BISHOP LUCIUS HOLSEY

Coming Out of the Dark

In the year 1909, leaders of the Georgia C.M.E. Church and local ministers, including Rev. P.W. Wesley of Lovett, Georgia, and lay leaders of the Church established the Harriett Holsey Industrial Institute in Dublin. The school was named for Harriett Holsey, wife of Bishop Lucius H. Holsey, one of the founders of the school. This is the story of Bishop Lucius Holsey, who in conjunction with such Methodist ministerial icons including the Rev. Henry M. Turner, led their people out of the depths of despair of the abolition of slavery and the horrors of the post war South into the bright new days of the Twentieth Century.

Lucius Henry Holsey was born into slavery on a farm near Columbus, Georgia on July 3, 1842. His owner, James Holsey, was also his father, whom Rev. Holsey described as " a gentleman of classical education, dignified in appearance, and lacking the ability to shine his own shoes or saddle his horse." His mother, Louisa, was the mother of fourteen children, Lucius, being the oldest. Holsey was sold to T.L. Wynn of Sparta following his father’s death in 1848. After Wynn’s death, Lucius became the property of Col. R.M. Johnston, with whom the young man had a close relationship. In his eight years with Col. Johnston, who was a professor at the University of Georgia, Lucius was introduced to education and religion, both of which had a profound influence on his life. He was impressed with the sermons of Rev. H.M. Turner, who became one of the greatest African-American ministers in our country’s history. In his later years, Bishop Holsey saw slavery as "a blessing in disguise to me and to many - a link in the transactions of humanity, which must have a great bearing on the future."

Holsey took up sharecropping on a "one-horse farm" in Hancock County after his emancipation. His wife Harriett washed clothes for the students, who lived in Col. Johnston’s boarding house. Then, the calling came. It was always there since his youth, but Lucius felt the urgent need to proclaim God’s truth. It was February 1868. Bishop George F. Pierce, a historian and sage of Methodism in 19th Century Georgia, examined Lucius with difficult questioning and pronounced him ready to become a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South - whites and blacks were members of the same church then. Holsey already knew Bishop Pierce, who had reared his wife Harriett before giving her to his son-in-law, a Mr. Turner. The couple were married in the Bishop’s home on November 8, 1862. Bishop Pierce’s wife and daughters spared no expense in elaborately decorating their home and lavishly preparing a splendid meal for the Holseys and a host of their friends and relatives.

Holsey, who considered himself an inferior preacher because of his low decibel voice, traveled the Sparta Circuit until 1869, when the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church of Georgia held its first conference in Augusta. Bishop Pierce assigned Rev. Holsey to his first church, Andrew Chapel, in Savannah. Holsey was forced to leave the church when the A.M.E. Church took control of Andrew Chapel. The trustees of Trinity Methodist Church allowed him to preach to the colored Methodist citizens of Savannah in the church library. The wealth of Savannah allowed Holsey to start reading again, learning about anything he could. After sixteen months, Holsey returned to Sparta to attempt to find his direction in life. He found it.

In 1871, Rev. Holsey was appointed to Trinity Methodist Church in Augusta, the largest church in the conference. In the 1873 General Conference of the C.M.E. Church held in Holsey’s home church, the delegates elected Rev. Holsey one of the three Bishops of the Church. Holsey drew the area of Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Despite his annual salary of eight hundred dollars, Holsey and his family of fourteen struggled just to survive, recycling cinders to build fires with and going hungry many nights.

In 1869, Bishop Holsey first advocated the establishment of a school for training ministers for the Church. For nearly fourteen years, Holsey lobbied church leaders in Georgia and around the Southeast for their support of his plan. In 1883, The Paine Institute, now Paine College, was established in Augusta with the help of Holsey’s old friend, Bishop Pierce. Bishop Holsey continued to actively support the school for the remainder of his life.

Bishop Holsey was often called upon to represent Georgia in national conferences. He served for more than twenty years as Secretary of the College of Bishops. Holsey compiled the first hymnals and manual of discipline for the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1881, he represented the C.M.E. churches of the United States in an Ecumenical Conference in London, England, where he preached from the same pulpit where John Wesley, the founder of Methodism in America, once preached. In 1882, Bishop Holsey was the first African-American to attend the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held that year in Memphis, Tennessee. He wrote a paper for the Centennial Conference of the Methodist Church in America in 1884. In 1891, he attended the same conference in Washington, D.C..

Holsey found himself embroiled in a controversy on the direction of the church for the last several decades of his life. As for politics, he thought ministers ought to stay out saying, "We must make no stump speeches and fight no battle of the politicians. We think it better to let the dead bury the dead, while we follow Christ," Holsey proclaimed. Despite his disdain for politics, Holsey found himself drawn into a battle with other church leaders. Being somewhat of a conservative and being the son of a white man, Holsey urged cooperation with the white Church - a position not taken by Bishop Henry Turner of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Bishop Lucius Henry Holsey died in 1920. In reflecting on his first thirty years in the Church, Holsey said " The Colored Methodist Church in America has a remarkable career....Green from the fields of slavery, raw in the experiences of church tactics, in membership and ministry, without houses of worship or literature, with many of its organizing feats being performed out of doors and under trees, it overcame difficulties that made it more than an experiment. Being in the dews of its youth, it has not yet attained its destined dignity and power for those among the colored race. But it is advancing in every department. During his fifty years in the ministry, he led his people through the bad times and the good times. His life and his teachings, without a doubt, rank him high as one of the most important and influential Christian leaders in Georgia history.

