Remembering 1950's Augusta

Judith Baker and her husband Arnold have been members of Holy Trinity for many years, and Judy is currently a member of the church’s Racial Equity Initiative Team. Here, Judy shares two stories of the racism she witnessed in her life, growing up in the South.

I lived in Augusta, Georgia in the late 1940s and 1950s. Augusta is the location of a U.S. Army installation, Fort Gordon, then called Camp Gordon. It was named for Confederate Lt. General John Brown Gordon and activated during WWII to train infantry. It sent soldiers to fight in Europe in General George Patton’s Third Army. After WWII, more than 85,000 officers and enlisted personnel were discharged from Camp Gordon’s Army Personnel Center. It also served as a prisoner of war camp for German and Italian captives. Over the succeeding years it has served as the home of Signal Corps, communications, and computer science training.

Around 1952, some of the African American officers and enlisted men from Camp Gordon attended Resurrection Lutheran Church, the church where my family were members. Although the soldiers were permitted to attend, they were seated in a separate area of the sanctuary, and they were denied communion.

Refusing to serve communion to the black visitors was not surprising, given attitudes of most southerners in the 1950s, when there were separate water fountains for “colored” and “whites,” as well as separate restrooms. Nonetheless, it was terribly disappointing. My parents were dismayed at this, as was the pastor, Henry Horn. Pastor Horn was a gifted preacher, musician and leader, beloved by many parishioners. He left the congregation in 1953 to become pastor of University Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Mass.

The outcome of this refusal was doubly unfortunate. It robbed the congregation of the opportunity to fully welcome and have fellowship with African American servicemen, and it led to the departure of a wonderful pastor. My parents remained in contact with Pastor Horn and his family for many years after he left Resurrection. They recounted the events of his departure to me several years later, when I was old enough to ask them about the annual Christmas letter he sent. I wish my parents were still here so I could find out more specifics about this situation. I’d like to know who made the decision to deny communion to the black soldiers, and if Pastor Horn’s departure from the church was based primarily on his disagreement with this decision.

I recall another incident of racial discrimination during this same time period – the mid- to late-1950s. My family employed an African American maid named Mary. Mary brought her young daughter Bessie to work with her each day, and my brother, sister and I would play with Bessie while Mary worked. One day, the four of us took a public bus from our house to downtown Augusta where we planned to go to my mother’s office. When we boarded the bus, the driver told Bessie to move to the back. Even though she was a young child, she was not allowed to sit with us in the front half of the bus. All of us got upset and started crying. Bessie must have been used to riding in the back of the bus with her mother, but this was different. She was too young to sit by herself away from the only people on the bus she knew. After the driver repeated, “Go on now,” Bessie moved to the back of the bus and the three of us followed after her. We couldn’t let her sit by herself, and we didn’t want to be separated from our friend. All of us felt humiliated by the bus driver’s treatment of Bessie.