Forsyth African American Heritage Brochure

African American CITY OF FORSYTH & MONROE COUNTY

Overview Overview

The journey of African American history in Monroe County may be divided into three periods: Abasement, 1821 to 1865; Adjustment, 1865 to 1917; and Assertion, 1917 to present.

Abasement 1821–1865

From 1821 to 1865, the years between the establishment of Monroe County and the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, the African American population was an integral, but in many ways a silent, part of the population. The first census of the county in 1830 shows 7,353 slaves, or 45% of the population. By 1860, African Americans living in the county had increased to 10,200 representing 65% of the population.

While many African Americans in this period were forced to do field work, some developed special skills. Some enslaved became blacksmiths, a particularly important skill when equipment on the farm needed to be repaired and horses shod. When the Monroe Railroad Company built its tracks from Macon to Forsyth in 1838, enslaved labor ensured its construction.

During this time, some of the enslaved resisted, most commonly by running away. One runaway, Elijah Willis, is known to have reached free territory before 1865. Several slaves were accused of promoting rebellion in 1835. One slave, known as George, was convicted and hung.

Hubbard Historic Marker

ADJUSTMENT 1865–1917

The end of the Civil War affected political, economic, and social relationships in Monroe County. Initially, there was active involvement of African American men in the political life of the county with George H. Clower and Jack Brown, for example, briefly representing the county in the state legislature.

Economically, the largely landless African American population worked under various arrangements on the farms of the white landowners. At first, the Freedman’s Bureau negotiated labor contracts between employers and African Americans. A few African Americans became independent farmers. When one by the name of Frank Wright died, he left an estate valued at $35,000, which made him the wealthiest African American in Monroe County at the time. Others became business owners, James Jenkins, Lena Wright, and Jordan D. Bell established stores in “The Bottoms”. Others engaged in occupations such as barbers, midwives, morticians, and blacksmiths.

The period of adjustment brought about change in religious association as well. In the antebellum period, enslaved African Americans had only “white” churches to attend. After 1865, African Americans began to withdraw from Baptist churches and establish their own. No denomination emerged as strongly though as the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E) Church. Henry McNeil Turner preached at camp meetings here that spurred the establishment of these churches throughout the county. St. Luke’s in Forsyth was the first.

State law in the antebellum period criminalized literacy for slaves but quickly after the Civil War, African Americans established schools for themselves. Jackson Academy in Forsyth was perhaps the first. For children in the rural areas, schooling was virtually nonexistent with classes in churches and lodges only for a few months at a time.

ASSERTION 1917–PRESENT

In the early 1900s, the African American community began to assert its rights and promote its interests. Some claimed control of their lives by leaving in what is known as the Great Migration. The African American population declined from 13,656 or 67% in 1910 to 5,076, representing just 48% of the population fifty years later.

African American soldiers returning from World War II were no longer willing to accept legal segregation and disenfranchisement. African Americans were not allowed membership in the white-only Democratic Party, whose candidates rarely had significant opposition. After the Supreme Court declared the white-only primary unconstitutional, African Americans in Monroe County cast their votes for the first time in the Democratic Party primary in 1946.

Gradually, African American residents of the county began to occupy positions in government. In 1969, Charles Wilder was

elected to the Forsyth City Council. The following year, Samuel E. Hubbard was appointed a member of the Monroe County Board of Education. Involvement in county government was more of a challenge because of the at-large procedure for electing county commissioners. After a successful suit by Larry Evans, Herbert Gantt, and Charles Wilder in 1987, voters elected commissioners by districts, and Evans became the first African American member of the Monroe County Board of Commissioners.

