Facts in Fiction: Tennessee Children's Home Society

Forsyth Reads Together

Join University of North Georgia (UNG) professor Heather Murray to learn about the facts in Lisa Wingate's New York Times bestseller Before We Were Yours. The tragic history of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society and the black market adoption scheme led by Georgia Tann in Memphis from 1924 to 1950 served as the inspiration for the novel. As director of the organization, Tann kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy and socially prominent families. This scandal eventually led to adoption reform laws in Tennessee and a push to open adoption records. 

Heather Murray is a history professor at UNG. Her areas of expertise include new South social history, Appalachian history, World War II American home front, and public history/museum studies. Murray has published topics on Appalachian history with a scholarly focus on the World War II era American South. Murray was the recipient of a 2013 Innovation in the Classroom Grant and the 2017 and 2021 recipient of the Teaching Excellence for Non-Tenure Track Faculty. 

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