United States, Georgia, Richmond County, Augusta, 33.47097, -81.974841884A portrait of John Wesley Gilbert. Paine Institute held its first class on January 1, 1884, in rented quarters on Broad Street in Augusta, Georgia among the first group of young people present that morning was John Wesley Gilbert, who stepped ahead of the others and enrolled as the first student of The New School. In 1886, when the first class was graduated, Gilbert was in the group. He furthered his education by graduating from Brown University, where his work was of such exceptional merit that he was given the opportunity to study in Athens, Greece. Upon returning to the United States in 1888, Dr. Walker, then president, asked him to come back to Paine Institute as a teacher. Gilbert accepted, and became the first African American to integrate the faculty of Paine Institute.image/jpegenghttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/Paine College, Collins-Callaway Library, Special Collections and ArchivesAfrican American universities and collegesTeachers collegesAfrican American teachersAfrican American studentsUniversities and colleges--FacultyMethodist ChurchJohn Wesley Gilbert, 1884StillImage