THE FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.






On April 17, 1944 the Colored Elks Clubs of Georgia held their state convention at First A.B. Church in Dublin. The event was hosted by the Norman G. McCall Elks Lodge of Dublin. The Georgia Elks clubs each sponsored a high school student in a statewide oratory contest. The winner of the contest was from Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. In his speech, the fifteen-year-old student, who would enter Morehouse College in the fall, spoke on the topic of “The Negro and the Constitution.” The young man called for the better health and education of his people. He spoke of Christianity and the Golden Rule. He urged fair play and free opportunities at home, the same as we were fighting for in Europe and Asia. He suggested that if Negroes were given the franchise, “they will be vigilant and defend,even with their arms, the ark of federal liberty from treason and destruction by her enemies.” Little did the audience realize what they were witnessing. In a compiled autobiography, the young man recalls that the reading of this essay was his first public political speech. The young man spent the next twenty four years of his life fighting for the constitutional rights of the people of his race. By now, I know you have guessed who he was. The young man, who came to Dublin fifty six years ago,was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

FULL TEXT OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR'S AWARD WINNING SPEECH IN DUBLIN.

THE NEGRO AND THE CONSTITUTION
By Martin L. King Jr

Negroes were first brought to America in 1620 when England legalized slavery both in England and the colonies and America; the institution grew and thrived for about 150 years upon the backs of these black men. The empire of King Cotton was built and the southland maintained a status of life and hospitality distinctly its own and not anywhere else.

On January 1, 1863 the proclamation emancipating the slaves which had been decreed by President Lincoln in September took effect, millions of Negroes faced a rising sun of a new day begun. Did they have habits of thrift or principles of honesty and integrity? Only a few! For their teachings and duties had been but two activities, love of Master, right or wrong, good or bad, and loyalty to work. What was to be the place for such men in the reconstruction of the south?

America gave its full pledge of freedom seventy-five years ago. Slavery has been a strange paradox in a nation founded on the principles that all men are created free and equal. Finally after tumult and war, the nation in 1865 took a new stand, freedom for all people. The new order was backed by amendments to the national constitution making it the fundamental law that thenceforth there should be no discrimination anywhere in the "land of the free" on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

Black America still wears chains. The finest Negro is at the mercy of the meanest white man. Even winners of our highest honors face the class color bar. Look at a few of the paradoxes that mark daily life in America. Marian Anderson was barred from singing in the Constitution Hall, ironically enough, by the professional daughters of the very men who founded this nation for liberty and equality. But this tale had a different ending. The nation rose in protest, and gave a stunning rebuke to the Daughters of the American Revolution and a tremendous ovation to the artist, Marian Anderson, who sang in Washington on Easter Sunday and fittingly, before the Lincoln Memorial. Ranking cabinet members and a justice of the supreme court were seated about her. Seventy-five thousand people stood patiently for hours to hear a great artist at a historic moment. She sang as never before with tears in her eyes. When the words of "America" and "Nobody Knows De Trouble I Seen" rang out over that great gathering, there was a hush on thee sea of uplifted faces, black and white, and a new baptism of liberty, equality and fraternity.

That was a touching tribute, but Miss Anderson may not as yet spend the night in any good hotel in America. Recently she was again signally honored by being given the Bok reward as the most distinguished resident of Philadelphia. Yet she cannot be served in many of the public restaurants of her home city, eveen after it has declared her to be its best citizen. So, with their right hand they raise to high places the great who have dark skins, and with their left, they slap us down to keep us in "our places." "Yes, America you have stripped me of my garments, you have robbed me of my precious endowment."

We cannot have an enlightened democracy with one great group living in ignorance. We cannot have a healthy nation with one tenth of the people ill-nourished, sick, harboring germs of disease which recognize no color lines, obey no Jim Crow laws. We cannot have a nation orderly and sound with one group so ground down and thwarted that it is almost forced into unsocial attitudes and crime. We cannot be truly Christian people so long as we flaunt the central teachings of Jesus: brotherly love and the Golden Rule. We cannot come to full prosperity with one great group so ill-delayed that it cannot buy goods. So as we gird ourselves to defend democracy from foreign attack, let us see to it that increasingly at home we give fair play and free opportunity for all people

Today thirteen million black sons and daughters of our forefathers continue the fight for the translation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments from writing on the printed page to an actuality. We believe with them that "if freedom is good for any it is good for all," that we may conquer southern armies by the sword, but it is another thing to conquer southern hate, that if the franchise is given to Negroes, they will be vigilant and defend even with their arms, the ark of federal liberty from treason and destruction by her enemies.