Racial segregation in public schools in the county was a reality until the late 1960s, with the schools becoming totally integrated in the 1970-71 school year. One man, Dan Pitts, played a quiet but critical role in the integration of the schools. Pitts was interested in a strong football team at Mary Persons and a player’s race was irrelevant to him if that student met his high standards. The integration of the schools, though, came at a real cost to the African American community as its distinctive identity with the Hubbard schools was all but lost.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The following short biographies, timeline, and historical site notes are intended to be a starting point for exploring Monroe County’s African American heritage. There are many to thank in the creation of the Forsyth and Monroe County African American Heritage Guide & Tour. We want to thank the friends and families of those included and especially members of the committee: Ralph Bass, Herbert Gantt, Winifred Berry, Larry Evans, Rosemary Walker, and Gilda Stanbery. This project was funded by grants from the Georgia Humanities, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the General Assembly, the Hubbard Alumni Association, Monroe County Historical Society, and the City of Forsyth Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Timeline Timeline

1954 Brown vs Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. It was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education was not, in fact, equal at all. 1955–1975

1973 March on the Monroe County Courthouse protesting police behavior and the lack of African Americans employed in local banks, businesses, and government offices.

1985 Hubbard Alumni Association established

1987

1987

2012

Charles Wilder, Herbert Gantt, and Larry Evans brought a federal lawsuit against Monroe County to expand the jury and County Commissioners districts to include African Americans

Larry Evans first African American elected to the Monroe County Commissioners

John T. Howard first African American elected Mayor, City of Forsyth

Larry Evans

John T.

Howard

Tour Tour of Historic Sites

Use the map on page 16 to locate these historic sites around Forsyth and Monroe County!

In the City limits

1. Forsyth City Cemetery Newton Memorial Drive, Forsyth

In 1884, Martha Peeples Young donated a small plot of land from the Jenkins estate for the Mutual Aid Society of the A.M.E. church to use as a cemetery. The deed indicated the “colored people of Forsyth” were already using an adjacent property for a graveyard. The present African American section of the Forsyth City Cemetery developed in this area. In the extended cemetery are buried members of the Hubbard family; the Rev. John Angelle James, the founder of St. James Baptist Church; Lee Battle, the custodian at Mercer University; and Julius and Frank Wright, Forsyth entrepreneurs. Also, at this location is the grave of a veteran named Watkins, who is identified only as a soldier in the Federal army in the 19th century.

2. Train Depot

126 East Johnston Street, Forsyth

The Central of Georgia Railway constructed this building in 1899 under a court order directing the company to build a new passenger depot in Forsyth. The court held that the older one room stone depot c.1846, still standing some yards down the track, was outdated and inadequate. Doubtlessly, the underlying reason for a newer facility was to have one that conformed to the state’s recently enacted laws providing for racial segregation. The new brick depot did with its “colored” waiting room. Although “colored” has been painted over on one of the exterior doors, its ghost is still visible in the right light.

Boddie Residence

172 College Street, Forsyth

Dr. Luetta T. Sams Boddie and her husband, Dr. William Fisher Boddie, established a medical practice in Forsyth that spanned from 1906 to 1943. They purchased this plantation plain home identified with Dr. Attila T. W. Lytle, an active Republican and white physician, and here reared their sons, Dr. Arthur W. Boddie, who practiced in Detroit, and Dr. Lewis F. Boddie, an obstetriciangynecologist who practiced in Los Angeles. These physicians provided medical care to white and African American residents of Monroe County, making home calls and night visits over muddy unpaved roads.

4. St. James Baptist Church

James Street, Forsyth

Members of St. James Baptist Church, organized about 1865, purchased property for their building in 1870 for $24.66. Among its early pastors was James Nabrit. Two of his sons were the civil rights attorney and president of Howard University, James Nabrit, Jr., and the biologist Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit, who was a member of the U. S. Atomic Commission, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. For over 60 years, between 1948 and 2009, the Rev. Adolph Parsons, a Morehouse graduate and educator, was its beloved pastor.

Stained

glass windows

at St. Luke’s African American Episcopal Church

5. St. Luke’s African American Episcopal Church James Street, Forsyth

St. Luke’s A.M.E. Church developed after the charismatic A.M.E. leader, Henry McNeil Turner, preached several camp meetings in Forsyth during Reconstruction. In 1874 its members secured property for the construction of a permanent sanctuary on this site. The A. M. E. Church, unlike the Baptists, had no history in the county before the Civil War. It became an important independent religious movement for freedmen with about nine A. M. E. churches being established after 1865 throughout the county. The stained glass windows in the church are over 100 years old.

