Makin' Black History

20/02/2025

As we count down to .raiders’s 3rd Annual Leadership Day, we’re highlighting leaders who came from East Macon.

William Sanders Scarborough, widely considered the first African American Classical scholar, was born in Macon, Georgia, on February 16, 1852.

Born to an enslaved mother and a free father, Scarborough and his family made their home alternately on the East and West banks of the Ocmulgee River before finally settling in East Macon, where his parents lived out their lives. Because the law dictated that the children of enslaved mothers inherited their status, Scarborough was born enslaved, but enjoyed a great degree of freedom as his mother was allowed to live in her own house and his father was a free railway employee. That degree of freedom facilitated his ability to access an education as he learned to read and write while a young man.

Scarborough attended Lewis High School and Macon, established in 1865 by the American Missionary Association to educate Black children. He furthered his education at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University) and continued to Oberlin College, where he earned a degree in 1875.

Scarborough taught in several schools, including Lewis High School in Macon, and Paine Institute in Cokesbury, South Carolina. Eventually, he became a professor at Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio, the first university owned and operated by African Americans. He is perhaps best known for the textbook “First Lessons in Greek”, which was published in 1881 and was a standard Greek textbook for a time. Scarborough was the first African American to join the Modern Language Association and the third to join the American Philological Association. Scarborough was a longtime member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He passed away on September 9, 1926.

📷 Charles Milton Bell https://lccn.loc.gov/2016704929

15/02/2025

Lest we forget…the names of lynching victims from Bibb County, Georgia, as seen at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

One of the most infamous lynchings associated with Macon is that of John “Cocky” Glover, who was lynched by a mob just over the Bibb County line in Monroe County on August 2, 1922. Glover was accused of killing a white police officer. He attempted to flee town via train but was intercepted by the Spalding County police, who tried to transport him back to Macon. The car he was riding was intercepted in Monroe County. An angry lynch mob from Macon tied Glover to a tree and mutilated him with hundreds of gunshots. His body was also set on fire. However, the mob did not stop there; they threw what remained of him into the back of a pickup truck and drove back to Macon, where they dumped his remains in front of the Douglass Theatre, where the remains were further mutilated, and spectators took body parts as souvenirs. Macon authorities reportedly took his remains back to Monroe County, where they were discarded in a lumber yard.

Although his cause of death is listed as “murdered by unknown parties” on his death certificate, several men were charged in his murder. An all white jury acquitted them in just 30 minutes.

26/12/2024

Check out these awesome photos featuring H&H Soul Food!

06/12/2024

Tonight, the .fb team is on the verge of making history, as they play the first quarterfinal public school football game in Macon since 2003! This game and team are also historic because the team has the best record in school history and this the deepest Northeast’s football team has ever made it in the playoffs. The best part is that history will take place in ‼️

Check out a few pics of the Appling Wildcats football team from 60 years ago (1964-65) and don’t miss the pic of Mr. John Simmons who coached that year! ❤️🖤💛

03/12/2024

On Friday, December 6th, all roads lead to Thompson Stadium. As we celebrate .fb program on its historic final four playoff appearance, let's give a nod to it's namesake, Harry B. Thompson.

Thousands of cars pass by the Harry B. Thompson Stadium on Shurling Drive in East Macon daily. Little do many know that the structure was named for the first principal of Macon’s second public Black high school.

Harry B. Thompson Stadium, which opened in 1996, sits on the former campus of Peter G. Appling High School, which opened in 1959. Prior to that date, the only option for Black youth to gain a public high school education in Macon was at the Ballard-Hudson High School.

Learn more about Mr. Thompson and the stadium on our blog: https://www.makinblackhistory.com/blog/harry-b-thompson-first-principal-of-peter-g-appling-high-school

Go Raiders ❤️🖤💛

14/11/2024

Photo: Sergeant A.M. Chandler of the 44th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Co. F., and Silas Chandler, family slave.

Silas Chandler was an enslaved man who was the body servant of his enslaver, Andrew Chandler, during the Civil War. This photo is often used to support claims that Black men fought as soldiers for the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The myth of the , a term used to describe Black men who served in the Confederate army during the , has permeated American history for decades.

This issue recently surfaced here in when a Civil War heritage group proposed donating a plaque to Macon-Bibb in honor of Charley Benger, a Black musician who played for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The plaque would’ve been installed in Rose Hill Cemetery.

Tune in to the latest episode of the Makin’ Black History podcast to learn more as we discuss this topic with Kevin Levin, educator, historian, and author of Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (University of North Carolina Press, 2019).

12/11/2024

Happy !

Check out this photo including Mattie L. Aikens of Macon,

Two African American Lieutenants of the Women's Army Corps sitting at a table and working on jigsaw puzzles while three others assist and look on.

Caption on back: "A little relaxation while awaiting orders for overseas duty. Lieutenants Roby Gill, of Beaumont, Texas, Leola M. Green, of Houston, Texas; Mattie L. Aikens of Macon, Ga.; Zola Mae Lang of Chicago, Ill., and Ellen L. Robinson of Hackensack, N.J., are working over a jig saw puzzle."

📷 The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1939 - 1945. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-fa0e-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

16/09/2024

We love illuminating Macon’s little known Black history. In this post, we highlight Rev. John Henry Giles Williams, a local physician and surgeon who lived on Spring Street. Learn more about his interesting life in our latest blog post.

John Henry Giles (J.H.G.) Williams was born on September 7, 1872, in Anderson, SC to Coleman Williams and Alice Sherrard. He briefly attended Paine College in Augusta, but he had to delay his studies due to financial challenges. Williams furthered his education by attending Howard University before

27/05/2024

I had the honor of attending the y service at Historic Linwood Cemetery today. The speaker, Asha Warner Ellen, highlighted the lives of two individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice, Sergeant Rodney Maxwell Davis, and Matt2c George Eugene Vining, both of whom are interred in historic Lynnwood cemetery. Swipe left to learn more about these two heroic individuals. Featured are the applications for their military headstones.

24/05/2024

As we celebrate season for the , here's a throwback photo of Macon's Ballard Normal Graduating Class of 1928.

Ballard was established in in 1865 under the auspices of the American Missionary Association. It operated as both a primary and secondary schoolm becoming a public high school in 1942.

Notable alumni include John Oliver Killens, Harlem Renaissance writer and author of Youngblood; William Sanders Scarborough, the first African American classical scholar; Lucy Craft Laney, who established the Haines Normal and Industrial Institute, a school for Black youth, in Augusta, Georgia; and Winona Cargile Alexander, one of twenty-two students at Howard University who established Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Photograph of Ballard Normal School Graduating Class, Macon, Bibb County, Macon, 1928

17/09/2023

We’re excited to publish our inaugural episode! Check it out here: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1tnu7

Depending on your generation, you may have never heard of Sara Frances Mitchell. Although scholars of African American history have recognized her involvement in Malcolm X’s Organization for Afro American Unity (OAAU), many people in her hometown, particularly newcomers or those born more recently...

21/01/2023

MAKIN' BLACK HISTORY - Curating the rich history of African American Macon, one podcast at a time.

📝 NEW BLOG POST - "Makin' a Podcast" - Check out what's in store for our first season in our first blog post.

Street scene. Macon, Georgia, July 1936. Source: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)