ICL: Southern Politics in an Era of Change: 1948-1980

Course Instructor - Dr. John Wells

The course will examine the broad undercurrents of the Southern Political Tradition and then move on to the momentous changes that took place in voting patterns in the decades after the Second World War.  Key elements of the partisan realignment will be discussed, including the effects of suburbanization in the South, the rise of a post-agrarian economy, and the civil rights movement.  We will discuss the colorful figures of this time period such as Strom Thurmond, Lester Mattox, George Wallace, and Richard Russell as well as elected leaders of the "New South." 

A native of East Tennessee, Dr. Wells is the son of two ministers in the United Methodist Church and served briefly as a minister himself before turning to a career in higher education. He earned his B.A. in History from Carson-Newman University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Wells previously served as Provost and Interim President of Young Harris from 2005 to 2009, during the College’s transition from junior college to senior college. He most recently served as Provost and later President of a fellow Methodist-affiliated institution, Emory & Henry College in Southwest Virginia, from 2017 to 2024 and was appointed as the institution’s first Chancellor upon his retirement in July. 

Dr. Wells’s wife, Dr. Shannon Earle, previously served as a student affairs professional at Young Harris and now serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for University Advancement at the University of North Carolina Asheville. They have two adult children, Garland and Molly.