History of Augusta, Georgia

While slavery was originally banned in the colony by James Oglethorpe,[3] it soon became an integral part of Georgia's history.^[4] Under Georgia's new constitution, a new political structure was laid out in 1777; Augusta's parish government was replaced by a county government, Richmond County, named after the Duke of Richmond.

American Revolution to the Civil War

During the American Revolution, Savannah fell to the British. This left Augusta as the new state capital and a new prime target of the British. By January 31, 1779, Augusta was captured by Lt. Col. Archibald Campbell. But Campbell soon withdrew, as American troops were gathering on the opposite shore of the Savannah River. Augusta again became the state capital, but not for long. Augusta fell into British hands once more before the end of the war.

From then until the

Georgia Railroad was built by local contractors Fannin, Grant & Co in 1845, giving Augusta a rail link to Atlanta. The railroad connected to the Tennessee River at Chattanooga, Tennessee, thus providing access from inland Georgia to the Mississippi River. The cost-savings of this link from the middle of the country to the Atlantic Ocean

via the Savannah River increased trade considerably.

In 1845, Augusta was the location of the founding of the

First Baptist Church of Augusta in May 1845 and formed the new convention, naming it the Southern Baptist Convention.^[6]

By 1860 Augusta had a population of 12,493; it was then one of 102 U.S. cities to have a population of over 10,000, and was the second largest city in Georgia.

Civil War to World War II

Lewis W. Hine

Originally, Augustans welcomed the idea of the Civil War. The new

European American majority population of Georgia and other Southern U.S. states enacted Jim Crow laws

to limit the rights of African Americans. These restrictions would not be lifted until the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20th century.

Specifically, the Richmond County School System refused to educate African American students at all. In 1899, a group of parents took their objections in a class actions suit the Supreme Court in Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education. The court ruled that the use of state funds was not within federal purview under the Fourteenth Amendment. This ruling was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education.

In 1828, the

University Hospital was founded near the Medical College, forming the anchor of a heavily developed medical sector

in the city.

Unlike most Southern cities,

large fire destroyed over 700 buildings in the city including many of its finest residences.^[8]

In 1927, Owen Robertson Cheatham founded the lumber company

Georgia Pacific in Augusta, before it moved to Portland, Oregon, and later to Atlanta.^[9]

Prior to

GIs at Camp Gordon had been sent back home, and the importance of the army in the community seemed to almost come to an end. Music legend James Brown, then a teenager, often performed for the soldiers. Brown grew up in Augusta during the 1930s and 1940s (he lived with his aunt, who was the madam of a house of prostitution on Twiggs St.).^{[citation needed}

]

World War II to consolidation

Augusta's golden age

In 1948, new life came to the city when the U.S. Army moved the Signal Training Center and Military Police School to Camp Gordon. Later, in November 1948, the

CareSouth

.

The Civil Rights Movement and backlash

The

Civil Rights Movement shaped Augusta as it did the rest of the United States. In 1961, soul musician Ray Charles canceled a scheduled performance at the Bell Auditorium^[10] when he learned that the Black attendees would be segregated from the whites and forced to sit in the balcony. A few days after the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings in May 1970, Black 16-year-old Charles Oakman was tortured and beaten to death in a county jail. White officials refused to provide answers, prompting Black citizens to demonstrate for racial justice at the county jail. White officials responded to property damage with physical violence, and police shot at least 60 people and killed six participating in the collective rebellion

.

Today, African Americans constitute 53.6 percent

Augusta-Richmond County

. Slavery and Jim Crow continue to shape present inequities, and race relations remain contentious in city politics.

Urban decline

Beginning in the late 1970s, businesses started leaving downtown Augusta for both Regency Mall and Augusta Mall, which started a trend of urban abandonment and decay. To counter this trend, city politicians and business leaders promoted revitalizing Augusta's hidden riverfront (obscured by a levee) into Riverwalk Augusta, with parks, an amphitheater, hotels, museums, and art galleries. The first segment of Riverwalk Augusta was opened in the late 1980s and later expanded in the early 1990s. However, the renaissance of the riverfront did not appear to be spilling over into Augusta's main street, Broad Street, as more businesses were leaving and more storefronts boarded up. Broad Street is the second widest Broad street in America.^[12]

Revitalization

In 1995, members of the art community and downtown boosters started a monthly event called

Artists' Row and is home to several locally owned art galleries. First Friday still continues today in addition to many revitalization efforts to downtown. Downtown Augusta has become an epicenter of new growth in recent years though with new focuses on revitalizing historic structures in Downtown to include the former First Baptist Church on Greene Street as well as the Miller Theater, the Lamar Building, and King Mill - all located on Broad Street - which are continuing to be revitalized by developers. Investments have also been made into public art which includes the establishment of the Augusta Sculpture Trail in Downtown Augusta as well as new featured murals showing Augusta native James Brown

and some of his notable works. Other new developments have been proposed for new construction in future years to include new mixed use developments along Telfair Street, Greene Street, James Brown Boulevard, and Ellis Street as well as a new hotel on Broad Street and the conversion of the Fifth Street Bridge into a new pedestrian bridge over the Savannah River.

