WHEN THEY WERE TROJANS

LEAVING THEIR MARK

When They Were Trojans

They came down the street and across the miles. They had been there before and left their marks. On this past Saturday morning, they came to mark "the sacred ground, the holy ground," the place where they attended Oconee High School and learned the life lessons of love, faith, and service to others. They came to remember the time when they were Trojans.


Former students, faculty members, and friends of Oconee High School gathered together for the dedication of a historical marker on the site of the former school which stood at the intersection of Vine and Oconee Streets from 1952 to 1970. When Dublin city councilman Jerry Davis, a graduate of Oconee High School, returned home to Dublin, he set out on a mission to mark the location of the school, the largest part of which had been torn down decades before.

After an application to the state of Georgia was rejected on the grounds that the school was not significant as a historical place on a statewide basis, an undeterred Davis turned to his friends and fellow alumni to erect a marker which would forever signify the location of the place which fellow student, the Rev. Richard Sheffield, declared as "holy."

After a welcome by Barbara Watkins James, '62, the Rev. Sheffield, Chairman of the Dublin City Board of Education, prayed, "Let love touch our hearts with love and charity." The 1966 graduate saw himself and others as they gathered in front of the old school as children trying to understand and learn. He asked that every time a child and its mother passed by, the child would ask, "What is Oconee High School"? - to which the mother would respond that it was a place of the heritage of education. Chairman Sheffield sees Dublin High School as an extension of Oconee High and as a place where even more focus should be made by the community, and especially parents, on education, so that the schools can be a place where every child can learn.

Davis, the alumni association's 2nd vice president, thanked those present and all who contributed to the effort, the alumni, the city, and the Laurens County Historical Society. The councilman fondly remembered the days when the school was the hub of the community and community activities and saluted the school's alumni association for continuing to be a beacon of light when the community has fallen into a state of disrepair and for continuing to represent a spirit of excellence. Davis, Class of '69, spoke of the students and faculty with pride and hopes that the marker will inspire others to emulate the achievements of Oconee alumni and continue to make a difference on the local, state and national stages.

Dublin Mayor Pro Tem, Julie Drigger, saluted those present as trailblazers and encouraged the graduates to remember and pass down their heritage by saying, "No one can take that away from you. Never forget where you come from and you will always know where you are going."

School board member, Laura Travick, challenged the gathering, "If we don't leave a mark, no one who passes this way will know these holy grounds and where many got their start in education." Mrs. Travick concluded, "They will know what this ground meant to the people to the people of Dublin."

Assistant Superintendent Elgin Dixon sees the marker as telling the story about those who have come before them and paved the way.

Charles Manning, principal of Oconee High School from 1959 to 1970, praised the strong alumni association and his former students, "Statewide, we were small, but we always gave our best in everything we did. Mr. Manning urged his students to continue their loyalty to Oconee. He counseled his former students to hold to the truth of being a Trojan. As he looked into the sun beyond the gymnasium, which still stands, Manning can still see the football games, with players like Richard Sheffield. "Oconee has always been the best," principal Manning concluded.

Oconee High School Alumni National Alumni Chairman Darlene Blocker, '70, invited representatives of each class to come forward to cut the cover of the marker in the style of cutting the net after a championship basketball game. One by one they came forward, from those who attended in the early days until those who left Oconee to attend Dublin High, and began to cut away and unveil the marker.

Dr. Jerome V. Pearson, a successful Rome, Georgia physician, Class of '71, finished the operation to unveil the southern side of the marker which features the words of Seaman Lonnie Woodum, Class of 1954. Woodum, the author of the school's alma mater, tragically lost his life in a naval accident just months after his graduation. The northern side of the marker outlines a brief history of the origin and life at Oconee High School and the days when the Trojans represented a spirit of excellence in education, sports and community service, a spirit which still lives today.

