William J. White

William J. White was born on June 7, 1960 in Glasgow, Scotland.

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 1880, White accepted the "Spurgeon Mission" of the American Baptist Publication Society, which he held for one year. Starting in May 1880 he was a part of a movement by the Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia to create a newspaper. White was selected to edit and manage the paper, and put up $1000 of his own money as a part of the investment of $15,000 for a printing office, and on October 28, 1880, the first edition of the Georgia Baptist was produced. The paper was very successful and became the largest printing office exclusively owned by blacks in the country, producing both the newspaper and pamphlets.

White was involved in a number of other Baptist organizations. He served as treasurer of the Shiloh Association from its founding in 1870 until after 1892, and was co-founder and then president of the Colored Georgia Baptist Sunday School Convention for many years starting in 1872. He was a corresponding secretary of the Missionary baptist Convention and of the Sunday School Convention of Georgia, and chairman of the Baptist Centennial Committee of Georgia.

His secular educational career continued after the end of slavery. On January 12, 1867, White was appointed educational agent of the Freedmen's Bureau by Oliver O. Howard, and organized schools for black children in Georgia. He fought against illegal black curfews and helped register blacks to vote. He organized educational societies and worked to obtain land and build schools. White left the Bureau on January 1, 1869 and on May 1 that year was appointed assistant assessor of revenue by Edwin Belcher. He continued to work for the internal revenue service in different roles until January 1, 1880 when he resigned to give his full attention to his religious callings. Also in 1869, he was also chosen trustee of the newly established Atlanta University. White established the Augusta Institute in Springfield Baptist Church in 1867 and served as one of the trustees there as well. 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 a longtime supporter of Ware High School for blacks in Augusta and was deeply hurt when the Richmond County Board of Education closed the school in 1897 to reapportion money for white elementary education. He was also a co-founder and trustee at the Spelman Seminary which formed in 1882.

White was involved in printing and journalism as soon as the Civil War ended in 1865. He was an important contributor to the work of John T. Shuften Sr. in producing The Colored American and was secretary of the Lohal Georgian Printing Company, which produced the paper and its successor, The Loyal Georgian. He contributed to these papers and to a white Republican owned paper, the Georgia Republican all of which were based in Augusta. He also worked for several years as the Augusta correspondent of the Atlanta Republican.

He married Josephine in 1856, Josephine died in 1903.

White was baptized on October 7, 1855 at Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, on September 19, 1858 he was licensed to exhort, and on February 16, 1862 he was licensed to preach. He organized a Sabbath School on January 8, 1859, and he would serve as superintendent of the school for nine years. On April 1, 1866 he was ordained, and he began holding meetings on June 16, 1867 in what was known as McKinley's grove on a farm owned by Mary Boonyer McKinley and presided by Rev. George Barnes. On May 10, 1868, White and six others organized the Harmony Baptist Church on a lot next to McKinley's grove which they had bought from Mary McKinley. On the first Sunday of July, 1869, he officially became pastor of Harmony Baptist Church, a church whose congregation had grown in part out of the Sabbath schools he led. 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.

During the early period of White's career, he began teaching. In 1853, he opened a secret night school at the home of Samuel Ketch. He started another school at the home of Deacon Anderson Hartwell in 1854, which remained open until the Hartwell family moved to Liberia. After that point, this school was taught on the premises of Judge W. T. Gould without Gould's knowledge. Later in 1854 he opened a third school at the home of Reverend Peter Johnson.

William Jefferson White (December 25, 1831 – April 17, 1913) was a civil rights leader, minister, educator, and journalist in Augusta, Georgia. He was the founder of Harmony Baptist Church in Augusta in 1869 as well as other churches. He also was a co-founder of the Augusta Institute in 1867, which would become 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.