When Bobby Donaldson was a little boy, he’d stare at the portrait of the Rev. William Jefferson White hanging inside the old Harmony Baptist Church sanctuary and wonder.
“I studied William White every Sunday, not knowing what I was doing. For there was in that church, a portrait of a distinguished-looking man who looked to me to be white – a white person. As a little boy at old Harmony, I was asking, ‘how is it that the founder of the Black Baptist Church is a white man? Who is this man?’” said Donaldson, an associate professor of history at the University of South Carolina who spoke May 8 at a state historical marker dedication honoring White.
Donaldson said he couldn’t have known at the time that question would set him on the path of his life’s work.
Born in Elbert County Christmas Day 1831, White founded Harmony Baptist Church on May 10, 1868. He co-founded the Augusta Baptist Institute, now Morehouse College. Harmony Baptist on Hopkins Street was the second home of Morehouse. He helped establish Ware High School and recruited Lucy Craft Laney to Augusta to work in education.
White served as a correspondent for the “Colored American” newspaper and later founded and served as editor of the “Georgia Baptist” newspaper. He wrote against the lynchings and other violence against African Americans and was run out of town on at least two different occasions when mobs threatened him.
Corey Rogers, the executive director of the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, has been a leader in recent years of a push to get more state historical markers placed recognizing people in Augusta’s African American community, but this time, he had the assistance of students in Melissa Develvis’s Augusta University public history classes.
Develvis, a former teaching assistant of Donaldson, said she has her students work with local community groups on history projects and asked Rogers how her students could help. He suggested the marker project.
Writing an application for a historical marker is something that public historians would do and fit into the curriculum. It’s not an easy task to boil down history in a few compelling words for a marker, she said. She was excited for her students’ work to be successful and for its lasting impact.
“We’re honored to produce something that benefits the community,” she said.
Not only were members of the community present at the ceremony, but some of White’s descendants also attended.
“My great-great-grandfather accomplished so many incredible and amazing things, but it is my humble opinion, I believe that the thing that above all of those he accomplished is the fact that he was a man of God. He was a minister of the gospel, and he had a servant’s heart,” said Bonnie Blocker.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