6. Elbert Head and the Railroad 104 East Adams Street, Forsyth

In the period between 1834 and 1838, the Monroe Railroad and Banking Company constructed the line between Macon and Forsyth. Enslaved men were leased to complete much of the labor in the construction of this road. Elbert Head was one of those men. He worked at a steam mill cutting lumber for cross ties and after the Civil War, he became an important entrepreneur and political leader in Americus, Georgia. Hanna Fambro recalled working on grading for the railroad along with other enslaved persons. This area represents the northern terminal of the line before a new company, the Macon and Western Railroad, expanded the tracks to Atlanta, using enslaved labor.

7. Rose Theater

21 East Johnston Street, Forsyth

This movie theater was the subject of a contentious civil rights fight in Forsyth in the early 1950s. The City Council was adamantly opposed to African Americans being allowed in any part of the Rose Theater. The theater owners and some citizens of the town contended that African Americans should be allowed at least to enjoy shows from the balcony. City Council provided for a referendum in 1955 and voters overwhelmingly approved segregated seating for African Americans in the balcony.

8. The Bottoms

The block between North Harris, North Kimball, East Adams, and East Johnston Streets was long identified as “The Bottoms,” a concentrated area of small African American businesses. During Reconstruction, there were few structures in this block and it became an area for homeless freedmen. In time, African American entrepreneurs bought small lots and established their businesses here. James Jenkins ran a profitable grocery store. Years later, Jordan D. Bell put up another grocery store at the corner of Harris and East Johnston. Carlton Brown had a barber shop and James Rutland had a restaurant. Julius Wright constructed the two-story corner building which housed retail spaces on the first floor and the offices of Drs. Boddie on the second. In the 1950s, Julian Wright operated a funeral home on this block, and Walter Dillard had a barbershop here. Beginning with a dry cleaner in 1942, the entrepreneur Paul James operated several businesses on the Harris Street side of the block.

On the road to Culloden

9. Hubbard Residence

79 Washington Drive, Forsyth

This brick house was constructed in the 1930s, most likely using the brick-laying skills of students at the school. It was the home of William M. Hubbard and his family. By the time the residence was constructed, the Hubbard children had left Forsyth and only Samuel Hubbard returned in 1939 to make Forsyth his last home, living here until his death in 1978. The family still retains title to this private residence.

10. Hubbard Complex

500 Culloden Road, Hwy. 83 SW, Forsyth

After the great fire of 1927, the School of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts, later the State Teacher and Agricultural College, was moved to this new campus location. The teachers’ home and women’s dormitory are the remaining structures from this period. Constructed in 1934, the Hubbard Dormitory for Women is a Colonial Revival style building that provided 34 shared dorm rooms and a large commons area. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. To learn more about the Hubbard Legacy, contact the Hubbard Alumni Association, www. hubbardalumni.org

Founders Day at Agricultural and Mechanic School of Forsyth, 1935

Hubbard Class of 1923

Funeral Home nearby.

12. Kynette United Methodist Church

266 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Forsyth.

Kynette United Methodist Church was born out of a conflict between the Board of Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the rapidly expanding African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Board of Church Extension secured three fi fas against W.H. Francis and the Palmer A.M.E. Church. The Board then purchased at public auction for $115 the property of Palmer A.M.E. in 1882. That church became Kynette Methodist, probably named for Dr. Alpha Jefferson Kynette, a leader in the national Methodist church who made a name for himself as a supporter of women’s admission to the conference and as a prohibitionist with the Anti-Saloon League. Here, William M. Hubbard established his first school. Later, the Rev. John Henry Jackson, Jr., the energetic pastor from 1938-1954, served as principal of Hubbard Elementary, taught at Hubbard High School, and coached a girls’ basketball team.

