Volume XI, No. 1 December 2012
Jeanne Cyriaque, African American Programs Coordinator
Historic Preservation Division
continued on page 2
Centennial Family Farm awards are presented each fall to
recognize Georgia farms that have remained in the same
family as a working farm for 100 years or more. The 19th
annual award ceremony was held at the Georgia National Fair in
October 2012. Twenty-five farms were recognized this year. Two of
the Centennial Family Farm awards were presented to organic farms
for the first time and one of these, Gilliard Farms, became the tenth
African American farm of 426 farms since the program’s inception
in 1993 to receive this distinguished award.
Gilliard Farms is located in Brookman, a rural community
just outside of Brunswick in Glynn County, Georgia. The founder
of this farm was Jupiter
Gilliard, who was born
enslaved in 1812.
Gilliard established
this farm with the
purchase of 457 acres
in 1874. The Glynn
County Tax Digest from
1874–1880 confirms
Jupiter Gilliard was a
landowner in the 27th
Militia District. He and
his wife Riner were also
included in the 1870
U.S. Census. Jupiter
died around 1877 or
1878, and had two
sons, Jubiter and
GROWING FOOD FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO ORGANICS:
GILLIARD FARMS, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN CENTENNIAL FAMILY FARM
Gilliard Farms is located on Galilee Road off U.S. Hwy. 80, about four miles west of Brunswick
in Glynn County. Photo by Charlie Miller
London, who appeared in the 1880 U.S. Census. London Gilliard
was the great-great grandfather of Gilliard Farms’ present owners,
Althea and Matthew Raiford. Today, they retain 50 acres of Jupiter’s
original purchase.
Brookman was a farming community and Glynn County
established the Union School on a tract owned by Ophelia Johnson,
who is Althea and Matthew’s grandmother. The current building
dates from the early 1900s. It was built by Glynn County to educate
African American children in the rural area through the eighth grade.
After their early education at the Union School, rural students attended
the Colored Memorial School that later became Risley High School in
Brunswick. In the 1950s,
as more schools were
opened for African
American students,
Ophelia converted the
home to a residence.
Once inside the home,
transoms and doors
that were former
classroom elements in
the schoolhouse still
remain. While Ophelia
started at the Union
School, she later
attended school and
finished her education
at Dorchester Academy
in Liberty County.
2
Jeanne Cyriaque, continued from page 1
GROWING FOOD FROM RECONSTRUCTION TO ORGANICS:
GILLIARD FARMS, AN AFRICAN AMERICAN CENTENNIAL FAMILY FARM
The Gilliard family erected a historic marker to recognize the Union School
that once existed on their family land. Photo by Charlie Miller
Althea Raiford spent much of her career in the
military, and she said her brother called her about seven years ago
and they conversed about the
family land and his desire to
become an organic farmer.
When Althea retired from the
service, she and Matthew
attended a family reunion in
2010, and expressed their goal
for the Gilliard land to become
an organic farm. While their
mother Affie was shocked at
this development, their aunt Mary Lou and grandmother Ophelia
were delighted that their heirs wanted to return to farming. Althea
reached out to the Veteran’s Farmer Coalition for technical
assistance, and learned of a program in California that admitted 25
prospective farmers out of 300–400 applicants. Matthew applied
and was selected for the program and received a scholarship. Althea
also applied for a grant to get the farm started, and in 2010 became
the first disabled African American Navy female veteran to receive
the grant.
Matthew Raiford’s
path to organic farming began
as a chef and farmer. He is
currently the executive chef at
a private resort on Little St.
Simons Island, one of
Georgia’s barrier islands that
are only accessible by boat.
“Chefarmer” Raiford, as he
Althea Raiford retired from a military
career to pursue farming.
