Water contamination, Martin Luther King Jr, Leah Ward Sears, and Author Jonathan Rabb

A recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council shows Georgia leads most states in drinking water violations. Most happen in rural areas. We talk about the findings with Erik Olson, the NRDC’s health program director.

Then, 40 years ago President Jimmy Carter posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr.  Martin Luther King, Jr. The civil rights icon had died about a decade earlier. Our producer Sean Powers takes us back to the day MLK was honored at the White House with this audio postcard.

Next, jurist Leah Ward Sears is a trailblazer. On top of being the first woman, and youngest person to sit on Georgia's Supreme Court, she was also the first African-American female Chief Justice in the United States. A new biography about her life, called “Seizing Serendipity,” tracks her rise to success from humble Georgia beginnings. The book will be published by the University of Georgia Press in September. Leah Ward Sears joins us in the studio.

Finally, on this day in 1773, the first Jewish settlers arrived in Savannah. They founded what has become the oldest Jewish congregation in the South. Nearly two centuries later, Savannah again became a refuge for Jewish immigrants. Author Jonathan Rabb explores this difficult transition in his novel, "Among The Living.” We talk to him about the book, and researching Jewish communities in Georgia. 

Tags: Water Contamination  Leah Ward Sears  Martin Luther King  OST Full Show  Atlanta  Georgia  Savannah