The Mayoral Collection of
Augusta Black History
The Mayoral Collection of Augusta Black History was a project developed in 2021 by former Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. along with the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History and in partnership with the Greater Augusta Arts Council to honor and explore Augusta, GA’s rich past through a series of restored and enlarged photographs. These images bring historic moments, individuals and architectural landscapes back to life. This series is a tribute to the lives of some of our most memorable, local icons and is exhibited in the City Gallery, which is in the lobby of the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building, from January to March each year.
Below is the digital gallery of these images along with short descriptions that highlight the history behind each image.
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- Reverend Essie Mae McIntyre was the co-founder and first pastor of Good Shepherd Baptist Church. Essie Mae McIntyre Boulevard in Augusta is named in her honor.
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- The Honorable William H. Mays, III served as a County Commissioner and Mayor of Augusta. Willie, as he was affectionately called, was the third generation of Mays to operate Mays Mortuary.
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- Carrie Mays was the first woman elected to the Augusta City Council. She operated Mays Mortuary for many years before going into politics. She was an outspoken critic of many in office after the 1970 Civil Rights Riot in Augusta and advocated for reform. She was named Woman of the Year in 1970 by the Augusta Lincoln League and commended for outstanding service by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
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- The Links, Incorporated is an internationally-renowned volunteer service organization established in 1946. The Augusta chapter of the Links was chartered on November 23rd, 1957. The charter members included Sybil Carter, Marjorie Carter, Effie Josey, Wilhelmina White, Dollie Russell, Neddie Harper, Margaret Barrington, Margaret Louise Laney, Annie Mae Walker, Hattie Hornsby, Manola Lockett, and Mary Alice Thomas. The Columbia, South Carolina chapter was the sponsoring chapter and Link Sybil Carter was chosen as the first president. Pictured here is (seated left to right): Judy Carter, Willie Saunders, Juanita McIntyre, Bernice Griffin and Shawn Williams. (Kneeling): Billie Brodie, Justine Washington and Margaret Barrington. (Standing): Anne Brown, Marjorie Carter, Mattie Bell Braxton, Rosa Champ nay Tutt, Dollie Russell, Betty Scott, Naomia Walker, Willerena Williams, Virginia Calhoun, Josephine Richardson, Charlotte Watkins, Hattie Hornsby, Mary Alice Bell and Margaret Louise Laney. Absent from this photo is Jean Blount, Judy Ruffin, and Annie Mae Walker.
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- Lt. Henry Cabot Lodge Bohler was one of five Tuskegee Airmen from Augusta, Georgia. He was a graduate of the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute and Hampton Institute.
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- Jerome Preston Bates is an Augusta native and graduate of Lucy Craft Laney High School. Jerome graduated from Knoxville College. While there he was initiated into Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated. Jerome continues to have a stellar career in acting and directing, both in movies and on stage. He is best known for his many roles in the Augusta Wilson series of plays, to include Fences.
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- The photograph of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was taken in the summer of 2006. The church, now located on Crawford Avenue in the Harrisburg Community was originally located on Campbell Street.
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- Reverend C.S. Hamilton of Tabernacle Baptist Church and Reverend N.T. Young of Thankful Baptist Church greet one another. The two ministers were active leaders in Augusta’s Civil Rights Movement.
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- A group of civil rights activists led by Reverend C.S. Hamilton, board the train for the 1963 March on Washington. Some 250,000 people from across the nation gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington D.C. This train depot is still standing behind the Augusta History Museum at the corner of Reynolds and 5th Streets.
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- Immaculate Conception Academy was established by the Catholic Church in 1913. The school and the church were completed the following year.
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- A graduate of Morehouse College and Howard University School of Law, attorney John Ruffin would serve as one of the leaders in Augusta’s Civil Rights Movement. He would become the Chief of Georgia’s Court of Appeals. The Judge John H. Ruffin Courthouse in Augusta is named in his honor.
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- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last visit to Augusta came in March 1968 at Beulah Grove Baptist Church, pictured here. He was assassinated a few weeks later, in April of 1968.
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- Rev. Charles T. Walker was born into slavery in 1858 near Hephzibah, later moving to Augusta to study divinity at The Augusta Institute (now Morehouse College). Walker received his ordination at Franklin Covenant Baptist Church and established Augusta’s Tabernacle Baptist Church in 1885. Walker traveled to the Middle East and Europe in 1891, visiting the renowned Rev. Charles Spurgeon’s church in London. In 1899, President McKinley appointed him as a chaplain during the US occupation of Cuba following the Spanish-American War. Walker relocated to Mount Olivet Baptist Church in New York and established the first African-American YMCA in Harlem. Returning to Augusta, he hosted John D. Rockefeller and William Howard Taft at Tabernacle and Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver at the Walker Baptist Institute. Walker lived at 1011 Gwinnett Street until his death in 1921. Named in his honor, C.T. Walker Traditional Magnet School was established in 1934.
