Black History in Columbus

A timeline of prominent people and events in Columbus Black history

by Vivian Duncan

Horace King

Today, you can choose from a few different bridges to cross over into Phenix City from Columbus, but that was not always that case. In 1832, a contract for the construction of the first public bridge over the river, Dillingham Bridge, was given to John Godwin. When Godwin began building the bridge, he had Horace King at his side. King was born into slavery in South Carolina in 1807, but became known as a master builder in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. By the late 1870s, King had built his famous bridges over the Chattahoochee river, as well as the Flint River and the Oconee River. King was also known as a political figure later in life, having served in the Alabama legislature as a state representative from Russell County. After Godwin’s death in 1859, King erected a monument over his grave in Phenix City that reads: “This stone was placed here by Horace King, in lasting remembrance of the love and gratitude he felt for his lost friend and former master.” King’s name is still celebrated in southeastern architectural history.

Thomas Wiggins

Born in Columbus in 1849, Thomas Wiggins spent his childhood as a slave on the Columbus plantation of General James N. Bethune. Blind at birth, “Blind Tom” became capable of hearing an intricate musical composition and reproducing what he heard on the piano, seldom making a mistake. He was even more impressive as a musical prodigy, considering he had no musical instruction of any kind. “Blind Tom” was only eight years old when he started performing in the Columbus area. During the Civil War, he toured Europe as a young adult and is rumored to have performed for royalty. After the war, he performed across America and eventually came back to thrill audiences at the Columbus Springer Opera House. A state historic marker stands nearby on Warm Springs Road as a memorial to his talent.

Alma Thomas

Born in Columbus on Sept. 22, 1891, Alma Thomas had a childhood rich with culture and arts, but the prevalent racism and poor educational system caused the Thomas family to leave Georgia and move to Washington, D.C. After teaching art for several years, she studied costume design at Howard University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, becoming the first Howard University student and perhaps the first African American woman anywhere to hold that degree. She became a prominent abstract painter in the 1960s and 70s, and she went on to become the first black woman to have a solo art exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, in 1971. The Columbus Museum has a collection of her paintings, watercolors, sculptures, marionettes, and papers, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum also holds an archive of her paintings and daily papers.

"Ma" Rainey

Ashley Peterson

Gertrude Pridgett Rainey, better known as "Ma" Rainey, was one of the most important of the early blues singers. Called the "Mother of the Blues," she toured and recorded with Paramount for thirty-five years, doing much to establish classic blues in American musical life. The Georgia native showed musical talent early on, beginning her career at age fourteen in a local talent show, "Bunch of Blackberries," at the Springer Opera House in Columbus in 1900. In December 1923, Rainey became one of the first women to record the blues professionally, eventually producing more than 100 recordings of her own compositions with some of the best musicians at the time. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992, and Georgia Women of Achievement in 1993. In 1994 the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor. Her house, located at 805 Fifth Avenue, was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. It was fully restored in 2006 and is now open to the public.

Eugene Bullard

Eugene Bullard was born in a three bedroom house in Columbus, as the seventh child of his parents. His father, William Bullard, was born into slavery on the property of Wiley Bullard, a planter in Stewart County. William Bullard ended up moving to Columbus to work for W.C. Bradley, just a rising cotton merchant then. Shaken by the near lynching of his father in 1903 and wanting to know something of the world beyond Columbus, he ran away from home in 1906. In Atlanta, he joined a group of Romani people and traveled with them throughout rural Georgia, tending to and learning to race their horses. The Romani, originally from England, brought to his attention that the racial color line did not exist there. Bullard was still affronted by racism, and he decided to leave the United States for Great Britain. He did so as a stowaway on a German merchant ship, the Marta Russ, which departed Virginia, on March 4, 1912, bound for Scotland. He made his way to France where he became the first Black American military pilot. In 1959, French president Charles de Gaulle made Bullard a knight of the French Legion of Honor, the nation's highest ranking order and decoration.

Martin Luther King Jr.

There are many famous bombings during the Civil Rights movement, but few know about the one that happened in Columbus. On July 1, 1958, Martin Luther King came to Columbus, despite death threats. He delivered a speech at the Prince Hall Masonic Temple with no issues, according to the FBI, but later that night, a blast of dynamite resounded in a Columbus neighborhood nearby. It was the home of Essie Mae Ellison, the first black woman to move into a predominantly white neighborhood in Columbus. She and five other occupants escaped unharmed. Dave Gillarm, Executive Director of the Columbus Black Museum, says “the civil rights movement in the area became stagnant after a Columbus Civil Rights Activist was murdered, and King was brought in to reignite the flame.” According to Gillarm, city leaders said, "We told you this was going to happen," and, "they told Dr. King he was not welcome to come to Columbus anymore. So that is why he only came once."

Columbus African American police protests

In 1971 Columbus, only eight percent of the police force was made up of Black policemen, not relative to the thirty-five percent Black population. This caused racial tension and hostility both inside and outside the police force, culminating on May 31st, when seven Black policemen, all members of the Afro-American Police League, ripped the American flags from their uniforms during a strike outside of their headquarters. All seven policemen were fired, but they stood fast in their stance that “there was no justice in the Columbus police department and that they would not wear the flag until they received the equality, justice, and respect for which it stood,”according to Freedom on Film: Civil Rights in Georgia. On June 19, 1971, there was a protest march in support of a lawsuit against the city. Even though the protest was peaceful, racial tensions soared following the demonstration. Rioting reached a height on June 21, 1971, when a white officer, L. A. Jacks, shot and killed a twenty-year old African American youth named Willie J. Osborne. Riots, arson attacks, police violence, and further protests impacted the city for several months, prompting the Columbus City Council to invoke an emergency ordinance and Columbus mayor J. R. Allen to declare a state of emergency.

Calvin Smyre

In 1974, at the age of twenty-six, Calvin Smyre was elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives, as its youngest member at the time. He is known for his early efforts as an organizer and director of the "War on Poverty" program. In 1986, Governor Joe Frank Harris appointed Smyre the floor leader. This made him also the first Black representative to have held this position in Georgia. Smyre sponsored successful legislation on the fight to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag, the construction of the Georgia Dome, and the honoring of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday as a state holiday. In 1984, he was the first African American from Georgia to be elected to the Democratic National Committee. As campaign chairman and advisor, he helped Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton win their presidential campaigns. Smyre has also been a key figure in the world of finance. He is the executive vice president of corporate affairs for Synovus Financial Corporation, a multi-financial services company with more than $14.9 billion in assets. He is also the chairman, CEO of the Synovus Foundation.