Class of '65

“It’s a great story, ably reported by former Atlanta Journal-Constitution journalist Auchmutey, and told with humor and grace… Heroism is like beauty – in the eye of the beholder. We rarely behold bravery as singular as Wittkamper’s. Class of ‘65 encourages us to see the courage in an act as simple as asking forgiveness in a long-overdue letter.”–The Washington Post “Author Jim Auchmutey, a journalist who worked for nearly three decades at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, expertly tells the story of that student, the Americus community, the larger civil rights struggle and an unexpected reconciliation decades later… The reconciliation that follows in Auchmutey’s compelling narrative is at times tentative and halting, but also filled with emotional power. And it appears to be still in progress. At the time of the reunion, it included only Wittkamper and his white classmates. The closing section of Auchmutey’s book suggests another chapter yet to be written, as blacks and whites together make peace with the past.”–The Associated Press “A well-researched, popular history with a powerful emotional coda.”–The Atlanta Journal Constitution “Jim Auchmutey set out to write a book about one man’s journey to forgiveness, but The Class of ‘65 is truly the story of how one generation discovered its soul… [Auchmutey] takes readers to that reunion and beautifully describes the conflictive feelings that were present.”–The Columbus (GA) Ledger-Dispatch “A spellbinding, deeply sensitive portrayal of the conflicted heart of the South. Through the stories of children who have now become middle age, we see racism crashing into conscience, cowardice transforming into courage.”–Hank Klibanoff, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Race Beat “The Class of ‘65 is a rich and revealing portrait of one place and its people at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, a moment when millions of ordinary white Americans confronted the greatest moral test of a generation, and failed terribly. But it is also a story of redemption, over long decades, for a special few whose willingness to reconsider the past, and their own role in its errors and terrors, could be a model for Americans in the troubled times we face today.”–Douglas A. Blackmon, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Slavery by Another Name

Jim Auchmutey spent twenty-nine years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a reporter and editor, twice winning the Cox Newspaper chain’s writer of the year award. He first visited Koinonia Farm in 1980 and has written extensively about the commune, the South, race relations, religion, and history. He lives in Georgia.

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