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The African American Community in Augusta

The African American community of Augusta has been an integral part of the history and ongoing development of the city of Augusta and of surrounding areas. This research guide will provide an entry point to the primary and secondary sources on African American history, available in the Special Collections & Institutional Archives.

Early History and Slavery

Although Georgia initially banned slavery during the early colonial period, when a new political structure was laid out in the Georgia Constitution in 1777, the Trustees gave in to pressure from colonists who viewed slavery as an economic benefit.

Religion played an important role in African American communities in Augusta, especially during this period. By 1787 a large group of African Americans, formerly slaves on the Galphin Plantation at Silver Bluff, arrived in Augusta and settled in the nearby village of Springfield. Together they formed the Springfield Baptist Church, home to the oldest African American congregation in the U.S. The original congregation itself was an offshoot of the Silver Bluff Church established by the Galphin plantation slaves prior to the American Revolution. Prior to the end of Civil War, Augusta was home to 5 African American Churches: Springfield Baptist, Thankful Baptist, Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal, Central Baptist, and Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Churches.

Augusta was home to a large cotton market, and the production of cotton is both labor and time intensive. In part as a result of the cotton industry in Augusta, slave owners ere eager to acquire even more slaves in order to produce more cotton. This was further exacerbated by the introduction of the cotton gin in 1793, which separated cotton fibers from seeds. This made the process of preparing cotton for sale much faster, and further increased the Augusta region's economic reliance on slaves.

Reconstruction

During the era of Reconstruction, African American men were given the opportunity to participate in Georgia politics for the first time. Between 1867 and 1872 sixty-nine African Americans served as delegates to the constitutional convention or as members of the state legislature. Aaron A. Bradley was one of the early African American legislators. He was born into slavery in South Carolina and later became a shoemaker in Augusta. He escaped to the North in 1834, where he became the third African American admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. He moved to Savannah in 1865, and practiced law in Georgia until 1875. In 1868, he was elected State Senator from the First District.

Following Reconstruction, Augusta became an important location for African American education and politics. William Jefferson White and former slave Richard C. Coulter opened the Augusta Baptist Institute in 1867, within the Springfield Baptist Church. The school later moved to Atlanta (1879), where it name was changed to Atlanta Baptist Seminary, then Atlanta Baptist College (1897), and finally Morehouse College (1913).

Ware High School, the first public high school for African Americans in Georgia, was built in 1880 by the Richmond County Board of Education. The school was later the subject of a Supreme Court case that legalized the practice of segregated education. In 1883, Lucy Craft Laney, an early African American educator, founded the Lucy Laney’s Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, and was principal for the institution for 50 years. Classes began at Paine College, a joint effort of the black and white Methodist churches, in 1884. Shiloh Baptist Association founded the Shiloh Orphanage (now the Shiloh Comprehensive Community Center) in 1902 to provide housing, care, and education for African American children without families. The orphanage began a one-room school for children, the Strong Academy, in 1910.

Reconstruction-WWI

By the mid 1870s, the era of Reconstruction was coming to a close, with President Hayes officially ordering the removal of federal troops from the South on May 1st, 1877. What followed was a swift disenfranchisement of African Americans in the region, including in Augusta. While the Augusta African American community saw an expansion of education and political opportunities during Reconstruction, the period that followed was characterized by Jim Crow laws and increased segregation.

It was during this era of Jim Crow laws in Augusta that the class action suit decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, Cumming V. Richmond Board of Education, upheld the racial segregation of students in American schools. The suit was filed by three African American men from Augusta: J.W. Cumming, James S. Harper, and John C. Ladeveze, against the Richmond County Board of Education, in 1899. The three made the argument that it was illegal to collect taxes from all citizens when the schools only served white students. Though they lost the case, it represented an important step toward the eventual overruling through Brown V. Board of Education, 55 years later, in 1954.

In 1898, Solomon W. Walker founded the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company in Augusta, Ga. It became the first company to provide insurance for African Americans in Georgia, and was one of the largest employers of African Americans in the city, and issued thousands of policies in the early twentieth century.

During WWI, the British blockade of Europe prevented Augusta's main export, cotton, from reaching European markets, leading to a loss of local jobs for many African American workers. The War brought new jobs to the north, however, which contributed to the Great Migration. This period also saw an increase in Ku Klux Klan activity across the south.

Much of the white population hoped to prevent African American men from being drafted, with white landowners going so far as to refuse to allow their sharecroppers to register for the draft or report for military duty. Throughout the war, local military officials shied away from drafting African American men, as they needed them to continue working in the cotton fields. In Augusta, two African American men were jailed for failing to register for the draft. The trial was such a popular cause at the time, that it took place outside to accommodated the crowd. Despite the public sentiment against conscription, the draft was upheld in court.

Post WWI- Mid 1900s

During this period, the African American community saw an economic expansion, as their prospects for employment widened. During the 1920s-1930s, there were 11 African American doctors in Augusta, and 6 dentists. Many in the community continued to be employed by Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance. The community also stayed involved in education, forming the Richmond County Colored Teachers Association during this period. In 1937, the first public high school for African Americans was established in Augusta, and called Augusta High School, which was later changed to A.R. Johnson High School.

Frank Yerby, and Augusta author, rose to fame during this time, with the publication of his historical novel, The Foxes of Harrow-- the first best-seller written by an African American author.

During WWII, many African Americans for Augusta joined the military, and war-time jobs brought higher wages to many who did not.

Civil Rights and Beyond

Though African American Augustans had long struggled for civil rights, the Civil Rights movement took place mainly during the 1950s-1960s.

The 1960s were a particularly tumultuous time both in Augusta, and across the nation. Protests in Augusta began during this time, resulting in Augusta busses being desegregated under a court order. Protests in April of 1962 led to racial rioting after a young white man driving through an African American neighborhood in Augusta was shot and killed.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Augusta in April of 1962 with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. During his visit, he gave a speech at the Tabernacle Baptist Church, calling for John F. Kennedy to issue an executive order to outlaw segregation in public facilities, a move he referred to as a "second emancipation proclamation."

Perhaps the best known conflict during this time was the 1970 Augusta riot, which occurred from May 11- May 13, 1970. The unrest was set in motion following the suspicious death of a 16 year old African American inmate, Charles Oatman, while in prison. African American community leaders met with the city council on May 11th to discuss the claims of police brutality, but protests had already started by the time the meeting was over, leading to rioting and looting. The governor at the time ordered 1,200 Georgia National Guard troops to the city. By the following day, six young protestors had been shot and killed, and more that 300 people were arrested. In the aftermath, singer James Brown visited the city where he had grown up to meet with city officials and to try to calm the tensions between residents and city leadership.

The African American community of Augusta has been, and continues to be an integral part of the history and ongoing development of the city of Augusta and of surrounding areas. This research guide will provide an entry point to the primary and secondary sources on African American history, available in the Special Collections & Institutional Archives.