Jerry Davis

                                                               Barbara Watkins James

Rev. Richard Sheffield

Principal Charles Manning

Darlene Christian Blocker

Merita Walters Evans

                                                              Dr. Jerome V. Pearson

                                                            Clinton and Bobbie Lowther



MARKER CONTRIBUTORS

Oconee Alumni

Sanford Howard, '54
Loise McLendon Stroman, '55
Julian E. Thomas, '55
Bonese Thomas, '56
Betty Brown Williamson, '60
Ecleamus Ricks, '61
Charles Robinson, Jr. '61
Barbara Watkins James, '62
Merita Walters Evans, '64
Thomas "Ted" Pooler, '64
Donnie Christian Perryman, '65
Russell Bruce Simmons, '65
Johnny Vaughn, '65
Robert L. Mason, Jr. '67
Jerry Davis, '69
Darlene Christian Blocker, '70

Faculty

Lucille Wade

Others

Clinton Lowther

Scott B. Thompson, Sr.

Organizations

Civic Social Ten of Dublin-Laurens County
Southside Community Association, Inc.

Oconee High School National Alumni Association

OCONEE HIGH SCHOOL, GRAND REUNION, 2011

A LIVING AND LASTING LEGACY

Everywhere you looked last Saturday evening in the banquet room of the Dubose Porter Center, you saw legacies. There were legacies finished. And, there were legacies still in progress. Some legacies had yet to be started. In just eighteen years, the teachers of Oconee High School planted the seeds which grew into legacies of faith, hope, dedication and love of community and country. Barbara Sanders Thomas, (left) the keynote speaker for the evening, spoke of where her desires to leave a legacy began and challenged her fellow alumni to do just that - to think back and to always think forward for the future of the world we all leave behind.



The Oconee High School National Alumni Association was organized by former students and faculty to preserve the OHS legacy of excellence, spirit, and pride through sponsorship of events and reunions; promoting education through scholarships and training; supporting the welfare of people and communities; providing a presence and voice when needed; and maintaining visibility in the city of Dublin at large. The theme of this year's reunion is "Building on the Trojan Legacy While Embracing Current and Future Challenges."

Presiding over the evening festivities with comical humor and charming wit, was Robert L. Brown, Jr., '69, a noted Atlanta architect and business leader. (Left) James Fambrough,'65, welcomed more than two hundred and fifty alumni, their guests and friends. Minister Cheryl May-Holmes, '66 gave an inspirational invocation. Another member of the Class of '66, Rosalyn Clark Gray, spoke of the occasion of the evening.

Introducing the keynote speaker for the evening was Ann Sanders Stephens, '60,(left) who introduced her sister, Barbara Sanders Thomas. Mrs. Thomas, a 25-year veteran of CBS Radio and the company's first African-American female vice-president, challenged the alumni to keep the name of Oconee alive and to continue the legacy of building the Trojan theme. She thanked Cheryl May-Holmes and others for helping her to reconnect to the alumni organization.

"We are all warriors, we have been trained by the best, the teachers and staff of Oconee. They taught us to never give up even if we had to disguise our strength, as the Greek warriors did, to accomplish our goal," Thomas said as she spoke of the legacy passed to her while she was a student at Oconee. Her role models at Oconee were principal Charles Manning  (Left) and teachers, Nellie Coleman and Marine Bacote. "They made me believe I could do anything I wanted to do," she fondly recalled. After serving with CBS in its finance department, Thomas took a new life course. "I took an early retirement and decided that what I wanted to do with my life was to go out and help nonprofit corporations," she proclaims. As for the future, Barbara proclaimed, "There's a lot of work ahead of me, a lot of work I want to do."

The theme of Thomas's speech was, "What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind when you die?" "Every life leaves a legacy. If you leave a legacy that is greater than you, and if you want to leave a legacy that will impact generation after generation, and if you live your life to leave something that will be great, all you need is wrapped up in three, profoundly simple yet inspiringly deep, thoughts: I fought the good fight. I finished the race. And, I kept the faith," Thomas asserted.

She called upon the legacy leavers and reminded them, "We are stewards of this world. We should leave this world better than we found it." In reminding those present of their legacy leavers, Thomas said, "We are the legacies of the teachers of Oconee High School. We are the fruits of their labor."

Although Barbara Thomas has enjoyed much success in her business career, she told all, "I don't want to be a legend, I want to live to leave a legacy." In comparing a legacy to a reputation, the Executive Director of the National MBA Foundation said, "A reputation is made in a moment. A legacy is built in a lifetime."