The spirit of Lincoln still lives; that spirit born of the teachings of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans, and made the captives free. In the light of this divine example, the doctrines of demagogues shiver in their chaff. Already closer understanding links Saxon and Freedman in mutual sympathy.
America experiences a new birth of freedom in her sons and daughters; she incarnates the spirit of her martyred chief. Their loyalty is repledged; their devotion renewed to the work He left unfinished. My heart throbs anew in the hope that inspired by the example of Lincoln, imbued with the spirit of Christ, they will cast down the last barrier to perfect freedom. And I with my brother of blackest hue possessing at last my rightful heritage and holding my head erect, may stand beside the Saxon, a Negro, and yet a man!

The End

THE TROUPES

THE TROUPES
The Story of a Laurens County Family

They are one of Laurens County’s oldest and most prolific families. In fact, they are several families. They take their name from the man who once owned them - the powerful and legendary George M. Troup of Laurens County, who was a former Georgia governor and United States senator. In the years following the Civil War, former slaves had to choose a surname, until then they were simply known by their first name. Many of these former slaves took the name of their former master. This is a story of one of those families, the families of Obediah Troup and his son, Charles Troupe.

The 1870 Census was the first census to enumerate black citizens. In that year, fifty-one Laurens County families bore the surname of Troup or Trouppe. Just before the turn of the century some of the families changed their last name to Edmond. These families were not all related to each other by blood, but they were bound together by their common last name and heritage, lived in the Dudley area, near or on the old Troup plantations at Valambrosa and Thomas Crossroads. They worked under the supervision of Dr. John Vigal, the governor’s son-in-law, and later Robert Wayne, husband of one of the governor’s granddaughters, Augusta Forman. The senior members of the Troup family were Mariah, who was born in 1785; Richard, who was born in 1790; Isaac, who was born in 1794; and David, who was born in 1799. When George Troup died in 1856, his estate included more than three hundred slaves, all of whom are listed in the inventory of his estate in Division of Estates Book, "B" in the Probate Court.

Obediah Troup was born in May of 1835. When Gov. Troup died in 1856, Obediah was twenty-one years old, and accordingly, was the highest valued slave on the Valambrosa Plantation at twelve hundred dollars. Around that time, Obediah married Katie or Caty. No record of their marriage was made under the record system in effect at the time. It appears that Obediah and Katie Troup were living apart from the main group of families in 1870. In 1880, the Troup household, then located in the Bailey District, consisted of Obediah, Katie and their children: Bennett, Wallace, Charles, Willis, Phillip, Lelia, Luselia, and Delia. The Troups were a typical farming family of the day with a large number of children to help on the farm.

Charles Troupe married Mary B. Williams on October 29, 1891 in Laurens County. Charles, like his father, was a share cropping farmer. Charles and Mary lived on a farm not too far from his father’s farm in the Harvard District near Montrose. Charles, also like his father, had a large family - ten children: Eva, Donna, Phillip, George, Lee, Charles, Minnie, Albert, James, and Quincy. One day, Albert got into a difficult predicament with a farm overseer. Fearing, that his son would never be able to resolve the dispute with the man, Charles decided to accept the offer of a friend from St. Louis to go there for a better paying job and a better way of life. Times were bad in Laurens County. Cotton crops were being eaten by boll weevils, money was tight, and tempers and racial tolerances were short. Charles and his sons, Albert and George, left Dublin in the early 1920s to establish the new family home. Mary and the rest of the family, headed by the eldest son Phillip, an amputee victim of a childhood fever, moved to the Ed Darden farm. The Darden farm was near the Smitherman farm in southern Laurens County. In 1922, Mary and the rest of the children moved to St. Louis to begin their new life.

Eva, the eldest child, married a Yopp and moved to New Britain, Connecticut. Donna, married a Hudson and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Lee lived in Newark, New Jersey. The rest of the family remained in St. Louis. All of them lived to ripe old ages. Donna lived to be ninety six years old. Phillip and Minnie lived to be more than ninety. Quincy, the baby of the family, was the most well known of the children. He developed a skill for boxing, which was eclipsed only by his talent for baseball. He enjoyed a twenty-year career in professional baseball. He was known to have been one of the best catchers in the history of the Negro Leagues. Quincy managed and played for the Cleveland Buckeyes, the 1945 Negro League Champions. His collection of memorabilia was the foundation of the Negro League Hall of Fame Museum in St. Louis.

James "Pal" Troupe, the ninth child, took an ardent interest in improving his community. Pal Troupe served as a Commissioner of the St. Louis Public Housing Authority from 1951 to 1954, when he was elected to the Missouri Legislature. In his sixteen-year career in the Missouri house (1954-1960, 1962-1972), Troupe rose to the chairmanship of the black caucus and became an advocate for those in public housing. During that time, Troupe served as a business representative for the United Steelworkers of America and supported the causes of labor in his state. Although he lost two congressional races, Troupe was a well-respected member of the St. Louis community. Like his father and grandfather before him, he had a large family. When he died in 1994, Troupe had nine children, forty-five grandchildren, and fifty great grandchildren.

