Georgia's Black history trail: landmarks and sites reflect rich heritage of Black Americans

Ebony, Feb, 1990

Georgia's Black History Trail

NOWHERE in America is there a clearer trail of the years of toil, tears and triumphs of Black Americans than in the South. In Georgia, in particular, Black historical landmarks weave an intricate path through more than 200 years of Black cultural, entrepreneurial and educational development. From Chubbtown, the North Georgia community founded prior to the Civil War by free Blacks, and the First African Baptist Church in Savannah to the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District and Sweet Auburn business and residential community in Atlanta, Georgia's historical sites recall the rich history of Blacks in the state and in America.

Summer events such as the Sea Island Festival of St. Simons Island and the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta also celebrate the creativity of a people whose roots reach across the waters to Africa. The preservation and revival of these events and sites provide a unique opportunity for an intimate examination of people, places and times that colored our past and will continue to shape our future.

At the turn of the century, the state capital of Atlanta became an outpost of Black entrepreneurial and educational enterprise. The headquarters of the Civil Rights Movement in the '60s, it stands today as a symbol of the New South. Its rich history is evident in the number of Atlanta historical sites, including one of the largest consortiums of historically Black colleges and universities in the world.

Just east of downtown is the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, the federal park within which lies the birth home, church and tomb of the martyred civil rights leader. Closer to downtown is Sweet Auburn, the street that thrived in the early 1900s as a premier Black business and residential community, and the African-American Panoramic Experience. With its replica of the state's first Black-owned drug store and a vintage trolley car, the African-American Panoramic Experience contains a permanent collection and high-tech exhibits that detail a city and a people rich in tradition, culture and scientific and business accomplishments.

Atlanta, however, is by no means the exclusive repository of the state's Black history. From its mountainous northern border to its sandy southern shores, Georgia abounds with museums, schools, churches and other sites pertinent to Black history.

In the northern community of Dalton, battlefield markers along U.S. Highway 41 vividly describe the first Civil War action of the 14th U.S. Colored Troop. A little farther south in Athens, a one-room log cabin schoolhouse built in 1896 on the western end of town has served generations of rural Blacks as a school and community meeting hall.

In Augusta, near the state's South Carolina border, stands Springfield Baptist Church, which was built in 1793 and is one of the nation's oldest Black churches. This also was the original home of Morehouse College, which operated in the church as a Baptist training institute before being relocated to the state capital as Atlanta Baptist Institute. It was later renamed Morehouse College. This central Georgia city is still home to Paine College, one of the first Southern schools founded jointly by Black and White church officials.

The coastal city of Savannah is equally rich in Black heritage. One of its most prominent landmarks is the Laurel Grove Cemetery, which not only contains pre-Civil war graves of free Blacks and slaves, but is the final resting place for a number of the city's distinguished Black residents as well as many Black soldiers who died in Civil War action. This southeast Georgia city also is the site of the first Black Baptist congregation in the country, which was organized in 1777 as First African Baptist Church. Built in 1859, the church now houses in African-American museum. Those are but two of the stops on the Negro Heritage Trail Tour, which leaves at pre-arranged times from the 1896 King Tisdell Cottage. The tour encompasses various sites, including the homes of Black business owners, military officers and educators. Savannah also is the site of a major Black institution, Savannah State College, which was founded in 1890 as an industrial college and later trained many of the state's Black teachers.

Scattered throughout the state are other sites that are not quite as prominent, but no less important. The grave of Thomas Wiggins, the internationally renowned blind pianist who was known as "Blind Tom" Bethune, lies on the outskirts of the western border city of Columbus. This son of slaves, who played before royalty abroad and thrilled audiences throughout the country in the late 1800s, is memorialized with a marker on U.S. Highway 27A.