William J. White

William Jefferson White (December 25, 1831 – April 17, 1913) was an American civil rights leader, minister, educator, and journalist. He was the founder of Harmony Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, in 1869, and of other churches. In 1867 he helped found the Augusta Institute, which became Morehouse College; he also helped found Atlanta University and was a trustee of both schools. He was a founder in 1880 and the managing editor of the Georgia Baptist, a leading African American newspaper for many years. He was an outspoken civil-rights leader.

Early life William Jefferson White was born at Ruckersville, Georgia, on December 25, 1831, to Chaney and William White. Although his mother had been enslaved, he never was. He was taught to read by his mother. At the age of seven, he started working in a cotton factory, where he worked for three years. He also spent a short time working on a wagon traveling in rural parts of the state selling the factory's goods. In June, 1842, he went to Augusta, Georgia, where he lived with the family of Captain W. G. Nimms and learned to write. He then took an apprenticeship as a carpenter for W. H. Goodrich, where he stayed for five years before moving on to cabinet making under C. A. Platt & Co., where he spent two years. He continued this work until 1867. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), the blockade denied printing supplies to Southern printers, and White learned to make printers' wooden furniture, which helped him in his later journalism career. He never formally attended college, but did take part in the courses at the Augusta Institute, which he helped found, and in 1889 was given an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by the State University of Kentucky. and served as one of the trustees there. White was among those involved in the moving of the Augusta Institute to Atlanta and the change of name to the Atlanta Baptist Seminary, and continued to serve on the board of trustees. He was also a co-founder and trustee at the Spelman Seminary, which was formed in 1882. White also organized Watery Branch Baptist Church and Simonia Baptist Church elsewhere in Columbia County When the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia was formed in August 1870, he was elected treasurer, a position he held for fourteen years. He also served as missionary agent for the body. He became associated with a faction of Baptists which advocated splitting white and black leadership of the church, a group which was led by White protege, Emanuel K. Love, in 1887. This put him at odds with other important leaders, including William E. Holmes. In 1899, White was especially active in speaking out against the lynching of seven men in Palmetto, Georgia, which killed five of the seven, and again later in the year of the Sam Hose (or Holt or Wilkes) lynching in nearby Newnan, Georgia. White's life was threatened by a mob in 1900 for his anti-lynching writings, and he was forced to repudiate and apologize for an anti-lynching article he wrote.

White's support for the convention movement redoubled after the Niagara Movement, and in 1906 he organized the Georgia Equal Rights Convention which brought together leaders such as John Hope, W. E. B. Du Bois, Bishop Henry McNeil Turner, Judson Lyons, J. Max Barber, A. D. Williams and many others. The organization was very vocal and wide reaching in its calls, advocating an end to Jim Crow cars on railroads, allowing African Americans to join the Georgia militia and serve on juries, better educational facilities for blacks, a more just judicial system, opposition to disfranchisement attempts, and many others. White, who was a conservative, delivered the presidential address, but anti-Booker T. Washington leader Du Boise delivered the keynote speech.

In September 1906, the White wrote in the Georgia Baptist against the rioters involved in the Atlanta Riots. As a result, hostile whites threatened to burn down his printing office and home and kill him if he did not leave the city. White and his friend, George Sale, went to the mayor of Augusta to ask for protection. The mayor promised to try, but recommended White to leave the city, and White fled. White had nearly been lynched in 1900 and 1901, and fled to South Carolina until October. When he returned to Augusta, his tone turned against anti-lynching leaders such as William J. Northen, calling for inter-racial cooperation.

Personal life and death He married Josephine in 1856,

White's son, Lucian Hayden White, became associate editor and assistant business manager at the paper.