Barbara gant thomas

Integrating Augusta

[Train Whistle] The Civil Rights Movement came to the National floor under the leadership of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who advocated civil disobedience to resolve social and economic issues. The strategy called for peaceful testing of segregated inter-state facilities, and sit-ins by Black college students at segregated restaurants. In Augusta, the Reverend Charles S. Hamilton, John H. Ruffin Jr., Isaiah E. Washington, Benjamin L. Dent, Richard A. Dent, Paine College student Silas Norman, and CW Hickson Jr., led the local movement for civil rights and desegregation. Ms. Brenda Cohen was the first black student in an all-white school when she attended Aquinas in 1963, however, Ms. Barbara Gant was the first Black student in an all-white public school in Augusta in 1964.

Augusta's Story
  1. Paleo-Indians
  2. Stallings Island
  3. The Age of Exploration: The DeSoto Exhibition; 1540
  4. Early Colonial Period; 1685 – 1736
  5. Late Colonial Period
  6. The American Revolution, 1776 - 1783
  7. Antebellum Society
  8. Dave: Enslaved Potter and Poet
  9. Cotton
  10. Civil War; 1861 - 1865
  11. Reconstruction
  12. The Golden Blocks
  13. The Augusta Canal and the Cotton Industry
  14. Petersburg Boat
  15. Industrial History
  16. Mill Life
  17. World War I
  18. The Great Fire of 1916
  19. 1920s
  20. World War II
  21. Savannah River Site
  22. Integrating Augusta
  23. The Augusta Riot
  24. 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s in Augusta
  25. Augusta and the Late 20th Century to Today
  26. Thank you to our partners