Thomas outlined the steps of determining your legacy; Understand your legacy. Chose your legacy. Focus on your legacy. Establish a life sentence. Live your legacy.

As a child Barbara wanted to be a pastor. Later she wanted to be a great communicator. Now she says, "I want to add value to leaders, leaders who will multiply value to others." She encouraged everyone to take time to learn as much as you can and to pass that knowledge onto your children and their children. "We are the baton passers who pass that information on." Mrs. Thomas concluded.

Robert L. Mason, Jr., '67, (left)  recognized the former Miss Oconees in attendance. President Darlene Blocker, '70 and 2nd vice-president Jerry Davis, '69,   made special presentations to those in attendance, including John W. Tillman, who traveled the longest distance, all the way from Texas. The classes of 1966 and 1968 tied for the most members in attendance.

A special recognition was given to principal Charles W. Manning. Manning, who in 1959 succeeded Lucius D, Bacote, as the second and only other principal of Oconee High School, which opened in 1952 and closed in 1970 when Dublin city schools were integrated.

Eclemus Ricks was presented an award for his most generous contribution to the Alumni Association's work. The Trojan Award, which epitomizes the spirit of Oconee High School was awarded to Dublin city councilman, Jerry Davis, (left) who tirelessly worked to put on the event and placement of the historical marker. President Blocker gave the President's Award to Jerry Chapman for his work on behalf of the Alumni Association.

Awards were presented to those who contributed to the placement of a historical marker on the site of the school. The ceremony took placed earlier in the day as scheduled. Unfortunately, the carrier lost the sign, which will be formally dedicated at a later date.

President Blocker (left) thanked all of those who participated in putting the 2011 reunion together. The evening's ceremonies ended with a rousing rendition of Oconee's Alma Mater led by Odis Brower, '63. The school song was written by the late Lonnie Gene Woodum, USN, who lost his life aboard the U.S.S. Bennington in the service of our country in 1954.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

James Fambrough

Oconee Chorale

Oconee Chorale

Odis Brower

Rosalyn Clark Gray

Ann Sanders Stephens, Barbara Sanders Thomas

WILLIAM MERIDA HUBBARD

Georgia's Booker T. Washington

William Merida Hubbard wasn't Booker T. Washington. But, he is as close to the iconic educator as the State of Georgia, and especially Central Georgia, ever had. William was born into poverty and died one of the wealthiest men in the state. His wealth was not measured in the thickness of his wallet or the digits in his bank accounts, but by the thousands and thousands of students who were given opportunities to learn a trade through is undying devotion to education.



William Merida Hubbard was born in Wilkinson County, Georgia on July 19, 1865, just months after the end of the Civil War. His parents, Edinboro and Betsy Hubbard, both natives of Virginia, worked as slaves until they received their freedom after the end of hostilities.



From his earliest years, William yearned to learn. Living in the South in the decades following the war was not easy for any family, black or white. Black farmers were relegated to inequitable share cropping or rent agreements. Getting ahead was impossible. Getting by was wonderful. William toiled on farms, often earning as much as six dollars a month, to finance his tuition at Ballard Normal School in Macon. William worked hard in his studies. Success came soon and often, despite the need to constantly keep working at odd jobs to stay in school.



William Hubbard began his educational career by teaching two terms at Calvary Hill School near his hometown of Irwinton. Professor Hubbard graduated from Ballard School in 1891 and entered Fiske University in Nashville, Tennessee.



Before his graduation from Fiske, Hubbard taught three terms in Monroe County, Georgia and a single term in Jacksonville, Florida. After his graduation from Cornell University, Professor Hubbard taught in Cuthbert, Georgia for four years before finally settling down in Forsyth, Georgia, where he found the ideal place for his wife, the former Mollie Helena Worthy, who frequently suffered from ill health.



Although Hubbard was trained as an educator, he attempted to make a living at photography, a rare occupation for a young black man at the turn of the 20th Century in the rural South. Adequate schools were rare in the poor regions of Middle Georgia for either of the races. So in the mean time, William Hubbard took pictures to support his family.