 Photo by Anthony Masterson
likes to be called, holds a bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts from
the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Matthew
holds an additional certification in ecological horticulture that
prepared him for organic farming. “Chefarmer” Raiford specializes
in classic French cuisine. Prior to his return to Gilliard Farms,
Matthew served as the Executive Chef of Haute Catering at the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Althea and Matthew Raiford are the sixth generation of
Gilliard descendants to farm on the family land. Fifteen acres of
land are in agricultural production on Gilliard Farms. They produce
vegetables and fruits and raise chickens and hogs. Gilliard Farms
operates a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program to
provide their customers with fresh, nutritious, wholesome food.
Their CSA members can pick up the food personally or at central
locations. Each box of produce varies weekly and contains recipes
from “Chefarmer” Raiford. Additionally, members can join and
order online at www.gilliardfarms.com. Matthew Raiford believes
“as a chef, the quality of the food I prepare and present has always
been of utmost importance. As farmers, Althea and I invest all that
we can into producing extraordinary food that nurtures the body
and the being. At Gilliard Farms, we extend our passion for eating
well to and beyond our surrounding community, knowing that with
their strong support we can do anything.”
Matthew and Althea Raiford are members of the
Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network
(SAAFON), a network of small and limited resource farmers who
are USDA certified organic or growing organically. SAAFON farmers
are located in six states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North
and South Carolina, and St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Georgia
farms in the network are the Gilliard Farms in Brunswick, Hometown
Farm, African-American Family Farmers Inc. and Melvin’s Produce
Matthew Raiford is both a farmer and
a chef on Little St. Simons Island.
 Photo courtesy of Gilliard Farms
The Raiford siblings, Matthew and Althea, continue the family
farm that was established in 1874.
 Photo courtesy of Gilliard Farms
3
in Eatonton, Oak Tree Farm in Jacksonville, Clee Farm in Sylvania
and Sanabella Farms in Kite.
Each year SAAFON honors African American farms
growing organically that are 100 year-old farms with the Booker T.
Whatley Award. SAAFON honored Gilliard Farms this year to
receive this award. It is given to farmers in honor of Booker T.
Whatley, an Alabama farmer and visionary who introduced
regenerative farming that made greater use of internal resources.
Chickens are abundant on the Gilliard farm. Photo by Charlie Miller
Two young piglets have recently arrived on the family farm.
 Photo courtesy of Gilliard Farms
The genesis for SAAFON came from executive director
Cynthia Hayes and Owusu Bandele, a retired agriculture professor
from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alarmed at
the loss of African-American owned land (from 15 million acres in
1920 to less than 2 million acres today) both felt that African American
farmers needed education and training to enter the organic foods
industry. They started SAAFON educational programs six years
ago to aid African American farmers to complete the application
process that is required to achieve certification in organic farming.
Another first for SAAFON was African-American
participation in local Farmers’ Markets. SAAFON made history in
Savannah in 2009 when they started a Saturday Farmer’s Market in
Forsyth Park, a Savannah historic park that once excluded blacks
during segregation. The weekly market is now a beehive of
community activity from spring until November. Robbie Graham,
one of SAAFON’s Georgia growers, is a regular participant, selling
organically-grown greens and other vegetables, strawberries and
watermelons. The City of Savannah often sponsors other
community programs like health pavilions throughout the summer
on Farmers’ Market Saturdays at Forsyth Park.
SAAFON training opportunities for their members often
are held in collaboration with agriculture departments at 1890 Land
Grant Universities that are Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs) including Florida A&M University, Fort Valley
State University, Southern and Tuskegee, bringing in speakers from
USDA and national farmers’ organizations.
SAAFON partners with other African American farmers’
markets like Truly Living Well in Atlanta. Truly Living Well is an
organic farmers’ market near
Atlanta’s famous Auburn
Avenue. This organic market
sits on land leased from Wheat
Street Baptist Church and is
adjacent to the new Ebenezer
Baptist Church, an important
landmark in the American Civil
Rights Movement. The market
is open to the public on Friday
afternoons. Another Truly
Living Well site is on
Washington Road in East Point.