13. Ham-Dewberry American Legion Post 569

876 Highway 83 West, Forsyth

In 1950, the Ham-Dewberry American Legion Post 569 secured this site for its hall. It was the leading organization for African American veterans in Monroe County.

Mattie Lee Battle’s Store

Culloden Cemetery

In Culloden

14.

Culloden Cemetery Church Street at Frog Alley, Culloden

Tradition says that in this area of the Culloden Cemetery, enslaved men, women, and children were buried in a section separate from white burials. The graves of the enslaved were almost never marked with permanent markers before the Civil War. In 2000, the Culloden City Council placed a marker that reads, “We know not who they are, but they are loved ones of God and man and will never be forgotten.”

Robinson’s Booking Photo

15. Robinson marker Culloden

In 1912, several miles from downtown Culloden, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson was born. When she was a faculty member at Alabama State, Robinson planned and supervised the first day of the Montgomery bus boycott after the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955. The Montgomery Improvement Association with Dr. Martin Luther King then seized Robinson’s tactic and brought it to a successful conclusion in 1956 with the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system.

In the County

16. Glover Lynching Site Area of Wesleyan Drive at the Bibb County line.

Here at Holton in 1922, the last known lynching in Monroe County occurred, perpetrated by men from the adjacent Bibb County on John “Cocky” Glover. When lynching was commonplace in Georgia, at least nine African Americans died at the hands of white lawless mobs in Monroe County.

17.

Job’s Chapel/Rosenwald School

1228 Pea Ridge Road, Forsyth

This site is especially important to the African American community for the following reasons: church, school, and the Great Migration. Job’s Chapel A.M.E. was established c.1869 as part of the A.M.E. growth in Monroe County. Job Taylor provided two acres of land for the freedmen to build a church and schoolhouse. Later, a Rosenwald-financed building provided a modern structure for its students. In the cemetery at this site are most likely the unmarked graves of J.H. Flewellen and Fannie Washington, who were active in recruiting African American workers from Monroe County for jobs in the mines and industries of northern states in the earlier years of the Great Migration.

18. Winn Plantation Wadley Road at Highway 41 South, Bolingbroke.

Near this spot stood the Winn plantation. In 1864, Thomas Hinds, an escaped Federal prisoner from Andersonville, made his way here by following the Macon and Western Railroad. Enslaved persons on the Winn plantation provided shelter, food, protection, and clothes while he rested in preparation for his escape to Federal lines in North Georgia. After the war, Hinds recounted his experiences in Georgia and on the Winn plantation in Tales of War Times.

19. Myrick Plantation Intersection of Old Union Gin Road and Blue Ridge School Road

Near the intersection of Old Union Gin Road and Blue Ridge School Road was the 600 acre plantation of Nathaniel Myrick, who lived here openly with Harriett, the enslaved mother of his seven children, all legally slaves. To provide for them after his death, he stipulated that his executors were to remove them to free territory and there secure their legal emancipation. [Legal emancipation was by then impossible in Georgia.] Twice Myrick’s family tried to break their relative’s will, but each time the Georgia Supreme Court upheld it. Then, before the executors, the attorney Benjamin F. Ward from the McIntosh Reserve in Butts County and Isaac Vineberg, the Jewish watchmaker from Poland living in Forsyth, could comply with Myrick’s wishes, civil war intervened, and Myrick’s descendants remained in Georgia. Among them was Owen Myrick who established a shop in “The Bottoms” in Forsyth and Emerson Woodward who carried mail bags from the train to the post office in Forsyth on his cart, becoming a familiar sight in Forsyth in the early 20th century.

Map Map of Historic Sites

Hubbard Complex

Forsyth City Cemetery

Newton Memorial Drive, Forsyth

Train Depot

126 East Johnston Street, Forsyth

Boddie Residence 172 College Street, Forsyth

St. James Baptist Church

James Street, Forsyth

St. Luke’s African American Episcopal Church

James Street, Forsyth

Elbert Head and the Railroad 104 East Adam Street, Forsyth

Rose Theater 21 East Johnston Street, Forsyth

The Bottoms

The block between North Harris, North Kimball, East Adams, and East Johnston Streets

Hubbard Residence

79 Washington Drive, Forsyth

500 Culloden Road, Hwy. 83 SW, Forsyth

Mattie Lee Battle’s Store

209 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Forsyth

Kynette United Methodist Church

266 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Forsyth.