In 1902, a minister and several friends encouraged William to return to teaching. The minister of the Kynett Methodist Church arranged an agreement whereby Hubbard would teach seven students in exchange for allowing him to maintain his photographic gallery in the basement of the church. Described as a "shabby, forlorn building with holes in the floor and more wind inside than out," Hubbard's first school would eventually, with the aid of generous white citizens of Forsyth, became the Forsyth Normal and Industrial School in a meager building on ten acres of land. In the early years, Professor Hubbard worked day and night, often performing most of the duties and spending his own meager money to keep the school open, all on a salary of five to six dollars a month.



Hubbard's primary mission was to educate the black youth of Monroe County to become teachers. The school, after adding 10th and 11th grade classes, was accredited in 1917. In the following year, the Forsyth school became the State of Georgia's first vocational school for African-American students. That same year, Professor Hubbard and his students were saluted for doing their share to win World War I. The students maintained 35 mini-farms and raised two hundred head of hogs and several hundred chickens in support of the war effort.



The Georgia legislature enacted a law in 1922 to make the Forsyth Normal and Industrial School the state's School of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts for the Training of Negroes. Five years later, the school officially became a junior college. The elation of that distinction was dampened by the total loss of the main building in a fire.



In 1931, the State of Georgia changed the name of the school to State Teachers and Agricultural College for Negroes, one of the three state colleges for African Americans in the university system. Many of the teaching graduates were sent to positions in the Rosenwald schools in the state.



Hubbard sought out donations and began a bold building program. By the mid 1930s, the Hubbard Alumni Association records show that several brick buildings were completed, including an auditorium, the president's house, an administration building, gymnasium, and home economics buildings as well as adequate dormitories.



State Teachers Agricultural College was closed in 1938 and was effectively merged with the nearby Fort Valley State College. William Hubbard continued to work at Fort Valley State as a director of public relations until his last illness.



The facilities were turned over to the Monroe County School system. Samuel Hubbard, William's son, carried on his father's legacy until the early 1970s. Today, most of the school's buildings are gone, but the Hubbard Alumni Association continues to honor the undying legacy of the school's founder. The Alumni Association and the Monroe Board of Education helped to establish a museum and cultural center in the former Women's dormitory. The museum and the old teacher's cottage were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.



William and Mollie Hubbard had six children, Dr. Leola Peoples, Maceo Hubbard, Ruth Hubbard, Samuel Hubbard, Ruth Birchette, and Clifton Hubbard.



William Merida Hubbard died on March 22, 1941. Seven weeks after his death, Fort Valley State held a memorial service in his honor. In attendance was Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge, who paid tribute to Hubbard as "a man of sincerity and simplicity who always honored his obligations." Talmadge saluted Hubbard's work in advancing education of Negroes and called for more educators like him. Two of Fort Valley State's newest male dorms, which cost students a monthly rent of seven dollars, were dedicated in Hubbard's honor during the ceremonies.



William Merida Hubbard overcame the obstacles in his way for all of his seventy years on earth. A devout Christian who desperately attempted to devoid himself from politics, William Hubbard kept his faith in the precious abilities of the human mind and triumph of a good education.

Dublin Pedestrians

Circa 1930-1940s.

A TIME OF CHANGE

A Dublin Man's Role in a Moment of History -

The Integration of the University of Georgia


Forty five years ago today the faces of students at the University of Georgia changed forever. In the midst of a political turmoil and mercifully without the infliction of violent attacks, two African-American students entered the halls of the University of Georgia. There to make sure the process was completed was a former Adrian and Dublin man, who was the Assistant Registrar of the University of Georgia. This is the story of Paul Kea and his role in one of the most momentous moments in Georgia History, the integration of the University of Georgia.

For a hundred and sixty five years every student attending the University of Georgia was white. For that matter, every educational institution in the entire state was segregated. In the early years of the state, colleges and universities were segregated between the sexes. With the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education, it was only a matter of time before admission to the University of Georgia could not be conditioned upon the race of the applicant. Beginning in 1943 under a grant in aid program, Georgia paid the surpluses of out of state colleges and universities over state institutions to Negro students attending school outside the state.

