Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Holly Grove hosts research librarian By CAROLYN CARY ccary@TheCitizenNews.com As a Black History Month feature, the Holly Grove A.M.E. Church welcomed Janice White Sikes, the senior librarian at the Auburn Avenue Research Library. She is its expert on African-American culture and history. Speaking on the reconstruction era as regards African-Americans, she defined it as a "sense of what you can do." The abolitionist movement began in the 1840s and continued until the late 1860s. The African Methodist Episcopal church began in 1858 when a free-born black man, Bishop Henry McNeill Turner started the church. He served as the first chaplain for the Union colored troops. In 1861, at the start of the War Between The States, whites fled the plantations on Sea Island, among other places, and they were then run by the blacks working the property anyway. The Emancipation Proclamation was announced on Jan. 1, 1863 and is now known as "Jubilee Day." During this period of time, Savannah, Macon, and Augusta had more free blacks than any other Georgia city. Six black colleges were begun in Georgia by 1881 and although two of them have merged, they are still a viable place of education. "The Civil War issues," Sikes said, "were always about land and labor. There's not another way to put it." What do you think of this story? Click here to send a message to the editor. Back to the News Home Page| Back to the top of the page