User:Doncram/February DYKs/Camilla-Zack Community Center District

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The Camilla-Zack Community Center District, in rural

According to this, a testimonial by Dr. Lester F. Russell, there was a Washington Tribune article on September 8, 1934 by former Howard University dean Kelly Miller, about how great the Springfield Community was. I think Russell is saying Miller saw a gathering of 3,000 to 5,000 "Negroes" and reported "They came in automoblies, trucks, farm wagons, on horseback and afoot to the alluring center of Negro Social life. The chief aim has been to develop a demonstration and social center, on an inexpensive scale, where county folk may lead sound, sane and self-satisfying social life." Mentions that the 3 brothers couldn't buy land in next county, so came over to more progressive Hancock county.

Brochure "Country Life Center in Hancock County, Georgia". Yay the full pamphlet is available in PDF. "Pamphlet detailing a community created after the Civil War through the purchase of land by three ex-slave brothers. Community eventually included 27,000 acres of land, including a school, health center and farmland and dwellings. The people who sponsor the community are known as the "The Log Cabin Community." Also known as the Zach Hubert Farm and Camilla-Zach Country Life Center." Pamphlet has many photos. Many testimonials towards end.

Jstor article: "The Dream Realized? African American Landownership in Central Georgia between Reconstruction and World War Two" Mark R. Schultz Agricultural History Vol. 72, No. 2, African Americans in Southern Agriculture: 1877-1945 (Spring, 1998), pp. 298-312 Published by: Agricultural History Society https://www.jstor.org/stable/3744384 Page Count: 15

And an entire book: A more satisfying life on the farm : Benjamin F. Hubert and the Log Cabin Community / by Mark Roman Schultz. GA Pines library holdings.

Benjamin Hubert Collection, at UGA. A bio included. He was born at Springfield and died there too, btw.

According to its National Register nomination, written in 1974:

The Camilla-Zack Community Center District incorporates an area that was once a thriving regional center for rural blacks in Middle Georgia. The community, which at its height included a cooperative store, health center, school, teacher's cottages, and community center, was dedicated to providing a more satisfying life for Negroes on the farm.

It was located on what was, in 1974, a dirt road. It included a community church.

The Camilla-Zack Country Life Center, "as it was originally called, was the focal point of the district and was symbolic of the spirit of the community. Built in 1932 of pine logs taken from the surrounding forest and native granite from the county, the structure resembles a log cabin and blends in well with the surrounding countryside. With its 550 pine logs and 150 tons of granite, the building, including porches, contains over 2,500 square feet of usable space."^[2]

More:

For several years, the District was the site of a summer school for black rural teachers. For a one-month period, the teachers learned how to direct the community life of their people. The group included teachers from as many as twenty surrounding counties. / The Camilla-Zack Community better known as the Log Cabin Community, received high acclaim from both black and white leaders on State and regional levels and was visited by various dignitaries; including Governor Herman Talmadge. The District was pointed out as an example to Southern rural blacks of what was possible with hard work and a will to succeed.

Professor

It was the site, according to Hubert, of "the only beef cattle show and sale by colored people on record in America", which became an annual event. (soil conservation article)

Then what happened?

The great cabin building, with logs and stone, is still there. Stone coop store survives, maybe the dairy barn. Most of the other buildings seem to be gone. About the initiative, there is mention (in the soil conservation article? or the Hubert wikipedia article? that the people trained tended to want to go to cities instead. Per the NRHP doc, though, it was successful, with a thriving community at a time when many others, white and black, were really struggling economy-wise.

this summary of Schulz is pretty positive about the children of the landowners being confident, capable, so relatively successful.

About the Springfield church goes on that 'Zachariah "Zack" Hubert' and wife had 12 children, all college graduates and 2 becoming college presidents.

Historic function: Education; Health Care; Social; Agriculture/subsistence Historic subfunction: Civic; School; Clinic Criteria: event, architecture/engineering

References

Category:Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:National Register of Historic Places in Hancock County, Georgia Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1935

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