The first attempt to integrate the University of Georgia came in 1957 when Horace Ward's law suit was thrown out of court. Charlayne Hunter, an outstanding student at Atlanta's Turner High School, was approached by black Atlanta civic leaders to challenge the University of Georgia's ban on black students. She joined classmate Hamilton Holmes in applying for admission for the year 1959-60. Both were turned down. Hunter enrolled in Wayne State University in Michigan and Holmes attended nearby Morehouse College.

Beginning in 1959 the University hired Paul Kea as the Assistant Registrar and Assistant Director of Admissions. Paul Randolph Kea was born on September 5, 1925 in Adrian, Georgia. The youngest child of Fitzhugh Lillian Kea and Dora Vivian Proctor, Paul Kea attended school in Adrian. His oldest half brother, Morris Dawson Kea, was Laurens County's longest serving attorney. His family lived on Railroad Street. His parents worked day and night to help the family through the depths of the depression. Paul worked in his father's grocery store. The Kea house was always filled with music. Mrs. Kea taught music to the kids of Adrian. In the late spring and during the summer Paul enjoyed swimming in the refreshing waters of the Ohoopee River near Captain James's well. He wrote passionate and reminiscent poems about his coming of age in the then sleepy village, once a bustling railroad center.

Paul Kea served his country in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, he returned home to Dublin, where he worked as a staff announcer at radio station WMLT. While in Dublin, Kea, a talented writer in his own right, taught English in the Laurens County School system. He later taught in Clarke and Oglethorpe counties as well as in the city system of Jefferson, Georgia.

Both Hunter and Holmes continued to make applications for admission on a quarterly basis. Each time they were turned down. Holmes underwent an oral interview by Registrar Walter Danner, Director of Admissions Morris Phelps and Kea. On the basis of hearsay information transmitted to him through Danner, Kea quizzed Holmes about his criminal record. Holmes denied any guilt and without proof of the allegation, Kea dropped the matter. The officials asked Holmes if he had attended interracial parties or patronized beatnik joints. Based on the results of their interview, Holmes was turned down again for admission in the fall of 1960. The interview with Hunter went more smoothly. Though declining her admission in the fall, Kea and Danner did not discount her possible acceptance at a later date as the student body had reached its limit.

With the aid of out of state attorneys, Hunter and Holmes filed a suit in Federal court seeking immediate admission to the university. When Federal marshals could not find Registrar Danner to serve the lawsuit, Paul Kea was added as a defendant. Kea was served as a university official and as an individual defendant. A hearing on their claim was postponed from September to mid December. State Attorney General Eugene Cook, a former resident of Dublin and Wrightsville and a proponent of segregation, represented the State of Georgia. The matter was heard by Federal District Court Judge W.A. Bootle.

One of the first witnesses called to the stand was Paul Kea. Kea was grilled by the plaintiff's attorneys on the standards for admission. One letter after another and totaling near a hundred were shown to Kea for identification. Many of them related to letters by white students, who were denied admission in 1960, but were instructed to reapply or were advised to enroll in other state colleges for later admission to the university. Nearly three weeks later on January 6, 1961, Judge Bootle ordered university registrars to admit both Hunter and Holmes.

The university's first black students arrived in Athens on January 9, 1961. As they entered the registrar's office they were taunted and jeered. Inside the front door, they were met by Kea who processed their paperwork without delay. Though their first days were violence free, a minor altercation arose two days later outside Hunter's dormitory. Athens police restored order and both Hunter and Holmes were suspended from the school and escorted back to their homes in Atlanta for their own safety. The duo were reinstated a few days later and seemingly all enmity died away.

Charlayne Hunter, who did build some lasting friendships with fellow students, graduated in 1963 with a degree in journalism. Hunter became a world renown journalist with the New York Times and a television journalist on the MacNeil Lehrer on PBS and a bureau chief for CNN. Hamilton Holmes graduated the same year with a degree in science. He became the first African-American student to attend the medical school at Emory University. Holmes, an orthopedic surgeon, died in 1995. At his death, he was the Associate Dean of the Emory University School of Medicine.

In 1968, Paul Kea was promoted to the co-ordinator of Continuing Education Programs at the College of Education. He served in that position for 27 years until his untimely death at the age of 58 on June 12, 1984. He is buried in Northview Cemetery in Dublin.

