The Lafayette Alliance is an organization founded in 2017 and based in LaGrange, Georgia that seeks to inspire, illuminate, and unite, all in the Spirit of Lafayette. Each year the Lafayette Alliance hosts a wreath-laying ceremony on the LaGrange square to commemorate the life and legacy of Lafayette.
Richard Ingram finished fellowship in nephrology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. LaGrange, Georgia, has been home since. One day, Richard Ingram found his way to Lafayette square and began asking those who passed by if they knew who the statue atop the fountain was. After receiving many incorrect answers he determined that educating the community on Lafayette is imperative.
Dr. Linda McMullen is Ely A. Callaway, Sr. Associate Professor of Management and International Business at LaGrange College.
John Cipolla currently serves as Superintendent of Schools at Lafayette Christian School. John has been with Lafayette Christian School for over fourteen years. Education is a large component of what Lafayette Alliance seeks to do and John Cipolla helps advise the Alliance on just that.
A graduate of the University of Alabama with a Master of Library and Information Science and LaGrange College with a Bachelor of Arts in History, Alex currently works as an archivist and records manager at the Troup County Historical Society Archives. Alex’s love of history and understanding of Troup County history made him want to promote Lafayette and his legacy.
Just a few blocks from here we have Sweetland Amphitheatre, and we have rock stars that come from all over the world that come and entertain us. But right here on our square we have what many historians have called the rock star of the American Revolution.
“It really says something about the people of LaGrange and Troup County that we would continue to honor his legacy, that we would continue to honor the struggle for liberty.”
“When people come to our town, as has recently happened through the election campaigns we’ve had, we’ve had visitors from all political parties coming through LaGrange…They always want to come to Lafayette Square, because this is what’s associated with our town.”
It was an intentional statement by the leadership of this community in 1828 that we wanted to honor this man in some way. As an older gentleman at that point, he had become in his lifetime a symbol of liberty.
In LaGrange, you have the statue of Lafayette here that’s a copy of the statue that is in Le Puy-en-Velay in France. That’s an obvious connection that very few cities have with General Lafayette.