Corey Rogers started with a question.
How many people had ever heard of Lucy Craft Laney besides the school and road that bears her name?
Few in the crowd gathered for Rogers’ Laney-Walker Historic Walking Tour June 12 had.
“I knew some of the history,” said Rogers, who grew up in Augusta, but didn’t take as much of an interest in Augusta’s history until he participated in an internship with the Augusta Museum of History in 1998.
MORE: Laney Museum Celebrates 30 Years
It was after meeting people like Judge John Ruffin Jr., for whom Augusta’s courthouse is named, that Augusta’s African-American history began to come alive for him, he told the group. Rogers is the historian at the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History.
Over the next 90 minutes, Rogers expounded on the life of not only Laney but other African-Americans whose contributions reached outside the Garden City’s limits. The walking tour doesn’t cover a lot of geography, but it covers a lot of historical territory.
Phillips Street, where the Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History is located and the tour begins, is a road that Rogers sees as a street of restoration and preservation. Not only did Laney live on the street, but other influential families did as well, and their homes have been preserved. Those include the Tutt home named after the educator for whom Tutt Middle School is named and the Bohler home, where Dr. Henry Cabot Lodge Bohler lived. Bohler was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, one of five Augustans who were part of that group.
While those residences are in good condition, other buildings are boarded up, but Rogers is hopeful for their restoration. One of them is the John Strother Old Folks Home on Laney-Walker Boulevard.
Other spots on the tour include Tabernacle Baptist Church, Christ Presbyterian Church and the former site of the Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance Co.
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Rogers also weaves the lives of other famous Americans who might not have lived in Augusta but had a tie to the area. They include Mary McLeod Bethune, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and John D. Rockefeller.
Joshua Maxwell was part of a large group from In Focus Church attending the June 12 walk.
What Maxwell likes about his church is its multi-ethnic blend of people. Over the past year, Maxwell said they’ve had conversations about what it really means to follow after In Focus’s motto of “love God; love people; reach the world.”
“It’s been pretty painful at times,” he said.
Taking the tour was designed to help build a sense of empathy among church members, he said.
“This falls under the ‘love people’ part,” he said.
MORE: At Work With: Corey Rogers
Rogers has tours scheduled once a month through October; however, if a church or civic group would like to take a private tour, he said he’s open to organizing one. Reach Rogers at ocur761@gmail.com.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com.
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