Ham-Dewberry

American Legion Post 569

876 Highway 83 West, Forsyth

Culloden Cemetery Church Street at Frog Alley, Culloden

Robinson marker Culloden

Glover Lynching Site

Area of Wesleyan Drive at the Bibb County line.

Job’s Chapel/ Rosenwald School

1228 Pea Ridge Road, Forsyth

Winn Plantation

Wadley Road at Highway 41 South, Bolingbroke.

Myrick Plantation

Old Union Gin Road and Blue Ridge School Road

People People Stories of the

MENTOR TO MERCER UNIVERSITY

BATTLE, LEE (1865-1939)

As a young man, Battle worked on a train crew, and when he got stranded in Alabama, he and two of his fellow workers walked 212 miles to Macon, Georgia. When some Mercer University students heard that Battle needed work, they found him employment as a cook and thus began his 40 years of association with Mercer. As one alumnus phrased it, Battle became the “friend of countless students and enthusiastic cheerleader of Mercer athletic teams.” He wished to be buried in Forsyth, at the foot of his mother’s grave. Mercer friends dedicated a granite monument at his grave in a ceremony that CBS broadcasted nationwide. Another marker stands in his memory near Sherwood Hall at Mercer University in Macon.

Lee Battle, painted by Marshall Daugherty

DOCTOR, WIFE, MOTHER

BODDIE, LUETTA T. SAMS (1885-1965)

Dr. Luetta T. Boddie, a graduate of what is now Meharry Medical College, came to Forsyth as a young bride in 1907 to practice with her husband, Dr. William Fisher Boddie. Between 1907 and her move to Detroit in 1943, she provided unstinting medical care to citizens of Monroe County, spiritual guidance in her Sunday School classes at St. James Baptist Church, and education through summer school classes she taught for William M. Hubbard.

PEOPLES, LEOLA HUBBARD (1894- 1999)

The oldest daughter of William M. and Mollie Worthy Hubbard, Peoples attended Ballard Hudson in Macon and then went on to Meharry Medical School in Nashville, receiving her medical degree in 1915. She returned briefly to Forsyth, but eventually settled in New York City where she worked at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Living to be over 100 years old, she was featured on the Phil Donahue television show.

Dr. Luetta T. Boddie and sons

SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS

BODDIE, WILLIAM FISHER (1884-1940)

Dr. William F. Boddie, a graduate of Meharry Medical College, set up his practice in Forsyth in 1906, following the advice of his father, the Rev. Francis Fisher Boddie, a minister of the A.M.E. church. His wife, Dr. Luetta T. Sams Boddie, joined him in medical practice. While maintaining his permanent residence on College Street, in the 1920s, he focused his energies on enterprises in Atlanta. Boddie helped establish the Citizens Trust Bank of Atlanta, which served the African American community, and was the first African American owned bank to become a member of the Federal Reserve system. An alumnus of Morris Brown, he served on its board of trustees for many years. He returned to his medical practice in Forsyth in 1927 and was an active member of St. Luke’s A.M.E. Church.

JAMES, PAUL A. (1916-2000)

In 1942, James opened a dry-cleaning business on what was North Harris Street, now known as Paul James Place. In time, James expanded his operations to include a café, pool room, and a record shop. While carrying on his business operations, James, a certified bondsman, was involved in the community, serving on the Downtown Development

REDDING, ANDERSON (1876-1944)

Redding, a farmer and entrepreneur in Juliette, produced syrup at his mill and whiskey at his distilleries. As a blacksmith, he had an inventive mind and secured two patents. The first was for an agricultural implement described as a cotton chopper or a stalk puller. The other, for which he has received the most attention, was a headlight for a locomotive that forced the light to shine when the train was approaching a curve, not straight ahead but on the approaching curve where light was needed. Redding became a wealthy man by the 1910s and was seen frequently in Juliette, riding in his buggy drawn by his white stallion, George.