Two of Quincy’s children, Charles Quincy Troupe and Quincy Troupe, Jr. have followed different, although highly successful, career paths than their father. Charles Quincy Troupe, following in the footsteps of his uncle "Pal," was elected to the Missouri legislature in 1978.

For twenty-two years, Troupe has been an advocate for the rights of the disadvantaged, the powerless, and the underprivileged. Troupe lists among his most lasting contributions his landmark legislation to educate pregnant teenage girls, a support system for AIDS victims, and the implementation of electronic transfer of government program benefits. In private life, he is an electrical contractor, developer, and union official. While he is considered a liberal on social issues, Troupe is deeply disturbed by the amount of immorality and violence on television - an issue generally championed by conservatives. Troupe, chairman of the House committee on Social Service and Corrections, will be forced out of office in 2003 with the imposition of term limits, but he plans to continue his fight to battle to end privatization of state prisons.

Quincy Troupe, Jr., while possessing some of his father’s athletic ability, has become a nationally known poet, biographer, and novelist. Troupe has a passionate interest in music, which led to his coauthoring of a book with jazz legend Miles Davis: "Miles: The Autobiography," for which he won an American Book Award. Troupe has also published a nationally distributed book, "Miles and Me," based on his experiences with Davis. The topics of his poems published in six volumes range from the injustice he sees in America - a mission which seems to be inherent in the Troupe family to the celebration of his love of jazz. His book "Snake-back Solos" brought him a second American Book Award. Troupe is also the winner of the prestigious Peabody Award for "Miles Davis Radio Project." Troupe was recently featured on the PBS program, "The Language of Life" with Bill Moyers.

THE WORLD'S FASTEST HUMAN AND THE BLACK BABE RUTH

Jesse Owens

Oscar Charleston




The recent public appearance by Evander Holyfield at a D.A.R.E. graduation at Southwest Laurens Elementary brings to mind a day, nearly sixty years ago. On that day two of the greatest athletes in the history of the world displayed their talents for thousands of admiring fans, who for the first time got to see their heroes up close and in person. One man was one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time. The other man, whose career was thwarted by baseball commissioner Kennesaw Landis’s refusal to allow black athletes in major league baseball, was one of the greatest players in the history of the Negro Leagues.

The friends of Washington Street School were raising money for athletic programs at the school. On April 10, 1940, a special benefit was planned at the fairgrounds on Telfair Street. The fairgrounds had seen great athletes and spectacles before. In 1918, the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Braves on the fairground diamond. The St. Louis Cardinals stopped in town on their way back to St. Louis after spring training to play a game against the Oglethorpe University Petrels in 1933. Two years later, the Cardinals returned to play the University of Georgia Bulldogs. In all, eight members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Miller Huggins, Frank “Home Run” Baker, Dizzy Dean, Rogers Hornsby, Leo Durocher, Frankie Frisch, Joe Medwick, and Jesse Haines played on the sandy field located at the northwest corner of Telfair and Troup Streets. County fairs, circuses, and even a performance by cowboy legend Tom Mix had drawn thousands to the old 12th District fairgrounds.

The feature attraction of the day was billed as "the world's fastest human." His name ranks among the greatest athletes in Olympic history. In the 1935 Big Ten Track and Field Championships, he broke five world records and tied one in a forty-five minute period. In the 1936 Summer Olympics, he won four gold medals. At the time he held the world record for a long jump, 220-yard hurdles, and 220-yard dash. He has tied the world record for the 100-yard dash. He also had tied the world record with a time of 10.3 seconds in the 100-meter dash. A 20.7 second time in the 200-meter dash gave him another Olympic record. He was put on the 400-meter relay team at the last minute. The team set a world and Olympic record.

Interestingly, it was one of the German competitors who gave him a helpful hint which allowed him to beat the German in the long jump. The German jumper told the American track star to make a mark a few inches short of the foul line and to jump from that point. It worked. He set an Olympic record that stood for twenty-five years. He won the Gold medal - and the German, won the Silver. He stated that all of the medals he won wouldn’t replace the friendship he had developed with Lutz Long, the German athlete. Long was killed in the Battle of St. Pietro on July 14, 1943. Adolph Hitler was so enraged that he stormed out of the stadium refusing to present the medals.

The world champion American athlete’s name was, of course, Jesse Owens. In Dublin, Owens was scheduled to compete in a dash around the baseball diamond, a one hundred yard dash against a race horse, a running broad jump, and a one hundred twenty-yard low hurdle race. After his exhibition, Owens gave an interview over a loud speaker answering questions from his fans. Owens never enjoyed the attention that should have been given to him. In the mid 1930s, he was ignored when national amateur athletic awards were handed out. He later fell from grace with some who disagreed with his comments and beliefs on social relationships in America.

Preceding Owens' feats of human speed that day, there was an exhibition baseball game between the Toledo Crawfords and the Ethiopian Clowns. Jesse Owens was the business manager of the Crawfords. The game was played before fans, both white and black. The two teams traveled the country stopping nearly every day to play a baseball game - some times before a few hundred fans and other times, before tens of thousands.

