Thursday evenings in September and will begin at 6 p.m. at St. Simons Presbyterian Church. Each will be recorded and will be available for viewing after the program.
To purchase tickets, please click on the links below:
September 4: Michel Paradis, Ph.D. on Dwight D. Eisenhower
Michel Paradis, Ph.D., will deliver a lecture about Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1946, Eisenhower and his wife Mamie famously vacationed on Sea Island, where an oak planted to honor their visit remains today. Dr. Paradis is a leading human rights lawyer, historian, and national security law scholar. He is most recently the author of the critically acclaimed The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, D-Day, and the Birth of the American Superpower. He is also a partner at the international law firm Curtis Mallet-Prevost and a Lecturer at Columbia Law School. He was awarded his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Campion Scholar, and received his law degree from Fordham University in New York.
September 11: Daniel de Visé on B.B. King
Daniel de Visé will present a program on B.B. King who, in 1961, visited and performed at the Dolphin Club Lounge on Jekyll Island. The Lounge was located near St. Andrews Beach, which was for a time the only public beach on Georgia’s segregated coast accessible to African Americans. The venue was also part of the Chitlin Circuit, a series of venues throughout the South that served Black performers and Black audiences. Daniel de Visé’s book King of the Blues: The Rise and Reign of B.B. King was a Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of the Year and was longlisted for the PEN America Award for Biography. His journalistic work has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, and the Miami Herald. In 2001, he won a shared Pulitzer Prize with his team at the Herald. De Visé received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and his master’s in journalism from Northwestern University.
September 18: Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall, Ph.D. on Zora Neale Hurston
Jennifer L. Freeman Marshall, Ph.D., will be focusing on Zora Neale Hurston in her presentation. Hurston visited St. Simons Island in 1935 alongside researchers from the Library of Congress and New York University. Together, the group conducted interviews with residents of the island’s African American neighborhoods and recorded their traditional music. Dr. Marshall’s book Ain’t I An Anthropologist: Zora Neale Hurston Beyond the Literary Icon expands on this element of Hurston’s career by examining the cultural meanings of Hurston’s iconic popularity in literary studies and redefining her contributions to the discipline of anthropology. An Atlanta native and graduate of Spelman College, Dr. Marshall received her M.A. in anthropology from Georgia State University and her Ph.D. in women’s studies from Emory University. She is an associate professor in the Department of English and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University.
September 25: John F. Ross on Eddie Rickenbacker
John F. Ross will round out the series with his presentation on Eddie Rickenbacker, a frequent and noted visitor to Sea Island. An early automobile racer, Rickenbacker trained as a pilot in France and became the United States’ most decorated flying ace of World War I, a Medal of Honor recipient, and the head of Eastern Air Lines. Ross’s book Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed illuminates Rickenbacker’s connections to the dawn of car racing, aerial warfare, and the roles of race car drivers and flying aces—and Rickenbacker himself—as American legends. Ross is the former editor of the magazine American Heritage of Invention and Technology and the recipient of the 2011 Fort Ticonderoga Award for Contributions to American History.