SIMMONS, JULIA HILL (c1866-1945)

Simmons came to Forsyth in the 1920s and purchased property on College Street. She established a reputation as being clairvoyant and soon people sought her out for advice concerning their romances, the numbers, and the location of lost objects. She provided many potions. For general purpose medicine, she filled a Pepsi-Cola or Nehi bottle with water, added her compound, and sold the bottle for $7.00. Simmons invested her income in property, including rental houses in Forsyth and farms in the country. When she purchased a new car from Willingham Motors in Forsyth, she paid with the quarters and dimes she had saved, along with a few bills.

STROUD, JULIUS (1934-2013)

A native of Monroe County and a graduate of Hubbard Training School, Julius “Buddy Boy” Stroud enlisted in the U.S Army and served for 24 years. When he retired to Forsyth, he quickly became involved in the community. He and his uncle, Howard “BaBee” Fletcher, operated the J&H Shell Service Station on West Main Street. The gas station was able to take advantage of tourist traffic for a few years before I-75 altered traffic patterns. He became a deputy with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and served for 23 years. For over 25 years, he was the marshal of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. parade. In 1969, Stroud and Fletcher began the development of a subdivision off West Johnston Street, where 17 houses were constructed. With his construction skills, he volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. Stroud

learned to play golf in the Army and brought his love for the game home. As African Americans were not allowed to play on the golf course in Forsyth, several African Americans from the community developed a course on Old Brent Road. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, they began to play on the Forsyth golf course. There, on the 9th hole, Stroud made his hole in one.

WILLIS, GEORGE (1914-1978)

Affectionately know as “Captain Willis” for his military service, he was married to Elizabeth Davis (1914-1985). Together they were staunch supporters of education and were instrumental in seeking funds for African American students to attend college or trade school. Captain Willis served on the Monroe County Board of Education, operated a cab service, and established the Willis Funeral Home. Elizabeth Willis was a member of the Monroe County Hospital Authority and operated a daycare for African American children.

WRIGHT, JULIUS J. (1867-1943)

Wright was born on the Rutherford plantation in Crawford County, but his family moved to Forsyth when he was young. He learned the barbering trade. His shop for African Americans was on what is now Paul James Place. In 1897, he opened another shop on the Courthouse Square that catered to white patrons. In addition to haircuts, there Wright also provided “hot and cold water baths.” Along with his wife, Lena Bell Wright, he bought and sold real estate in “The Bottoms.” Perhaps the most important building

George and Elizabeth Willis

was the “two story stone store room” he constructed at the corner of Kimball and East Johnston Streets. The Wrights were determined that their six children receive college educations. Two of their daughters became teachers. One son taught at Atlanta University. Two sons were graduates of Howard University Medical School and became physicians. Only one son, Julian, remained in Forsyth, where he operated Wright and Son’s Funeral Home.

WELL, WELL, WELL

BRICE, JAMES (c1866-19??)

SULLIVAN, ABNER (c1877-19??)

In 1915, Brice and Sullivan received Carnegie Hero Medals for their rescue of James Jones from a 40-foot deep well in Culloden. When Jones was down in the well, carbon monoxide overcame him. Brice, who had lost his sight and one hand in a dynamite explosion, volunteered to go down and secure a rope around Jones. However, the gas also overwhelmed Brice and he had to be lifted out. Sullivan then volunteered and was able to secure the rope to pull Jones to safety.

FROM ENSLAVEMENT TO THE STATE HOUSE

CLOWER, GEORGE H. (1831-??)