1996 consolidation

In 1995, citizens of the city of Augusta and Richmond County voted to merge governments. Citizens of

city charter

and merging operations with Richmond County.

1996 to present

The Augusta Museum of History^[13] highlights Augusta's history and famous natives and Historic Augusta^[14] has helped preserve architecturally important sites throughout the city.

Cyber boom

In 2013, the U.S. Army announced the relocation of the

Fort Gordon in Augusta. This announcement led to a cyber security economic boom in the Augusta metro region with many defense contractors and other private cyber security companies relocating their headquarters and their workforce to Augusta. A later announcement in 2017 by then Georgia Governor Nathan Deal of an investment of $100 million dollars to construct a state of the art cyber training facility in Augusta on the site of the former Georgia Golf Hall of Fame and Botanical Gardens. This Georgia Cyber Center was completed the next year in 2018 and now provides office and collaborative spaces for cyber-related companies such as Parsons and BAE Systems as well as is the home of the Augusta University and the Augusta Technical College cyber security and information technology programs and a new cyber crime lab for the Georgia Bureau of Investigations

.

References

^ Robertson Jr., Thomas Heard (2002). "The Colonial Plan of Augusta". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 86 (4): 511.
^
ISBN 978-1572330191
. Retrieved 10 November 2016.

^ Slavery in America
^ Our Georgia Encyclopedia: Slavery in Georgia
^ Baker, Robert A. "Southern Baptist Beginnings." Baptist History and Heritage Society. "BHHS -- Southern Baptist Beginnings". Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2012-10-28.
^ "Georgia group making moves in rebuilding Southern Baptist birthplace". Archived from the original on 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2016-02-06. First Baptist Church building landmark restoration
^ African American Odyssey: Reconstruction and Its Aftermath, Part 1 (Library of Congress)
^ New Georgia Encyclopedia: Augusta
^ "Georgia Pacific.com". Archived from the original on 2007-07-06. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
^ William B. Bell Auditorium
^ US Census Bureau: American FactFinder Archived 2009-06-25 at the Wayback Machine
^ Guidebook Augusta Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine Guidebook America.com
^ Augusta Museum of History
^ Historic Augusta.org

External links

Augusta Chronicle: Augusta's History Series of news articles from 1995 on Augusta history
Augusta Museum of History
The Augusta Richmond County Historical Society
Saint Paul's Church
Picturing Augusta: Historic Postcards from the Collection of the East Central Georgia Regional Library System Turn-of-the-twentieth-century postcards of the Augusta area from the collection of the East Central Georgia Regional Library System
Robert E. Williams Photographic Collection: African-Americans in the Augusta, Ga. Vicinity (Richmond Co.), circa 1872–1898. Late-nineteenth-century photographs of Augusta-area African American people, places, agriculture, family life, and more from the collections of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Augusta, Georgia, a National Park Service Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itinerary
The History of Jim Crow: Teacher Resources
Lucy Craft Laney Museum
Augusta Metro Courier weekly newspaper targeted toward local African American community
Augusta Movement, Civil Rights Digital Library.

News articles

Augusta Chronicle: Augusta's Black History Various articles about African American history in Augusta
Augusta Chronicle: Death of jail inmate fueled fire for riots 2000 article about the May 1970 Augusta riots
Augusta Chronicle: Brown eased crowd during riots 2006 article about James Brown's role in trying to calm 1970 city riots
Augusta Chronicle: Race Relations 2004–2005 series of articles on local race relations
Metro Spirit: "chronicle.hate.com"^{[permanent dead link]} 2007 article about racial attacks on the Augusta Chronicle message board, includes quotes from African American figures in local government
Metro Spirit: Color of Law^{[permanent dead link]} 2007 article on lack of more local African American attorneys
WRDW: Future of the Augusta Focus article about the future of the Augusta Focus newspaper

[1] Robertson Jr., Thomas Heard (2002). "The Colonial Plan of Augusta". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 86 (4): 511.

[Cashin-2] 
ISBN 978-1572330191
. Retrieved 10 November 2016.

[3] Slavery in America

[4] Our Georgia Encyclopedia: Slavery in Georgia

[5] Baker, Robert A. "Southern Baptist Beginnings." Baptist History and Heritage Society. "BHHS -- Southern Baptist Beginnings". Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2012-10-28.

[6] "Georgia group making moves in rebuilding Southern Baptist birthplace". Archived from the original on 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2016-02-06. First Baptist Church building landmark restoration

[7] African American Odyssey: Reconstruction and Its Aftermath, Part 1 (Library of Congress)

[8] New Georgia Encyclopedia: Augusta

[9] "Georgia Pacific.com". Archived from the original on 2007-07-06. Retrieved 2008-11-14.

[10] William B. Bell Auditorium

[11] US Census Bureau: American FactFinder Archived 2009-06-25 at the Wayback Machine

[12] Guidebook Augusta Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine Guidebook America.com

[13] Augusta Museum of History

[14] Historic Augusta.org

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