Eight delegates from SAAFON, including Matthew
Raiford, recently attended a global discussion on international
food issues in Turin, Italy. The biennial conference was an
opportunity for SAAFON members to dialogue with farmers from
Africa about mutual interests including climate change,
deforestation and maintaining African growing techniques that are
relevant today for organic farming. For more information about
SAAFON, visit their website at www.saafon.org.
Gabraelle Lane holds a large yam
produced at Truly Living Well. She
was one of the SAAFON delegates
who attended the conference in Turin,
Italy. Photo by Jeanne Cyriaque
Truly Living Well is an urban organic farm near Auburn
Avenue in Atlanta. This view of the farm faces Wheat Street
Baptist Church. Photo by Jeanne Cyriaque
4
UNITY GROVE ROSENWALD SCHOOL:
A CONDITIONS ASSESSMENT PROJECT WITH GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Danielle Ross, African American Programs Assistant
Historic Preservation Division
The Unity Grove Rosenwald School, located in Locust Grove,
Georgia, was discovered in 2011 by Elyse Hill, a member of the
Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network. Unity
Grove is the only surviving Rosenwald School of five that were
located in Henry County. It is the 51st Rosenwald School that has
been found still standing in the state. Unity Grove was an African
American community that was
developed after the Civil War.
The earliest known date for the
existence of the school is 1891
because of its connection with
James Weldon Johnson, who
served as a teacher at the
school. He was one of the
founders of the National
Association for the
Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP). Johnson
taught at the original Unity
Grove School building during
the summer of his freshman
year at Atlanta University.
James Weldon Johnson was a
well-known poet, novelist,
journalist, and educator.
In 1931, the State
Department of Education approved the contribution from the
Rosenwald Fund for construction of a two-teacher Rosenwald
School at Unity Grove to replace the old schoolhouse that was in
disrepair. Unity Grove was built for a total cost of $2,537, with $400
being derived from the black community, $400 from the white
community, $400 from the Rosenwald Fund, and $1,337 in public
funds. Rosenwald Schools were constructed in the first half of the
twentieth century. Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee
Institute, was looking to change the current condition of education
for African American children in the South. At the time, many schools
for African American children were housed in run-down buildings
or churches. By 1928, the Rosenwald Fund was in full swing and
established one Rosenwald School for every five rural schools
constructed at that time.
The school is a two-teacher school plan that served the
African American children locally, and accommodated approximately
90 students. The school served the children of sharecroppers in the
area and attendance was kept at 3 to 4 months out of the year, due to
harvesting times. The Rosenwald Community School Plans served
as a progressive idea in schoolhouse design for rural African
American communities. The schools were conscious of health and
safety, took into consideration ventilation, natural lighting, heating,
and aesthetics. Many schools were oriented according to sunlight
for maximum lighting during the day. Rosenwald Schools were
constructed from 1912 to 1932, after which many fell into disuse with
racial integration in education in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Unity Grove Rosenwald School was a two-teacher
Community School Plan building that featured two classrooms
and an industrial room.
Unity Grove currently sits on privately owned land, but
Henry County is considering rehabilitating the school for adaptive
reuse as a historic landmark or museum to assist in telling its story.
With the school’s current condition, rehabbing the school is a feasible
option. While currently not fulfilling its original use, the school
retains many of its historic characteristics that would make it an
exemplary rehabilitation project. Richard Laub’s Historic Building
Materials, a graduate class in the Heritage Preservation program,
performed a conditions assessment on the school for the city
James Weldon Johnson
Photo courtesy of
University of South Carolina
Rare and Special Collections
In September 2012, graduate students from Georgia State University
visited the Unity Grove Rosenwald School to conduct a conditions
assessment. Photo by Danielle Ross
5
through a partnership with Georgia State University. The
assessment consisted of studying and exploring the building in order
to identify the current condition of the structure and preventative and
routine measures that need to be taken to improve it.