The Crawfords began playing on a sand lot in Pittsburgh in the 1920s. In those early days, legendary catcher Josh Gibson was on the team. Their owner, Gus Greenlee, used the profits from his gambling and liquor activities to buy the best players in the Negro Leagues. Greenlee built and equipped a lighted stadium, years before the Major Leagues began playing at night. The Crawfords joined the re-organized Negro National League in 1933. It was the first year of the Negro League All Star Game - the East-West Classic, which was created by Greenlee. The Crawfords won the National League championship in 1935. In 1937, their star players, led by Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, left the team in a salary dispute. The team was never the same. Greenlee sold the Crawfords, and the team moved to Toledo, Ohio. One star remained with the team. His name was Oscar Charleston, known by the press writers as “The Hoosier Comet.”

The Crawfords were led by Oscar Charleston, who was playing in his last season for the team. Charleston was a slick fielder with a lifetime average of .380. Many regard him as the greatest Negro League player of all time. John McGraw called him “the greatest player ever.” In 1921, he batted .446 with 14 home runs for the St. Louis Giants. In one nine-year span, Charleston batted over .350 in all nine seasons, twice hitting over .400. Charleston joined the Crawfords in 1932 and consistently hit around .350. Charleston was a fan and player favorite. As a fielder, he was known as “The Black Tris Speaker”; as a runner, he was known as “The Black Ty Cobb;” and as a power hitter, he was known as “The Black Babe Ruth.” Oscar Charleston, who ended his career with a .376 batting average, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976.

The Ethiopian Clowns were a true barnstorming team. They were the clown princes of Negro League Baseball, comparable to the Harlem Globetrotters’ basketball team. While they had no great stars, the Clowns, who eventually moved to Indianapolis along with the Crawfords, were fan favorites all over the nation. One popular routine was called Shadow Ball. In this routine, the players pantomimmed an imaginary game of baseball with outlandish movements and stunts. Fans were thrilled when one player would pick up four baseballs and throw them at the same time to four different players. The Clowns toured the country until the early fifties. Their most famous alumnus was a young Mobile, Alabama outfielder by the name of Henry Aaron, who led the American National League with a .467 average - a miraculous feat considering he batted cross handed.

Dubliners had seen good Negro League players before. The Dublin Athletics, members of an independent Negro League, played on a field on East Mary Street near the Dudley Cemetery. They were a pretty fair team in their own right, but nothing could compare to that April day when two of the giants in the world of sports played on our field.

JAMES BAILEY - Jammin James

James Bailey is tall. He may be the tallest person ever born in Laurens County. His height - six feet nine inches in his stocking feet - came in handy for slam-dunking basketballs, blocking jump shots, and getting stuff off the top shelf at Wal-Mart without tip-toeing.

Bailey was born in Dublin on May 21, 1957. His family moved away a short time later. James began to grow taller and taller. His height and superior athletic ability made him an outstanding high school basketball star of the Xaverian Brothers High School team of Westwood, Massachusetts. For his outstanding ability and play, James was awarded a scholarship to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

James began his career with the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers in the fall of 1975. By the fifth game, James was named as the starting center. His coach, Tom Young, noticed something special in the freshman. The Knights won their first game, and then another. When Rutgers eased past Boston College by twenty three points, sportswriters began to take notice. The Knights defeated Georgia Tech to win the school’s first Christmas holiday tournament. In each of the three games heading into the Poinsettia Classic, Rutgers scored more than 95 points in each game. By New Year’s Day, Rutgers was eleven and zero. Four opponents gave up one hundred points to Bailey’s team. In the biggest game of the year against arch rival Princeton, the Knights scored seventy five points against one of the nation’s best defensive teams. The Knights scored more than one hundred points in their last two regular season games. This was in the days when there were no three-point shots. In the post season tournament, Rutgers breezed to its second straight ECAC title and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament. With wins over Princeton, Uconn, De Paul, and VMI, the Knights made it into the final four. The Knights perfect 31 and 0 season came to end with an 86 - 70 loss to Michigan. Bailey vaulted to national prominence in his freshman season.

Bailey led his team to the NIT in the next two years and one final trip to the NCAA tournament in his senior year. During his four years at Rutgers, Bailey averaged 16.7 points and 8.7 rebounds a game. He still holds the Rutgers record for field goals in a season (312 in 1978.) Amazingly, the big man had 1755 steals (second most in school history.) Bailey blocked 330 shots and was feared by all those who dared to try him under the basket. James Bailey was one of the first college centers to perfect the "lob dunk." He had 116 dunks in the 1977-78 season, more than many entire teams. His junior season was his best. Bailey won the Widner Trophy as the best player in the East. He was chosen as a first team All - American and finished the season with a 23.5 points per game scoring average. His career best game came against William and Mary when he scored forty three points and grabbed thirteen rebounds. A local sportscaster described Bailey that night as if he were "a slot machine in front of an addicted gambler - all the numbers were coming up right."

