Teaching and Education in Augusta
Teaching and education have played an important role in the history of Augusta, and the south more generally, shaping not only local communities, but also influencing and reflecting larger state and federal laws and policies. This guide provides an entry point to research on the topic of the history of teaching in Augusta, and the surrounding region by highlighting books, theses, government documents, and manuscript materials from Reese Library Special Collections that pertain to this research topic.
Early History: 1777-1860
Education has played an important role in Georgia, and in Augusta, since the earliest period of the state's history. The Georgia state constitution included stipulations for support of public education since 1777, and Augusta was home to the first state-supported high school in Georgia, the Academy of Richmond County, which opened in 1783. The Academy of Richmond county is one of the oldest existing public high schools in the U.S., although it did not become a public school until the mid 20th century.
Despite writing support for public education into the state constitution, Georgia made few efforts to provide this education during the early history of the state. As a result, a number of societies, like the Augusta Free School Society, formed in communities across Georgia, during the early 1800s. These efforts provided limited education to the poor children of the community, who could not attend private schools or afford to hire tutors. Even then, early efforts to provide public education extended only to poor white children.
Civil War and Reconstruction
While there was an effort to establish a public school system for white children in 1858, lead by Governor Joseph E. Brown, the outbreak of Civil War halted these efforts until Reconstruction began. In 1866, the Georgia legislature created a free public school system, but the state lacked the resources and infrastructure to run the schools efficiently. Schools during this period were segregated by race, and could often only afford to operate for a few months in a given year.
During the period of Reconstruction, and immediately following it, a number of educational opportunities for African American Augustans were begun. 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. 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.
Education in the 20th Century
Desegregation of education was one of the most influential social and political movements for education during the 20th century, and some of the earliest efforts at desegregation focused on institutions of higher education. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) first began campaigning for legal action on desegregation in Southern colleges and universities in 1936.
Although the Brown V. Board of Education decision was made in 1954, which found that schools segregated by race to be unconstitutional, it was many years before schools in Augusta were integrated. In 1964, a group of Augustans sued the public school system for not upholding the 1954 Brown V. Board of Education decision. This resulted in a desegregation order, issued by U.S. District Judge Alexander A. Lawrence in 1972. The order was not lifted until 2013.
Notable Augustan Educators
One of the most notable educators from the Augusta area is Lucy Craft Laney, the founder and principal of the Haines Institute. Lucy Craft Laney was well educated, attending Lewis High School in Macon, GA, and graduating from the first class at Atlanta University. Laney taught throughout Georgia, in Macon, Savannah, and Milldegeville, before beginning her own school at the Christ Presbyterian Church in Augusta, GA in 1883. In 1886, the school was renamed the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute. The school was open to both male and female students. Graduates of the school went on to Universities like Fisk University, Yale University, and Howard University.
John Hope, another influential educator was born in Augusta in June of 1868, the son of a biracial union between a Scottish immigrant, and a free African American woman. Despite leaving school after the eighth grade to help support his family after his father's death, Hope completed his education at a preparatory school in Massachusetts five years later. He earned a B.A. in 1894 at Brown University, and became a teacher. Teaching first at Roger Williams University, he later taught at Atlanta Baptist College (which became Morehouse College). In 1906, Hope became president of Morehouse College until 1929, when he took the position of President at Atlanta University.
Education in Augusta today
Until July of 2013, the 1972 desegregation order had been upheld in the Richmond County School district. On June 17, 2013, the two sides of the 1964 lawsuit which put integration into place presented evidence to determine if the school district had made enough progress to lift the 1972 desegregation order.
Today, Augusta is home to a number of institutions of higher education, including: Augusta University, Augusta Technical College, and Paine College. The public school system includes 36 elementary schools, 10 middle schools, and 9 high schools. Augusta's private schools include: Aquinas High School, Episcopal Day School, St. Mary on the Hill, Immaculate Conception school, Hillcrest Baptist Church School, Curtis Baptist High School, Gracewood Baptist First Academy, Augusta First Seventh-day Adventist School, and Augusta Preparatory Day School.
The Academy of Richmond County, Burdishaw & Symms postcards. Reese Library Special Collections, Augusta University.
Houghton Grammar School, Burdishaw & Symms postcards. Reese Library Special Collections, Augusta University.
Pages from the Academy of Richmond County Yearbook, 1919. Reese Library Special Collections, Augusta University.
Payne Hall, Burdishaw & Symms postcards. Reese Library Special Collections, Augusta University.
Woodlawn School, Burdishaw & Symms postcards. Reese Library Special Collections, Augusta University.