The conditions assessment took place at the site of the
school. Two former students of Unity Grove School, Mr. Walter
Daniels and Ms. Stella McCord were also present at the day of the
assessment. The opportunity to speak with past attendees of the
school served as a great benefit because of the rare information
UNITY GROVE ROSENWALD SCHOOL:
A CONDITIONS ASSESSMENT PROJECT WITH GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
that could be obtained that otherwise would not have been
discovered in the process. Upon speaking with Mr. Daniels, the
class discovered that he attended Unity Grove in 1935 shortly after
the school was constructed. While standing in his old classroom,
Mr. Daniels indicated that there was no electricity or plumbing
during his attendance, and the large windows proved to be very
important. While explaining to the class his experience, Mr. Daniels
helped by describing how each classroom was split. The classroom
to the west was designated for 1st -3rd grade, while the classroom on
the east was designated for 4th-7th grade. In addition to his memory
of the interior of the school, Mr. Daniels helped to shed light on the
exterior paint color of the school during his attendance—which
was white.
While one group of graduate students was gathering
information from Mr. Daniels, another group was outside with Ms.
Stella McCord. Ms. McCord, the second student, attended Unity
Grove along with her siblings. Ms. McCord assisted in helping to
describe the landscape that surrounded the school and the typical
school year for the attendees. According to Ms. McCord, students
at Unity Grove attended school for three months out of the school
year due to farming schedules. During those three months, students
walked over a mile to school from the surrounding area. In talking
about the history of the school with Ms. McCord, the surrounding
historic landscape of the school was discussed. Ms. McCord
recounted that the in the 1930s-1940s there were no trees and minimal
vegetation surrounding the school and the homes in the vicinity
were randomly placed, as opposed to the current existing planned
housing developments. She also stated that a male and female
outhouse was located to the northwest of the school, while a ball
field was located down a hill to the northeast of the school. Ms.
McCord also helped with smaller details such as the placement of
the stove in the center of the 4th -7th grade classroom. Both students
stayed for a significant amount of time during the conditions
assessment and walked through the school with the Georgia State
graduate students answering many, if not all questions that the
class had.
Unity Grove School retains many of its historic
characteristics, such as the wood floors, chalk trays, and breeze
windows, which have helped to identify how the school was
arranged in its time of use. Each room in the schoolhouse has
succumbed to different structural problems as the level of usage
has varied over time. With talk of the proposed rehabilitation project,
it will be exciting to see the school returned to its former architectural
state and life brought back into the structure.
Elyse Hill (far right) found the school through her research
of Henry County. She and Mr. Walter Daniels share their
oral histories with the students. Photo by Danielle Ross
Ms. Stella McCord and Mr. Walter Daniels, former Unity Grove
students, visited the students while they were conducting the
conditions assessment. Photo by Danielle Ross
Breeze windows were located between the classrooms.
 Photo by Danielle Ross
6
Katheryn Ferrall-Graff, Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc.
on behalf of the Georgia Department of Transportation
and the Federal Highway Administration
PHYLLIS WHEATLEY CLUB
I
n 1937, just outside of Valdosta, Georgia, two women, neighbors
and relatives, in a surprisingly integrated community established
a meeting place for African American women called the Phyllis
Wheatley Club. For nearly forty years, their clubhouse was a
hub of social, charitable, and political activity for African
American women.
The Valdosta branch of the Phyllis Wheatley Club was
just one of hundreds of African American women’s clubs founded
across Georgia and the United States in the late-18th and early-19th
centuries. Initially established as “colored” counterparts to white
women’s clubs during the Progressive Era, these clubs quickly
surpassed their white counterparts in number. By the 1890s, two
national organizations of African American women’s clubs had
emerged: the National Federation of Afro-American Women
(NFAAW), founded by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, and the Colored
Women’s League (CWL), founded by Helen Cook. In 1896, the two
merged to become the National Association of Colored Women’s
Clubs (NACWC). Mary Church Terrell was elected the NACWC’s
first president, and in 1909, she became one of only two women to
serve as a founding member of the NAACP. Local branches named
in honor of prominent African American women, such as Mary
Church Terrell and Mary McLeod Bethune, quickly developed in
communities all across the country; but perhaps the most popular
namesake was that of Phyllis Wheatley.
