Red Clay, Pink Cadillacs and White Gold: The Kaolin Chalk Wars

by Charles Seabrook, Marcy Louza

The story of the billion-dollar kaolin industry and the people who live in poverty above the untold wealth beneath them.

Genres: Business, Journalism, History, Politics, Nonfiction

194 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In middle Georgia, where my father's side of the family has owned land since before the Revolutionary War, there are piney woods, poor farmland, and poverty. Beneath the scrappy soil, however, is the world's finest kaolin chalk used to make everything from the glossy paper you see in "National Geographic" magazine, to English china, to the nose cones on rockets, to the medicine kaopectate. This is the story of illiterate landholders and the mining companies that paid them five cents a ton for the mineral that chalk companies turned around and sold for $50 - $700 a ton. The thievery, lying, and forgery reads like something out of Dickens. But, this was 20th century Georgia.

Charles Seabrook, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, takes his title from the difficult to farm red clay that centuries of farmers yanked their living out of, the pink cadillacs that the clay companies promised those farmers if only they would mark their "X" on a contract to sell their mineral rights, and the pristine chalk, the white gold that should have made the landowners among the wealthiest people in America. Seabrook writes history of the scoundrels and victims, the land and its history, the do-nothing legislature that allowed strip-mining, and local officials in the pockets of the chalk companies in the clear style of a news reporter. The book was published in 1995. But even today, if you drive through the rural counties from Augusta to Macon Georgia, you can see the gouged land with white sinews of chalk running through the red earth.

Even if your family doesn't hail from this part of the world, this is an interesting study in corporate corruption, money in politics, and the importance of universal literacy. I'm quite late at reading it, glad I finally did, and will be passing around copies this Thanksgiving in Georgia.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heart-rending tale of the kaolin industry in the chalk belt of GA. After working in one of these counties for 6 months, I can see the long-lasting effects of these early days that caused what should have been a rich county to be so poverty-stricken.

[Dee Tighe · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent. Tragic but excellent writing.