Clower became a leader in the Republican Party in Monroe County during Reconstruction. He took an interest in education, attending the Colored Educational Convention in Macon in 1867. That same year, Congress provided voter registration for freedmen. When elections were held, Clower was angered that white employers terminated African American employees who voted Republican and alerted the Freedman’s Bureau. In 1868, Clower was elected, along

with another freedmen, Jack Brown, to the Georgia House of Representatives. However, the new legislative body in September 1868 expelled Clower and other African American members. Monroe Clower, who owned the plantation where George Clower had once been a slave, succeeded him in the legislature. In his later years, Clower became a minister in the A.M.E. Church, living in Memphis, Tennessee.

INSPIRING EDUCATIONAL LEADERS

COBB, HELENA MAUD BROWN (1869-1922)

Cobb was a women’s leader in the Colored Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church. A native of Monroe County, she graduated from Storr’s School in Atlanta in 1891 and worked as an educator at various schools, including Lucy Craft Laney’s Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta. There, she married the Rev. Andrew Jackson Cobb, a C.M.E. Church minister. Under the influence of the Tuskegee model, she established the Helena B. Cobb Institute in Barnesville to educate young African American women. She was inducted into the Georgia Women of Achievement in 2003.

Helena Maud Brown Cobb

Samuel E. Hubbard

William M. Hubbard

HUBBARD, WILLIAM M. (1865-1941)

His love of Mollie Worthy Hubbard (1873-1943) brought Hubbard to Monroe County. More than any other person, William M. Hubbard shaped the nature of education for African American students in Monroe County during the first four decades of the 20th century. He established a private school at Kynette Methodist Church that received a charter in 1902 as the “Forsyth Industrial School.” Two years later, the name was expanded to include “Normal” which meant that one of the school’s functions was teacher preparation. In 1919, the Monroe County Board of Education placed all the county’s African American schools under Hubbard’s direction “for the purposes of vocational and agricultural training”. A fire on the Kynette campus gave Hubbard the opportunity to relocate to a larger campus on Culloden Road. In 1932, that campus became the State Teachers and Agricultural College for Negroes under the Georgia Board of Regents. In the following years, Hubbard established an innovative Exchange Teachers Plan, but the Board of Regents closed the college in 1939. Although Hubbard died in 1941, his legacy still lives in schools that bear the Hubbard name.

PARSONS, ADOLPH (1917-2009)

Born in Tennessee, where his father was a minister, Parsons entered Morehouse in 1936 graduating with honors. He then went to Howard University for his B.D. While in Washington, he met Eleanor King and they were married in 1945. The couple moved to Forsyth, where they both taught, and he became the minister at St. James Baptist Church. For over 60 years, the Rev. Parsons was an integral part of the life of Forsyth. He was known to ride his bicycle everywhere in his younger years. In addition to his church ministry and his teaching, Parsons was the unofficial chaplain of the Mary Persons football team.

RUTLAND, STANLEY E. (1916-1990)

The son of the Rev. Elijah R. and Della Smith Rutland, he attended the State Teachers and Agricultural College in Forsyth and received his bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State College and his M.A. from Northwestern. During World War II, Rutland served in the military, leaving with the rank of captain. Later, he became president (1969-1976) of the struggling Paul Quinn College in Texas, one of the nation’s historically Black colleges. Rutland was able to achieve its accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Adolph Parsons

Mary Brown Sewell

SEWELL, MARY BROWN (1911-2003)

A native of Forsyth, Sewell received a high school diploma from the State Teachers and Agricultural College in Forsyth, earning her credentials to teach. She attended Columbia University and earned a B.S. in education from Fort Valley State College. She taught 44 years before retiring. In addition to her teaching and her work in the music program at St. James Baptist Church, she was best known as a volunteer par excellence. Sewell was a member of the Monroe County Historical Society, sat on the Community Care Council, was a member of the NAACP and the Monroe County Civics League, and represented Georgia at the White House Conference for Handicapped Citizens. Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor once featured Mary Sewell on a PBS program.