Sometimes spelled Phillis or Wheatly, Phyllis Wheatley is
generally recognized as the first African American, the first slave,
and the third woman in America to publish a work of poetry. Brought
to America from Africa as a slave ca. 1761 aboard The Phillis, Phyllis
Wheatley was given a classical education by her Boston owners,
John and Susannah Wheatley. With the Wheatley’s encouragement,
Phyllis Wheatley’s first poem was published in 1767 when she was
just twelve years old. Her first book, Poems on Various Subjects,
was published in 1773; she was emancipated shortly thereafter.
Her book was so popular that she gave a recital before George
Washington and travelled Europe on a promotional tour.
Although the date the first Phyllis Wheatley Club was
founded is unclear, Phyllis Wheatley Clubs were reported in
Nashville, New Orleans, and Augusta by the 1880s. With mottos
such as “Lifting as we climb,” and “If you can’t push, pull, and if
you can’t pull, please get out of the way,” all of the federations
worked to improve the quality of lives of African American women.
There appear to have been three prototypes for Phyllis Wheatley
Clubs in the United States: YWCAs, settlement houses, and small
independent clubs.
This undated post card illustrates the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of
the YWCA in Atlanta. www.atlantatimemachine.com
Clubs such as the Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA
in Atlanta were simply “colored branches” of the YWCA that
functioned under white oversight. The first “colored” YWCA was
founded in Ohio in 1889, and by the early-20th century, these clubs
existed in cities all over America. At the turn-of-the-20th century, as
African Americans left the south in droves for better opportunities
in northern industrial towns, African American women found
themselves excluded from racially segregated settlement homes
for women, such as Hull House in Chicago. In response, settlement
homes called Phyllis Wheatley Clubs arose in Chicago,
Minneapolis, and Buffalo. Far less common and primarily a northern
phenomenon, these settlement houses sought to provide young
African American women safe lodging, protection from urban vices,
training in domesticity, and job placement services, all while
fostering racial uplift.
Perhaps the most prevalent type, especially in the South,
was the small, independent club. Commonly small groups, these
were social or political clubs that gathered in church buildings and
living rooms, and functioned similarly to prayer groups, sewing
circles, and charitable organizations. Dozens of small, independent
“Illustration for Phyllis Wheatley, Poems on Various
Subjects. Image courtesy of Massachusetts Historical
Society, Boston”
www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h7.html
7
Facing southwest along West Hill Avenue, the Phyllis Wheatley Club (center) is surrounded by the homes of the club founders’ Ella
Mae Alexander (left) and Marietta Gaines (right). Photo by Katheryn Ferrall-Graff
African American women’s clubs were active in Georgia by the
1930s, with clubs named for Phyllis Wheatley located in Augusta,
Americus, Waycross, and Valdosta.
Phyllis Wheatley Club, Buffalo, New York, 1905
www.math.buffalo.edu
constructing the clubhouse between their homes, the women were
extending this protection to the clubwomen by providing a safe
space in which the women could gather. The Valdosta Phyllis
Wheatley Club became a local hub for charitable activity, but was
also a source for social and political education. For example, Mary
McLeod Bethune, former NACWC president and member of
Theodore Roosevelt’s Federal Council on Negro Affairs, reportedly
spoke at the Valdosta clubhouse in the early 1940s.
Like many small, independent African American women’s
clubs, membership in the Valdosta club dwindled after World War II
but experienced resurgence in the 1950s when it became an official
federation of the NACWC. In the 1960s, under the leadership of
Lily Gaines Rogers, local educator and daughter of Marietta Gaines,
the clubhouse became a site for children’s after-school activities,
but by the 1970s, the Valdosta club had ceased operation. The
clubhouse was host to various churches from the 1970s until the
death of Margaret Carter, the last surviving board member of the
Phyllis Wheatley Club, in 2011; it now sits vacant.