Just days after the end of his junior season, James was selected to play for the United States in the 1978 World Invitational Tournament, a sort of off-year Olympic tournament. He was named the starting center. The team had among its members a forward from Indiana State by the name of Larry Bird and a guard from Michigan state Earvin Johnson, who you know as "Magic." Also playing on the team were future pros, Joe Barry Carroll, Phil Ford, Jack Givens, David Greenwood, Kyle Macy, Rick Robey, and Sidney Moncrief. The USA team defeated Cuba 109-64, Yugoslavia 88 to 83 and the Soviet Union 107 to 82 to win the world crown. Bailey was third on the team in scoring with twelve points per game, more than Bird and "Magic" put together.

Bailey garnered many honors in his four year career at Rutgers. He was first team All Atlantic and a member of the All Atlantic Tournament Team in each of his last three seasons, Tournament MVP in his senior year, Atlantic Player of the Year in his last two seasons, winner of the Donald Courson Trophy as the top male athlete in the Class of 1980, and a first team All American in his last two seasons. His team won ninety five games and lost only twenty eight. The Knights were fifty and three at home.

Bailey was drafted sixth in the first round of the June 1979 N.B.A. draft by the world champion Seattle Supersonics. Chosen ahead of James were Earvin "Magic" Johnson, David Greenwood, Bill Cartwright, Greg Kelser, and Sidney Moncrief.

The defending champion Supersonics finished with the second best record in league in Bailey’s rookie season. They defeated Portland and Milwaukee, but lost to division rival and eventual league champions Los Angeles in the Conference Finals. In his only playoff appearance, Bailey was assigned to guard the legendary Kareem Abul Jabbar. Bailey became a starter after an injury to Lonnie Shelton. He had his best season in 1980-1, despite his team’s tumble to the cellar of the Pacific Division. Playing in all eighty two games, he established career highs in nearly all scoring and defensive categories. It was during that year that he hit his only three point shot (out of thirteen attempts.) During his third season, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets, who finished third in their division.

Bailey was traded in his fourth season to the Houston Rockets, who finished last in the league. During that year Bailey led the team in field goal percentage. Bailey replaced the legendary Elvin Hayes in the lineup. At the time, Hayes was the all-time NBA leader in minutes played and third all-time in points scored. The Rockets were a little better in the 83-84 season, finishing next to last in the league. Bailey was traded a third time in 1984 to the New York Knicks, who finished (you guessed it), next to last. It only got worse the next year when the Knicks were in the basement of the NBA. Bailey was shipped across the river to New Jersey in 1986. Again, Bailey’s team finished next to last. In his last NBA season, 1987-88, he finally got out of the cellar, but barely. The Phoenix Suns won one out of three games and finished as the fifth worst team. In his seven-year career, James Bailey scored 5246 points and amassed 2988 rebounds. After his last season in the NBA, Bailey played in Europe until his knees finally gave out.

On the night of February 8, 1993, thousands of his fans and twelve of his former teammates turned out to honor James Bailey with the retirement of his number 20 jersey. Bailey is only one of three Scarlet Knights to have been accorded such a high honor. That same year, James was one of the initial five inductees into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame. He was joined by the late Jim Valvano, legendary N.C. State basketball coach and colorful sportscaster. Bailey still lives in the area today and keeps himself physically fit by drag racing in Englishtown.

Unfortunately for James Bailey and the game of basketball, James was never surrounded in the NBA with the talent he had playing with him at Rutgers University. Consequently, he never realized his true potential. Whether you call him, "J.B.," "King James," or "Jammin James," James Bailey, during the last half of the 1970s, was one of the most dominating centers in college basketball.

WILLIE JONES - ALL AMERICAN

One former Dubliner took a keen interest in Florida State University’s victory in last month’s national college championship in the Sugar Bowl. Willie Jones played for the Seminoles in the 1970s, when winning seasons were few and far between. Willie Jones, born in Dublin on November 22, 1957, spent his first decade of life here, attending Susie Dasher School and playing football. At the age of twenty one, he was one of the best defensive college players in the country.

Willie’s mother, Daisy Jones, worked long and hard hours at the Canady Restaurant and Motel in East Dublin. Willie’s sister worked with their mother. In the latter years of the 1960s, the Jones family left their home and went south - about as far south as one can go in the continental United States. The Jones family established their home in Homestead, Florida, just south of Miami. Willie attended South Dade High School, where he was a two-sport star in football and basketball. Willie’s size and speed led to his being awarded a scholarship to play football at Florida State.

Willie started in his freshman year at Florida State in 1975. At six feet four inches tall and two hundred and forty pounds, he was small as defensive lineman go. His speed was one of his best assets. In his first season, the last for head coach Darrell Mutra, the Seminoles had a dismal record of three wins and eight losses. In that year and the two years before, the Seminoles won only four games out of thirty three. The football program was in trouble. The university had to find someone to turn the program around.

