Augusta University’s Golden Blocks Legends unveiled the theme for a new project on Friday, Dec. 2 — a comic book series focused on inspiring younger generations to learn about local “legends.”
A launching party, held at the university’s HUB for Community Involvement near the downtown area, highlighted the future release of the first installment of comic books, which shares with readers the important story of Lucy Craft Laney.
Famous for founding the first school in Augusta for African American children in 1833, Laney served as a principal for over 50 years of the Haines Institute for Industrial and Normal Education.
Program Director of Golden Blocks Legends Juan Walker said oftentimes Augustans do not learn about the history of Laney and her contribution to the community until they reach adulthood. He hopes the comic will bridge the educational gap and encourage children to take more interest in the history of their community.
“Her story should be something you can learn about in Pre-K; her going to Minnesota and trying to get funds to start a school, her teaching in an overcrowded basement of a church and just all the sacrifices that she made to be an educator are what we look for today,” he said. “You want a teacher that will challenge students, and that’s what she did.”
Walker said Laney made an enormous social change within the Golden Blocks community by taking a generation removed from slavery and teaching them to become proficient learners.
“Many of her students went on to be very successful in their chosen fields, and we don’t talk about it. It’s really sad,” he said. “There are people that go to the high school that’s her namesake, and they don’t even know why it has that name.”
Created by a team of individuals who became inspired after a walking tour about Laney at Augusta’s Golden Blocks Museum, the comic was built using collaboration, art and heavy research. Many from the team said they hoped it would cause positive change in the community while also helping to improve student literacy.
Walker said he enjoyed how several on the team were able to take many different roles in helping to create the comic. He believed it made for an interesting process that allowed for a wide range of creative freedom while still keeping true to the history driving the plot.
“We just realized that when you live in a community that has a lot of complications but high needs, it’s easy for young people to focus on the negative,” said Kim Barker, an assistant professor in the university’s College of Education and Human Development.
As someone who teaches the next generation of educators, Barker said the comic was geared for readers of any age to enjoy, because she believes people can more successfully improve the community if they know the history of it.
“You can’t improve the weaknesses if you don’t know them and the history behind it,” she said.
Additional support from multiple university departments and resources have been a major powerhouse behind producing the first comic, said Walker.
“It’s been an amazing process, and it’s not just everyone who’s on the team. The art department has supported us, Pamplin College has supported us and the Literacy Center has provided support,” he said. “The amount of people just wanting to help has been incredible, and I’m just humbled to see it. I’ve never seen a community come together to create something like everyone did for this.”
Creative Art Director of the series, Art Abdon, said the artistic team would soon be adding on a recent AU graduate, and offering two internships to current students to further expand their scope of creative viewpoints and ideas for future works.
As the plot focuses on two friends traveling back in time through a relative’s magic quilt, fellow contributing artist and daughter of Art Abdon, Ashaela Abdon said the series reminded her of books she loved as a child like “The Magic Treehouse” series.
Ashaela Abdon, who is not originally from the area, said she never really explored the names behind popular schools, buildings and streets. However, after learning their history, she thinks all would benefit from knowing the stories behind them.
“The process of being a part of this project has actually been a learning experience for myself,” she said. “I think it’s important for these kids to feel empowered, because they are actually learning in institutions that are named after someone who has really important roots in education.”
Ashaela Abdon said while students know about major national figuresmsuch as George Washington and other Founding Fathers, she hopes local historical figures can become equally important because of works like the comic book. She wants students to know how ordinary, everyday citizens can become powerful footholds for their community.
“If we can use a lot of these sci-fi themes that gravitate towards kids, we can use that as a tool to get them the knowledge about these historical figures,” she said. “I hope that they also take away that history is really fun.”
Barker said she hopes the comic helps fight against the stigma visual novels and comics face in the literary world. While they are more accepted today by many educators as a tool, she said parents still view them in an unfair and negative light.
“You’ll find some teachers and parents who say, ‘That’s not a book. Go get a book.’ But it is a book,” she said. “Especially this one where it’s so packed with history.”
To keep the content interesting and engaging, Barker said the comic also consists of embedded oral history interviews with people who were actually taught by Laney as children. These accounts allow readers to learn new information about Laney – the kind that cannot be found in history books.
Guest speakers at the event included renowned author Frank Yerby, who was a student of Laney, and famous literacy advocate Stanley Tucker. Yerby spoke on how proud and honored Laney would be to know that her community continued to value her efforts, while Tucker talked about different programs he is expanding to encourage literacy and make reading enjoyable and highly accessible.
Walker said he felt it was important to share historical stories with children before the community loses resources who knew figures like Laney first-hand.
“The generation that benefitted the most from Lucy Craft Laney were incredibly successful in a lot of ways, but they’re not going to be with us for much longer. They’re in their 90s and we’re going to lose those voices, so the fear is that we could lose the lessons and foundations that she built,” he said. “We should talk about these people that were a positive influence, and let’s try to instill that again.”
The Golden Blocks Legends first comic book will be released early January 2023, and will be distributed to Richmond County Schools. After January, the comic titled “Lucy Craft Laney Mother of the Children of the People,” will be available for purchase on Amazon for $5, and all proceeds will be used towards publishing the second installment of comics about John M. Tutt.
Liz Wright is a staff writer covering education and general assignments for The Augusta Press. Reach her at liz@theaugustapress.com