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT & GOVERNMENT LEADERS HUBBARD, MACEO (1898-1992)

Hubbard, the son of William M. and Mollie Worthy Hubbard, grew up in Forsyth but left to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Tuition was a challenge, but his sister, Leola

Peoples, helped when she bet $5.00 on a horse race--and won $350. After his undergraduate work, he went to law school at Harvard, graduating in 1926. Hubbard returned to Pennsylvania, where he worked with his fellow Harvard Law graduate, Raymond Pace Alexander. In 1942, Hubbard went to Washington D.C. as an attorney for the Fair Employment Practices Committee and after World War II, moved into the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. There, Hubbard helped develop the legislation that became the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With his brother-in-law, Dr. Frederick D. Patterson, he helped establish the United Negro College Fund. In 1945, Hubbard married Charlotte Moton, the daughter of Robert Russa Moton, the second president of Tuskegee Institute. She herself had a notable career in government, serving in the State Department from 1963 until 1970 under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

JENKINS, JAMES F. (1878-1931)

This Canadian civil rights leader and newspaper editor was born in Forsyth, where his entrepreneurial father was a grocer in “The Bottoms.” After his father’s death in 1883, Jenkins and his siblings were under the guardianship of the resourceful Martha Peeples Young. He graduated from Atlanta University in 1905 and moved to Chicago, where he gained experience as a journalist. Eventually, he settled in London, Ontario, where he established the newspaper, “The Dawn of Tomorrow” and fought for the rights of persons of color in Canada through the Canadian League for the Advancement of Colored People, of which he was the first secretary and a founding member.

James Jenkins

SAMUELS, RITA JACKSON (1947-2018)

A native of Monroe County, Samuels became an early civil rights and women’s rights activist. Living on Highway 41 in a house that had a cement block for a doorstep, Samuels graduated from Hubbard High School in 1963. She attended Claflin University in South Carolina, but her consuming passions did not allow her to finish. Samuels became a secretary for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, working with all its leaders from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Fred Shuttlesworth. When Jimmy Carter became governor of Georgia in 1971, he appointed Samuels as coordinator of the Governor’s Council on Human Relations and when he became president, she spent time with his administration in Washington D.C. She organized the Georgia Coalition of Black Women in 1980. Later, she founded the Women in Government Internship Program to help young women interested in government careers. She lobbied for the state to establish the Georgia Commission on Women and then served as its first chair.

WATTS, RUBYE JAMES (1921-1995)

Watts established the first Scout troop for African American girls in Forsyth and carried them to such places as Look Out Mountain and Cape Canaveral. She ran for the Monroe County Board of Commissioners and represented her county in the Silver Haired Legislature. Later, she established the annual 90-100-Year-Old Birthday celebration. The Senior Citizens Center in Forsyth bears her name today.

Rita Jackson Samuels

ENTERTAINERS

MAYS, RALPH E. (1916-2001)

Mays, a professional trombone player in Atlanta, came from a family of singers and music lovers in Forsyth. In his youth, he was a member of St. Luke A.M.E. Church. He taught music and band for 35 years in the Atlanta Public School System. He founded a jazz band by the name “Peachtree Strutters” which was featured in two major movies and played big venues all over Georgia. Mays, a member of the American Federation of Musicians, was called on to play with such notables as Stevie Wonder and Hank Ballard, and also sang the national anthem at the Atlanta Braves Games.

WILLIS, ROBERT “CHICK” LEE (1934-2013)

Willis was born in Cabaniss but his father, a railroad worker, moved the family to Atlanta around 1940. A nationally recognized blues singer and guitarist, Willis was known as “The Stoop Down Man.” After serving in the Army, he rose to fame on the coattails of his cousin, Chuck Willis, serving initially as his chauffer. In 1956, Chick made his first record, “You’re Mine.” In 1957, he released “Stoop Down Baby Let Your Daddy See,” the song originating from Willis’ experiences as a carnival barker. Locally, he performed at the Rose Theatre and Ellis Field in Culloden. A showman, he sometimes played the guitar with his tongue and under his legs. As one commentator said, “Anything is possible in his pursuit to electrify an audience with his dynamic stage presence.”

Chick Willis