School officials hired a coach, who had coached winning teams at Samford and West Virginia. Sportswriters called the period before his arrival in January of 1976 as "B.B.," before Bowden. In his first season at Florida State, Coach Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles won five games and lost six. Jones again started at defensive end in 1976 and gained his first honor of being named to the All South Independent team. In his junior year in 1977, Jones was named to the All-South Independent Team and as an honorable mention on the Associated Press’s All-American team. The Seminoles had their best season in many years, going ten and two with impressive victories over bitter rivals, Auburn and Florida. Jones played in his first and only bowl game, the Tangerine Bowl, following his team’s best season. For his outstanding play in the 40-17 stomping of Texas Tech, Willie Jones was named the game’s most valuable defensive player.

A collage painting of Willie Jones graced the cover of the 1978 Florida State Press Guide. School boosters and Coach Bowden touted Jones as one of the best defensive ends in the country. Opposing quarterbacks and running backs feared the big number 88 on the garnet red jersey. Offensive tackles did everything they could to keep him out of the backfield. The 1978 Seminoles slipped to eight and three, though two of their losses to Houston and Pittsburgh were by a total of ten points. Once again, the Seminoles dominated their bitter intrastate rivals, the Florida Gators. Willie Jones was on everyone’s All-America list. For the third straight year, Jones was named to the All South Independent Team. He was named Southern Lineman of the Week for his outstanding performance against Southern Mississippi. The United Press named Willie to its Second All American Team. The Associated Press and the Sporting News gave Jones honorable mentions on their collegiate all star rosters.

Following his successful career at Florida State, Jones was selected to play in college football’s top two All Star games. In the Senior Bowl, the granddaddy of college football all-star games, Jones sacked the North quarterbacks six times and garnered the Most Valuable Player Award. In doing so, Jones became the second Dubliner to win the coveted award. Twenty years earlier, Theron Sapp, Dublin born, Brewton raised, and a Georgia Bulldog legend at running back, won the same award. Jones was selected to play for the East team in the Hula Bowl in the paradise of Hawaii.

Professional scouts took notice of Willie Jones’s ability. The Oakland Raiders selected Jones as their first pick, which came in the second round of the 1979 NFL draft. As a rookie, Jones played in all sixteen of the Raider games, nine of which were victories. They included a fifty to nineteen romp over the Falcons, who were only slightly better than they were last season. In his sophomore season, Willie again played defensive end in all of the Raider’s sixteen games. The Raiders improved their record in 1980 to eleven wins with only five regular season losses. The Raiders breezed by Houston in the Wild Card game, squeaked by the Browns 14 to12 in the Divisional playoff, and defeated intrastate rival San Diego 34 to 27 to win the AFC Championship and a berth in Super Bowl XV in the New Orleans Super Dome on January 25, 1981. The Raiders were the first team in NFL history to play in the Super Bowl after beginning the playoffs as a wild-card team.

The 1980 Raiders were a tough defensive team. They led the league in interceptions, ranked sixth in fumbles caused, and stymied their opponents in the last half of the season. Willie Jones scored his second and last career touchdown when he scooped up a fumble and ran it into the San Diego end zone in the second game of the season. Wearing number 90, he played left defensive end behind legendary Oakland Raider, John Matuzak. Also playing with Jones in that 1980 season were Hall of Famers, Art Shell, Gene Upshaw, Ray Guy, and Ted Hendricks. Several other members of that team will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in the future.
Oakland jumped out to a 14 to 0 lead over the Philadelphia Eagles after the first quarter. This wasn’t the first NFL title game that a Dubliner had played in. Once again, Theron Sapp beat Jones to that honor when he played for the Philadelphia Eagles in their defeat of Vince Lombardi’s powerful Green Bay Packers in the 1960 NFL Championship game. The Eagles managed to put a field goal on the board in the second stanza, but fell behind to Oakland by the score of 24 to 3 after the end of the third quarter. A fourth quarter field goal ended the scoring and when Willie Jones intense pass rush forced Eagle quarterback Jaworski into throwing an interception. That fatal mistake iced the 27 to 10 victory for the Raiders in the first of only two victories by a wild card team in the Super Bowl game.

Willie Jones played in only eight games in his third and final season with the Oakland Raiders in 1981. The Raiders failed to defend their Super Bowl championship. They posted a seven and nine record and failed to make the playoffs. In 1989, Willie Jones was elected to the Florida State Athletic Hall of Fame.

THE LONNIE WOODUM STORY

ODE TO JIGGS
The Lonnie Woodum Story

Fifty five years is a long time. But Bob Evans hasn't forgotten his best friend. He can't. Hardly a day goes by that Bob doesn't remember the good times in the Brooklyn neighborhood and at Washington Street School. Those places are all but gone now, but Evans still remembers the days when 'Jiggs" Woodum was a young boy, free of all care, running like the wind, with his whole life in front of him. Little did either of the young men realize that Jigg's life would soon end in the second worst non battle naval disaster in American history.