SPIKE LEE

Spike Lee explores his Georgia roots on tonight’s NBC show ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’


1:21 pm April 30, 2010, by Rodney Ho

Tonight, filmmaker Spike Lee will journey through the South to explore his ancestral roots on the NBC shot “Who Do You Think You Are?” And he digs through parts of Middle Georgia to find out.

The Morehouse College grad’s grandmother lived in Dublin, GA. In the first 10 minutes of the episode I screened, he goes down to Dublin and meets Atlanta University Center assistant archivist Melvin Collier at the Dublin library to get information about his great great grandmother Lucinda Jackson, who was born into slavery and died in 1934.

Collier, who said he spent eight hours with Lee that day, helped him find a newspaper obituary for Jackson, which named her three sons (including his great grandfather) but not Lucinda’s husband. He found the name on the death certificate, which was Mars.

He named his character in his first major film “She’s Gotta Have It” Mars, inspired by his grandmother, who died in 2006 at age 100. He recalled her saying that Mars was the name of a “crazy uncle” but “she probably said he was a crazy grandfather.” Mars in the film is crazy, he noted.

Lee then goes to the Georgia Archives in Atlanta to find more information about Mars, another man born as a slave. He found out they were using Woodall in the 1880 census, that he changed his name to Jackson later.

The archivist Lee was working with surmises that his family may have been owned by James Woodall, a slave owner. He eventually found out his great great grandfather Mars owned 80 acres after he was freed from slavery. (Lee calls his production company “40 Acres and a Mule,” a reference to providing arable land to former slaves after the Civil War.)

Lee shows up on the land Mars had owned. “Red Georgia clay,” Lee mused. “In tribute to Mars, I had sent to me what I wore in my first film, ‘She’s Gotta Have It.’ ”

“To go from a slave to a land owner?” Lee said. “Now I know where my family gets that entrepreneurial spirit!”

Lee later investigates his slave ancestors, discovering he may be a descendant of a slave owner. He meets a possible relative he didn’t expect to find.

“I always knew who I am,” he said. “Now I know more.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Who Do You Think You Are? Featured Spike Lee Going South in the Season Finale


Published April 30, 2010 by: Roy A. Barnes

ho Do You Think You Are? featured Spike Lee on NBC on Friday night's season finale. The filmmaker-actor looked for his roots in Georgia and Texas, trying to find out more about his mother's slave ancestry. The filmmaker's mother, Jacqelyn Carroll Shelton Lee, died when Spike Lee was 19, and his grandmother Zimmie, known as "Momma", became the guiding force in his life as she put him through college, film school and helped him fund his first movie. "Momma" died in 2006. This episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was quite moving. The time frame goes back some 150 years, when people were owned by others.

Who Do You Think You Are? Featured Spike Lee Going South, Making Connections with the Georgia Earth

Spike Lee admitted that he regrets not being more inquisitive about his very distant roots, not putting "Momma" on camera to discuss this subject of ancestry. After visiting his mother's grave, he heads to Dublin, Georgia to find out more about his family roots. He found out about Zimmie's grandmother Lucinda, who had 3 kids with a man named Mars. Ironically, "Momma" gave Spike Lee the "Mars" name for a character in She's Gotta Have It. Through further research in Atlanta, it was found out on Who Do You Think You Are? that both Lucinda and Mars were slaves, owned by a man named James Woodall, of Twiggs County, Georgia. Yet the research at the Georgia State Archives found that Woodall's slaves weren't even specifically named in the slave census schedule, and only counted as 3/5 of a person.

Spike Lee was alerted about Mars Woodall (later surname Jackson) being listed as a farmer in the 1880 census, possibly because of the post-Civil War "40 acres and a mule" plan, which often wasn't implemented, according to the NBC season finale of Who Do You Think You Are? Further research found that Mars owned 80 acres of farmland and another 125 acres of various lands. The plantation owner James Woodall may have spoken well of his former slave, which helped him get land in a time and place where blacks were victims of hatred and prejudice in general. Who Do You Think You Are? saw Spike Lee visit his great great grandfather's land, a beautiful wooded area with water, dominated by red clay earth, which Spike Lee dug up some, feeling a connection with Mars, who mysteriously lost his land sometime after that census.

