Sally Bethea, Hannah Palmer and Hal Jacobs - Saving the Chattahoochee: Film Screening and Talk
The Georgia Center for the Book is delighted to present a free screening of the documentary "Saving the Chattahoochee," followed by a conversation with Sally Bethea, the featured subject of the documentary; filmmaker Hal Jacobs; and Hannah Palmer, author of "The Pool is Closed: Segregation, Summertime, and the Search for a Place to Swim."
Co-sponsored by Georgia Humanities, University of Georgia Special Collections, and WSB-TV.
Bethea’s memoir, "Keeping the Chattahoochee," and Palmer’s "The Pool is Closed" will be available for purchase at the event courtesy of A Cappella Books.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested.
About the Documentary
For more than 20 years, Sally Bethea was the voice of the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta. Back in the early 1990s, hardly anyone wanted anything to do with this urban river once it flowed through the city. For nearly 60 miles downstream it was off-putting and off-limits because of sewage, litter, runoff and erosion.
Starting in 1994, Sally was named Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and took charge. She and her organization with downstream communities sued the City of Atlanta under the Clean Water Act. With the collaboration and leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin (aka The Sewer Mayor), the city invested a whopping $4 billion to upgrade the sewer and water system.
Sally and Shirley weren’t the only ones fighting for the river. In the 1970s, members of the Junior League led by Kay McKenzie started Friends of the River. Jimmy Carter defended the river vigorously for over a decade. Now we have a new generation of environmental leaders not only on the Chattahoochee but also the South and Flint Rivers.
The documentary (40 min.) takes a more personal look at Sally, one of the first women riverkeepers in the U.S. It's about how she stepped up to become the face of the river at a pivotal moment in Atlanta's development, while also being a single parent to two sons. How she teamed up with Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, the first Black female mayor of a major southern city, to change the course of the river's future.
Sally Bethea and Shirley Franklin's story is also part of a bigger picture of Atlanta women who have led—and continue to lead—efforts to protect our rivers and streams.
No one owns the water.
It belongs to all of us.
The film provides a call to action for others to get involved in their communities following the example of these dedicated river advocates.
About the Book
Sally Sierer Bethea was one of the first women in America to become a "riverkeeper"—a vocal defender of a specific waterway who holds polluters accountable. In "Keeping the Chattahoochee," she tells stories that range from joyous and funny to frustrating—even alarming—to illustrate what it takes to save an endangered river. Her tales are triggered by the regular walks she takes through a forest to the Chattahoochee over the course of a year, finding solace and kinship in nature.
For two decades, Bethea worked to restore the neglected Chattahoochee, which provides drinking water and recreation to millions of people, habitat for wildlife, and water for industries and farms as it cuts through the heart of the Deep South. Pairing natural and political history with reflective writing, she draws readers into her watershed and her memories. Bethea's passion for the natural world—and for defending it with a strong, informed voice animates this instructive memoir. Offering lessons on how to fight for our fundamental right to clean water, Bethea and her colleagues take on powerful corporate and government polluters. They strengthen environmental policies and educate children, reviving the great river from a century of misuse.
About the Author
Sally Sierer Bethea is the retired founding director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. She served as executive director and riverkeeper for two decades and continues to assist Chattahoochee Riverkeeper as a senior advisor. Bethea also publishes a monthly column, Above the Waterline, in Atlanta Intown. She lives and writes in midtown Atlanta.