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- Augustus Roberson Johnson, Sr. born in 1853, was one of the first African American certified public school teachers in the state of Georgia. He served as Principal of Mauge Street Grammar School for many years. He was a graduate of the Augusta Baptist Institute, later called Morehouse College. A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet School is named for him. He is pictured here with his wife Sarah. This photo is likely a wedding portrait, taken circa 1877. A.R. Johnson passed in 1908 and is buried in The Cedar Grove Cemetery in Augusta, GA. A new historic marker for Johnson was erected in 2023 at the intersection of Laney Walker Boulevard and 13th Street, just outside the school named in his honor.
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- The Honorable Edward M. McIntyre was Augusta’s first African American mayor. For many years he worked as Vice-President of Public Relations for the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Company. The Augusta Riverwalk was named in his honor in 2025.
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- In August of 1974 then Governor Jimmy Carter dedicated a portrait of Lucy Craft Laney by George Mandus. This would be the first portrait of an African American Woman to be displayed in the Georgia State Capitol.
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- Coach John M. Tutt taught Mathematics and coached football, basketball, track and field and baseball at the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute and Lucy Craft Laney High School. John M. Tutt Middle School in West Augusta is named in his honor.
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- Alabama native and Haines graduate Rosa C. Tutt was the music director and piano instructor at the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute and Lucy Craft Laney High School.
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- Amanda America Dickson Toomer was one of the wealthiest African Americans in the United States during the latter half of the 19th Century. She arrived in Augusta in 1886 and purchased a large, seven-bedroom house on Telfair Street. She was a member of Mother Trinity CME Church. She is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery.
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- Ellis and Ann Johnson host a Christmas dinner in 1997 for Jessye Norman, along with her two aunts, sister Elaine, and Elaine’s two sons. Pictured here is Ellis Johnson and Ms. Norman entertaining the guests. Jessye Mae Norman was an American opera singer and recitalist. Born in Augusta GA to Silas Norman, an insurance salesman, and Janie King-Norman, a schoolteacher. She was one of five children in a family of amateur musicians; her mother and grandmother were both pianists, and her father sang in a local choir. Norman attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, and proved to be a talented singer as a young child, singing gospel songs at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at the age of four. In her career, Norman was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but did not limit herself to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, Norman was associated with roles including Beethoven’s Leonore, Wagner’s Sieglinde and Kundry, Berlioz’s Cassandre and Didon, and Bartók’s Judith. The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a “grand mansion of sound”, and wrote that “it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls. In 1991 Jessye Norman Amphitheater was dedicated in honor of the award winning and internationally renowned opera singer. it is located at the end of the 9th Street Plaza on the Augusta Riverwalk. It features a historic marker for Jessye Norman. The Jessye Norman School of the Arts was founded in 2003 by the Rachel Longstreet Foundation, Inc. and was funded in large part during its first year by its namesake, who was very involved in the life of the School in the following years until her death in 2019. In 2021 Interstate 20 and Washington Road interchange in Augusta, Georgia was renamed the Jessye Norman Memorial Interchange in celebration of Norman’s life and her contributions to the city.
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- Mrs. Ruth B. Crawford has worked tirelessly throughout her life for the betterment of her community, family, and friends. A graduate of Paine College, Mrs. Crawford taught for several decades in the public schools of Richmond County. Mrs. Crawford’s name has become synonymous with the ascendency of the Shiloh Community Center. However, her life’s work is a prime example of her versatility. She was the designer of the Paine College flag, and was instrumental in establishing the Julius S. Scott Park on Druid Park Avenue.
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- The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute was chartered by Lucy Craft Laney in 1886. Pictured here is Marshall and McGregor Halls. Haines attracted African American students from all over the country. Activist and Educator Mary McLeod Bethune received some of her early training at the Haines Institute under the tutelage of Lucy Craft Laney and went on to create National Council of Negro Women in 1935
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- Dr. Scipio Solomon Johnson was one of the leading physicians and businessmen in Augusta during the early 20th Century. He was a graduate of the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute. Johnson Drive in Augusta was named in his honor. The two-story red brick home located on a corner lot is one of the larger homes found in the historic African-American neighborhood known as Bethlehem.
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- The Burruss Sanitarium, located on the corner of Gwinnett and Campbell Streets in Augusta was established by African American physician Dr. George Burruss. The hospital was complete with twenty-seven rooms, modern equipment, and a staff of twelve black physicians and a proper training department for nurses.
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- A group of civil rights activists return to Augusta led by Reverend C.S. Hamilton. This group boarded the train from Augusta for the 1963 March on Washington. At the march, final speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in which he called for an end to racism and Racial Segregation.
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- The Lenox Theater was the premiere theater for African Americans in the Greater Augusta area. The Lenox was located on Campbell Street (today James Brown Boulevard) at the center of the African American business district in Augusta known as The Golden Blocks.