Ella Mae James Alexander and Marietta
(Mary) Davis Gaines Source: Collection of
James Edward Alexander
The Valdosta Phyllis Wheatley Club is significant as one
of the few African American women’s clubs in Georgia with a
dedicated clubhouse. The club was organized by a group of
influential, well-educated and religious women. In July of 1937, Ella
Mae Alexander inherited a parcel of land just east of downtown
Valdosta. Together with a relative, Marietta Gaines, she constructed
a clubhouse for the “Phyllis Wheatley Club, Inc. No. 1.” Though
both women were of mixed-race ancestry, they were known to their
neighbors as “white,” and as such, these women were protected by
their community. Although a surprisingly-integrated neighborhood
for 1930s rural Georgia, it was not without racial tension. By
Organizations like the Phyllis Wheatley Club played a vital
role in the lives of African American women from the late-19th century
Progressive Era through the mid-20th century Civil Rights Era, and
the NACWC still has active federations today. Although the Phyllis
Wheatley Club is virtually unknown to current residents of Valdosta,
this building was part of an important national movement and the
hub of social, religious and political activities for African American
women in Valdosta for nearly thirty years. This club’s legacy and
contributions will endure for generations.
Mary McCleod Bethune (center) visits the
YWCA in Washington, DC, 1943
 Source: Library of Congress
The Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network (GAAHPN)
was established in January 1989. It is composed of representatives from
neighborhood organizations and preservation groups. GAAHPN was formed
in response to a growing interest in preserving the cultural and built diversity of Georgia’s
African American heritage. This interest has translated into a number of efforts which
emphasize greater recognition of African American culture and contributions to Georgia’s
history. The GAAHPN Steering Committee plans and implements ways to develop
programs that will foster heritage education, neighborhood revitalization, and support
community and economic development.
The Network is an informal group of over 3,000 people who have an interest in
preservation. Members are briefed on the status of current and planned projects and are
encouraged to offer ideas, comments and suggestions. The meetings provide an
opportunity to share and learn from the preservation experience of others and to receive
technical information through workshops. Members receive a newsletter, Reflections,
produced by the Network. Visit the Historic Preservation Division website at
www.georgiashpo.org. Preservation information and previous issues of Reflections are
available online. Membership in the Network is free and open to all.
ABOUT GAAHPN
This publication has been financed in part with federal
funds from the National Park Service, Department
of the Interior, through the Historic Preservation
Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
The contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect
the views or policies of the Department of the
Interior, nor does the mention of trade names,
commercial products or consultants constitute
endorsement or recommendation by the
Department of the Interior or the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources. The
Department of the Interior prohibits
discrimination on the basis of race, color, national
origin, or disability in its federally assisted
programs. If you believe you have been discriminated
against in any program, activity, or facility, or if you
desire more information, write to: Office for Equal
Opportunity, National Park Service, 1849 C Street,
NW, Washington, D.C. 20240.
Published quarterly by the
Historic Preservation Division
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Dr. David Crass, Division Director
Jeanne Cyriaque, Editor
Lillian Davis
Dr. Gerald C. & Barbara Golden
Terry & Cynthia Hayes
Richard Laub
Kenneth Rollins
Isaac Johnson, Chair
706/738-1901
Velmon Allen, Vice-Chair
GAAHPN Network
912/261-1898
STEERING COMMITTEE
Isaac Johnson
Chairman
Jeanne Cyriaque
African American
Programs Coordinator
Reflections Editor
Voice 404/656-4768
Fax 404/657-1368
jeanne.cyriaque@dnr.state.ga.us
STAFF
8
Since its first issue appeared in December 2000, Reflections has documented
hundreds of Georgia’s African American historic resources. Now all of these
articles are available on the Historic Preservation Division website
www.georgiashpo.org. Search for links to your topic by categories: cemeteries, churches,
districts, farms, lodges, medical, people, places, schools, and theatres. You can now
subscribe to Reflections from the homepage. Reflections is a recipient of a Leadership
in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History
ABOUT REFLECTIONS
Danielle Ross
African American
Programs Assistant
Voice 404/657-1054
Fax 404/657-1368
danielle.ross@dnr.state.ga.us