Augusta and Augustans were breaking the color barrier long before Jackie Robinson became the first African-American in professional baseball.
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Bettieanne Childers Hart
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Information on firsts by black area residents can be found in libraries and the Internet. But in large part, much of the history has been passed on verbally.
As information on black achievements grows, black Augustans stand out.
Lt. General Robert E. Gray became the first black commander at Fort Gordon in August 1991 and Dr. Vernon Spaulding, retired brigadier general, became the first black commander of Eisenhower Medical Center in 1993; Bettieanne Childers Hart, an African American attorney from Burke County, became the first female judge in the Augusta Judicial Circuit when she was appointed to the Superior Court in 1995; Dr. Charles Larke became the first superintendent of the Richmond County School System last year and Richmond County Fire Chief Ronnie Few became the first black to hold that post nearly six months ago.
Perhaps the most significant stride has been made by state Sen. Charles Walker, the first black majority leader in the Georgia Senate.
But there were those who paved the way for these leaders that no one talks about, said Gloria Allen, a local historian who collects data on local black history.
``Carrie Mays, the mother of our city current councilman Willie Mays, was the first female city council member and the first female secretary of the Georgia Democratic Party...Ed McIntyre became the first black Richmond County commissioner and the first black chairperson of the commission as well as our first black mayor,'' said Mrs. Allen, who is also a librarian at Wallace Branch.
Wallace Branch, formally the Community Library, was the first library that blacks could use.
``These forerunners paved the path for people we have now who are still breaking down barriers, like Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney who is the first elected black Congresswoman. She wouldn't be where she is without our past leaders,'' she said.
Few people know or discuss these and other little known facts, said Mrs. Allen.
``People only talked about black history here once a year. And when they talked about it, they only knew about Martin Luther King,'' said Mrs. Allen.
``They didn't know any recent history or anything about what happened or what was happening in their own backyard,'' she said. The librarian now presents local black history programs to school children. She tells students about the people behind the names on school buildings and how current leaders got to the positions they're in now.
There are only a few written materials highlighting the impact black Augustans have made in regional and state history. Most information on the subject has been verbally passed along, said Edward Cashin, a professor of history at Augusta State University.
``It's very difficult to say what happened first or what person did what first because in order to say this, one must know what people were doing in other parts of the country and that's hard to do,'' he said.
Ware High School, the first and only black high school in the state during the 19th Century, was opened in Augusta in 1880, according to The Story of Augusta, a book written by Mr. Cashin which makes reference to some historic firsts by black Augustans.
``There were less than a handful of black high schools in the South at the time and Augusta had the state's first,'' he writes. And Ware High School is now a church that sits across from Cedar Grove Cemetery on Watkins and Hale streets.
Along the same lines, Lucy Laney, considered a pioneer African American educator here, is credited with starting one of the first kindergartens in the South. Ms. Laney also started an Augusta nursing school for black girls.
The Colored American was edited and published by John Shuften, an Augusta native in 1865, according to historians. It was the first black newspaper in the south, they said.
``There were a number of black papers owned and operated by black people after Freedom's Journal (the country's first black newspaper) started in 1732,'' said Mallory Millender director of Mass Communication at Paine College. ``The Colored American was one of those papers that certainly spoke to and about blacks living here in the Augusta area.''
Augusta is also home to the first black church in the South. Springfield Baptist Church was organized in 1773 by a former slave who had come to Augusta from the Silver Bluff area of South Carolina. The church continues to stand today at 12th and Reynolds Street in downtown Augusta.