The Series Finale of Who Do You Think You Are? Featuring Spike Lee Brought Civil War History to the Forefront

As the show progressed, Spike Lee wanted to find out more about his great great grandmother Lucinda. He found out that her parents, Wilson and Matilda Griswold, took the name of their former owner Samuel Griswold, who owned a plantation in Griswoldville, Georgia, that's basically non-existent since it was destroyed by Union forces. It was determined that Matilda was a cook. Wilson was a skilled slave (who worked in a cotton gin factory and later a pistol factory for the Confederate Army) because he was mentioned by name in an old legal document, meaning he was valued highly. Later research on Who Do You Think You Are? showed that General William Tecumseh Sherman burned the plantation down and the and the factory, which Wilson worked at. Wilson may have been taken or killed by Sherman, but lots of questions remained unanswered on the NBC show.

Historian Bill Bragg showed the filmmaker-actor a Civil War era factory pistol that Wilson, Lee's great great great grandfather, may have actually help made. Bragg had one picture each of the slave-owning Samuel Griswold and his wife Louisa Griswold. The two looked very unhappy. As for Matilda, it was surmised through more research that Samuel was the father, as she was listed a "mulatto" in the records.

In the conclusion of Who Do You Think You Are?, Spike Lee got to meet a living being with Griswold blood, Guinevere Grier, in Arlington, Texas. They had a very nice and touching meeting, and were fine with apparently being 3rd cousins, twice removed. Grier revealed how much slavery and prejudice against blacks has hurt her. Spike Lee admitted that he can't love Samuel or Louisa Griswold because they owned other human beings, but he's more insightful about his family roots.

One of the strengths of this program on NBC is that it summarizes previous segments and lists the names of ancestors to help keep people from getting too confused. It was funny that Spike Lee had to slow down a bit and make sure he got all the "greats" in when talking about his distant grandparents.

Sources:

"Spike Lee", Who Do You Think You Are? April 30, 2010, NBC

DECLARATION OF DEATH

Georgia's Oldest Condemned Man

In the last eight decades, only six Laurens County men have been put to death by electrocution. Five of the executions took place in the 1940s. The final death by electrocution occurred in the fall of 1957. While all six of the men executed by the State of Georgia were black, half of the men were sentenced to death for killing a white victim, the other half for killing black women. This is the story of the final crime of Herbert Rozier, who at the age of seventy two, was the oldest man ever executed in the State of Georgia and perhaps one of the oldest man ever electrocuted by any state in the United States.

Early in the evening of April 15, 1943, Herbert Rozier came to the house of Essie Evans, his estranged wife . Rozier opened fire with a shot gun he stole from a trunk in the house of Lula Lord, Miss Iris Minton's washwoman. Essie's son Ed returned the fire. Rozier broke the latch on a window and attempted to enter the house. Essie and another son fled to the safety of a locked room. Frustrated and angry, Rozier left the house and commenced to take an axe and broke the windows and lights of the Evans car. He then took a knife and shredded nearly all of the car's upholstery. Ed Evans, his face still stinging from powder burns from Rozier's shot, fired a shot which inflicted a minor flesh wound on Rozier's left arm.

W.G. Davis and his family were sitting in their living room enjoying a fine spring evening and discussing what Warren the eldest son might be doing in the Navy. Suddenly a commotion was heard coming from Essie Evan's house about a thousand yards down the road. W.G. Davis heard gunshots. Thinking that he needed to quell the fracas, Davis grabbed his gun and said, "I'm going over there." His wife begged him to stay home. Moments later a gun shot rang out, followed by a trio of rapid shots.

As he approached the Rozier home, Davis encountered Herbert Rozier, a seventy-two year old itinerant farmer and frequent malefactor moving away from his estranged wife's house. "Herbert, what is the trouble up there," Davis asked?

