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THE MAROON TIGER
BIOGHAPHY OF OUR FOUNDER
Sixty-three years ago Morehouse College began, and
someone started it. I am endeavoring to give you in
a brief way the life of the man who is responsible for
its existence.
Rev. William Jefferson White, a pioneer in the field
of education and religion among Negroes in Georgia,
was born in Ruckerville, (Elbert County), Georgia, De
cember 25, 1832. He was the son of Chaney, a half-
breed Cherokee Indian, and William White, a planta
tion owner. Although born in slavery time, neither he
nor his mother was ever a slave. This was because of
his parentage. As a boy he was very anxious to learn
to read and write. This he did with his mother as his
first teacher and a “blue back” speller that he bought
with the money he earned selling chestnuts. He learned
to write by dipping his finger in water and copying
whatever printing he could get, on the floor and scrub
bing over it. By continuous application he soon had
a good knowledge of reading and writing.
At the age of six he was sent up into the mountain
section of Georgia. After being there a while he be
gan working in the factories. At the age of twelve,
he was capable of operating any machine in the fac
tory. At the age of fifteen, he was sent away to a white
fan ily in Charleston, S. C. by the name of Nimmo.
Here he was given every consideration as a member of
the household, but because they were not in sympathy
with his learning a trade, he left and came to Augusta,
Ga., in 1853. At the age of twenty-one, he appren
ticed himself to a carpenter, and later to some cabinet
makers by the name of Platt Bros. Here he remained
for some considerable lime and finally rose to be head
of the undertaking department.
At the age of twenty-four he met a beautiful girl by
the name of Josephine Elizabeth Thomas, and married
her March 25, 1856. Eleven children were the results
of this happy union, Isaiah, Anna, John. George Dwelle,
Jacob McKinley, Alice Louise, Lucien Hayden, Marv
B., William, Jr., Claudia, and Josephine.
In 1858 he organized the first Sunday School for Ne
groes in Georgia at Springfield Baptist Church, Augus
ta, Georgia. Then began a night school in the bed
room of his home which later took the names of Augus
ta Institute, Atlanta Baptist Seminary, Atlanta Baptist
College, and lastly, Morehouse College. It was moved
to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1879, and occupied the site
which is now the Terminal Station, and finally to its
present site. Rev. White was a leader in the Shiloh
Baptist Association and was its treasurer for thirty
years, organizer of the State Baptist Convention and
served as its treasurer for fifteen years, founded the
Georgia Baptist which is the second oldest Negro paper
in America, October 28, 1880, and edited it for thirty-
three years. He was one of the first trustees of At
lanta University, Morehouse and Spelman College, and
Historian and Theological instructor of the State Con
vention. He was a man who never tired in his efforts
to lead his people into the light of better understand
ing of the fundamentals of a useful life and who took
advantage of every opportunity to do so. Fearless in
his efforts he secretly taught school during the Civil
War and was able to give his people a good knowledge
of reading and writing. For instance, he taught Henry
Lincoln Johnson’s mother, who later on richly endowed
her son with the same thing.
Morehouse College still possesses the spirit with which
it was founded sixty-three years ago in the bedroom of
a dwelling and started as a night school and has sons
filling places of prominence, not only in the fields of
education and religion, but in other fields. May they
feel the responsibility placed upon them to carry on the
work of this noble man who gave his last measure of
devotion for his people that they and their posterity
may enjoy more fully the life that is theirs. May genera
tions yet unborn cherish the wonderful inheritance that
is theirs and remember this man as the father of educa
tion and religion among Negroes in Georgia and above
all the founder of Morehouse College.
Truly the Reverend White needs mentioning for the
gallant and noble service he rendered to his people by
blazing the trail to the privileges that we now enjoy.
A beautiful life well spent, was filled with service for
the development of his people. He died at the ripe
age of eighty-one, April 17, 1913, while pastoring Har
mony Baptist Church and editing the Georgia Baptist,
both of which he founded in Augusta, Georgia. May
we know more of him.
A. W. Dago. ’30.
SIDELIGHTS OF THE ORCHESTA AND GLEE
CLUB’S FIRST TRIP
On the afternoon of the 7th of March forty young
men, musicians of Morehouse College, left the city of
Atlanta for a short trip through five towns of Georgia
and Alabama.
Pulling into LaGrange around four o’clock the same
afternoon, the bus, with an incessant tooting of the
horn and amid the shouts of the populace, stopped in
front of Rev. Roy’s church. The fellows were anxious
to get their assignments of rooms and eat. And boy,
how they ate. The concert that night was well at
tended. After the concert the fellows broke off into
little groups, some going here, some there, and others
everywhere. Nice high beds, that were warm and com
fortable topped the day’s activities. The citizens of the
town turned out the next morning to see us off.
Our next engagement was at the Veterans’ Hospital
at Tuskegee. Jokes, bones and court sessions were in
order along the way. It was decreed by the court
that the bus should stop about eight miles out of Tus
kegee for the initiation of the rookies. As those rook
ies would go through the line an avalanche of belts of
all sorts and descriptions would come in contact with the
choicest part of the said rookies. Well, that over, the
rookies became vets, having been initiated into the Royal
Society of Belt Wielders. The bus rolled into the reser
vation about one o’clock in the afternoon and we all
had a chance to sample Uncle Sam’s menu. It made a
hit all right! That night the musicians played in the
recreation building. At the dance that night a cer
tain musician provoked much laughter by being so po
lite that he would put Sir Walter Raleigh to shame.
We had another shot at Uncle Sam the next morning
before we left for the city of Selma. And what a town!
It happens to be the home of two or three of our out
standing men. We ran on schedule time because we
would always hit the towns just at meal time. We got
into Selma in time for dinner, and were the guests of
Selma University. The concert that afternoon must
have drawn the entire colored population and we ap
preciated that. After the concert the fellows were left
to themselves.
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