Lonnie Gene "Jiggs" Woodum was born to his biological mother, Miss Mary Thomas. Miss Mary was a well-built attractive woman with a beautiful bronze complexion," Evans remembered. Mrs. Gussie Woodum raised Lonnie as her own son and gave him her name. Evans recalled that Mrs. Woodum was a strong mother figure to the boys and girls in the neighborhood. Mrs. Gussie, when she wasn't working in her restaurant on South Jefferson Street next to the Express Office, kept the neighborhood kids in line. "Often he and I would fight," Bob remembered, "and she would let us," Evans said. Bob usually came out on the short end of the stick after the pugilistic playing was over.

Just how Lonnie came to be known as "Jiggs," is unknown even to his best friend Bob. It could have come from the comic book strip, Maggie & Jiggs, or maybe it was just one of those names that kids make up. The nickname stuck and Jiggs quickly became a legend around Washington Street School and in Brooklyn, the name for a neighborhood bounded on the west by South Jefferson Street and Rowe Street and Belfry and Gray streets on the east. He was strong and fast. He could outrun any kid in Brooklyn.

The inseparable Jiggs and Bob played with their close buddies Curtis Kinsey, Douglas Williams, and Ernest Smith, all of whom were separated by five months in age. They played basketball together when they could find a goal. They played football together, except for Curtis and Douglas who played for Washington Street School, the forerunner of Oconee High School.

As Jiggs began to grow, Evans noticed that Jiggs was a fully developed with sprinters' legs, a small waistline, and large muscular thighs which went along with his strong upper body frame. "Jiggs was born with speed," Bob recalled. His coaches noticed. And, Jiggs was invited to join the football team at Washington Street in 1950. Although he was only a second-string halfback, the young Jiggs often played with the junior and senior starters. Not only a talented football player, Jiggs possessed a powerful pitching arm to compliment his blazing speed on the baseball diamond. Evans, the Oconee High School Historian, rates Woodum as one the three fastest athletes in the history of both Washington Street and Oconee High Schools.

In 1951, Jiggs, rotating in and out with the other halfbacks, helped his team to win the championship. His last season for the Oconee Trojans came in 1952 when he started at halfback. Jiggs often mentored Evans and other young players by giving them constructive criticism and suggesting better ways to carry out their assignments. But Jiggs wasn't just all about football. He liked to play jokes when he got the chance on his fellow teammates.

Sometime shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Jiggs enlisted in the United States Navy. His country still at war, Jiggs wanted to do his part. Bob Evans remembered Jiggs coming home after a Mediterranean cruise aboard the U.S.S. Bennington. "He brought me some exotic cologne and two terry cloth shirts with a printed photo of the aircraft carrier," Evans fondly recalled. "He jokingly told me that the cologne would really attract the girls, which it actually did," his old friend said. Jiggs, possibly in hopes that Bob would join the Navy too, told him about the military life, its benefits and the pleasures of travel. Today, Bob Evans remains proud of Jiggs, the sailor, the American patriot.

Jiggs was assigned to duty as a TA aboard the Bennington, a World War II Essex style carrier. The Bennington had been assigned to duties in the Mediterranean Theater, where American military presence was still necessary in post war Europe and with the emerging troubles in the Middle East.

It was a average morning on May 26, 1954. The crew of the Bennington was beginning to go about their duty of conducting flight trials from the carrier deck. At 0611 hours, a series of explosions racked the forward third of the ship. Total terror ensued. Many of the men aboard were just waking up from a good night's sleep. It was not a drill. Richard Pope remembered a black man, possibly Jiggs, coming down the ladder to sick bay. Completely naked, his clothes burned off his body, the man begged Pope to go and help his buddy. Those were his last words. He died in the arms of the operating room corpsman. "In my mind, he was a hero. Whether he ever received a medal, I can't say, he was not easy to identify," Pope recalled in 1992.

When the final casualty counts were taken, one hundred and four men, including Jiggs were dead. One hundred and thirty-nine others were injured, and some suffering terrible burns over their entire bodies. Jigg's body was brought home and buried beside that of his adopted mother, Mrs. Gussie, in Dudley Cemetery in Dublin.

But Jiggs wasn't just a athlete or a sailor. He was a singer. Jiggs sung the tenor parts in the Oconee High School choir, which won many competitions during those years.

Jiggs sung the tenor parts in the Oconee High School choir, which won many competitions during those years.

Not every graduate of Oconee High School knew Lonnie "Jiggs" Woodum. But, they do know his words. Jigg's lyrics were selected to become the words for the Oconee High School alma mater; "School of love and charity, we lift our voice in praise to thee. And in our heart you are the best, we'll always love you O.H.S.. So I'll fight and win what 'er the battle be. The blue and gold thy sons shall 'er defend. And loyal to the voice of love attend,
Oconee, Oconee, Oconee, I love you."

Lonnie Woodum's non combative accidental death was none the less brave, none the less tragic. Jiggs was a victim of a war, the Cold War. And, because we were robbed of his friendship and his talents, we were victims as well. So, on this Memorial Day, let us remember Jiggs and the hundreds of other Laurens Countians who have given their lives so that we can be free.