Without a hint of a warning and without hesitation Rozier fired his shot gun into Davis's abdomen first with one shot and then fatally with three rapid blasts. Davis attempted to return the fire, but to no avail. Rozier sprinted toward the woods as fast as his septuagenarian body would allow. Davis managed to stumble about sixty three yards until he fell in front of the home of J.H. Davidson, Sr.. He called toward the house for help. With her husband sick in bed, Mrs. Davidson was afraid at first, but she and Alfred Maddox finally summoned her son, J.H. Davidson, Jr., to go out side to see what the matter was. William Henry Lee found old Herbert's shotgun in a ditch about twenty yards from the scene of the shooting. He would later present it to the sheriff, who ascertained that the gun had a cut shell still inside the chamber.

About that time, Walter Davis, the victim's son, came up his father and asked him who shot him. "Old Herbert Rozier shot me all to pieces and I am gone," the elder Davis moaned. Maddox, the younger Davidson and Walter Davis helped put the dying man into the Davidson car. The Davis and Davidson boys raced up the Telfair Road to Claxton's Hospital on Bellevue Avenue, where they were met by Dr. E.B. Claxton.

Dr. Claxton examined the victim and found Davis's entrails protruding from a wound below his ribs "large enough to get a person's hand in it." Claxton removed some packing and a large number of shot from Davis, but the patient succumbed around 2:10 the following morning. While still conscious, Davis was aware that he was dying. Just as if he knew all of the essential legal elements of a dying declaration, Davis calmly related the entire series of events of the moments leading up to his encounter with Rozier.

Deputy Sheriff Baum Wilkes raced to the crime scene. Bloodhounds were brought in to follow the scent of the suspect. A small army of deputies and state patrolmen combed the community for the whereabouts of Rozier. Deputy Wilkes went to the Henry Tolbridge house, where he knew Rozier had been earlier in the evening. His eyes constantly scanning for evidence, Wilkes observed blood on the floor of the inside of the house. The deputy followed a trail of blood back to the scene of the crime. Owing to the darkness of the night, Wilkes resumed his pursuit of the perpetrator the following morning. With the aid of Joe Guyton, Deputy Wilkes crossed the Turkey Creek bridge at the store and found Rozier hiding in a house about five miles from the murder scene. Rozier was armed. Guyton pleaded to the old man to surrender, which he did without resistance. Rozier, still wearing his blood stained jacket, confessed that he did it because he was mad that Ed Evans had shot him.

A day after his death, the body of W.G. Davis was funeralized at Bluewater Church. In his funeral, Rev. Claude Vines praised the memory of the Monroe native and popular farmer. Ben Burch, Douglas Shepard, W.H. Shuman, Coke Brown, W.P. Roche and Dee Sessions carried Davis's body to its final resting place in Northview Cemetery.

Herbert Rozier was taken to a Macon jail for safekeeping. Rufus I. Stephens was appointed to represent him in his murder trial. At the trial, Dr. Claxton, Walter Davis, Mrs. J.H. Davidson and J.H. Davidson, Jr. were allowed to testify as to the statements made by the victim. Each time Stephens repeated his objections to the testimony as hearsay. Hearsay statements are out of court statements made for the purpose of proving the truth of the statement. Normally, such statements are not allowed because the maker of the statement is not available for cross examination.

Obviously Davis couldn't be asked about what he said, because he was in the cemetery. But all rules have exceptions. Courts have always recognized a "dying declaration" as an exception to the hearsay rule. Statements made by one who is dying and knows they are dying have some degree of reliability and are admissable.

 

It is a question for the jury to determine the weight of the evidence, responded Solicitors James F. Nelson and Lester Watson.

Rozier was found guilty. His attorney appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia objecting the admissibility of Davis's statements and to the voluntariness  of Rozier's alleged confession. The court reasoned that Davis's declarations to the witnesses were admissible and that the testimony of Essie and Ed Evans corroborated Rozier's confession to Deputy Wilkes in unanimously upholding the trial court's verdict, declaring that Herbert Rozier must die.

On April 17, 1944, Wilkes accompanied Albert Curry, Davis's brother-in-law, and two of Davis's brothers to Tattnall State Prison near Reidsville to witness the execution of Herbert Rozier. Just after noon, Rozier, then seventy two years old, was strapped into the state's electric chair and put to death. Following the elimination of the electric chair as a means of execution, it is likely that Herbert Rozier of Laurens County, will remain as the oldest person in Georgia and one of the oldest in the nation to be executed by electrocution.