Sometimes people, by happenstance or intention, become forgotten in the annals of history. It seems that is the case with former Mayor William B. Bell, as the only remaining vestige of the man is his name on the marquee of Bell Auditorium and a grainy photo in the Augusta Commission chambers.
Most lists of Augusta’s former mayors found on the internet do not include Bell, who served from 1928 to 1930.
However, Bell led the community during the turbulent times of a devastating natural disaster and the stock market crash of 1929.
The Augusta Levee, which was completed in 1916, withstood several major floods; but over time, cracks in the structure began to appear.
According to the late Augusta historian, Ed Cashin, in his book, The Story Of Augusta, in late September of 1929, a massive 46-foot wall of water struck downtown Augusta. The water caused the Augusta Canal to breach its banks, completely covered the Fifth Street Bridge and tore open a hole in the Levee at what was then the Goodale Farm near East Boundary.
Flood waters completely inundated downtown Augusta.
It appears that Bell responded like a good leader should as the river was set to crest at 47 feet by Oct. 2.
Bell urged citizens to flee to the higher ground in Summerville and organized both volunteers and a convict crew to repair the levee. According to Cashin, the disaster could have grown worse since the pumping station had failed and was under water, leaving Augusta with only a few days’ supply of water.
The waters receded leaving the foul odor of the dead fish that were all over the streets, but miraculously, no one died.
Bell also had the terrible luck of being mayor when the stock market collapsed less than a month later in 1929, sparking the Great Depression. Cashin notes that warning signs were on the horizon as the newly built Forest Hills-Ricker Hotel was placed into receivership, and there were “distress messages” all over Wall Street prior to the crash.
However, it may have been Bell’s affiliation with the Augusta Populist Association (APA) that put the nails in his political coffin. Bell was the president of the APA before and during his mayoral administration.
The APA was started by Thomas Watson, a turn of the century populist who opposed the Democrat party and advocated for Black enfranchisement, prohibition of alcohol and integrity at the polls.
However, by 1904, something in Watson snapped, and he became a racist demagogue and bitter bigot. Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, sparked the Atlanta Race Massacre of 1906 and fanned the flames that led to the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory supervisor falsley accused of murdering a 13 year-old factory worker.
Watson’s Jeffersonian Magazine might have been the Bible of the newly-reformed Ku Klux Klan. Watson not only targeted Blacks and Jews, his publications spewed vitriol against Catholics as well.
Bell took over the APA long after Watson’s death, which occurred in 1922, and there is no evidence that Bell was close to or even knew Watson personally; however, by the time Bell took over as president, the organization was badly fractured.
Not only did the bigotry of some members cause disgust among most of the group, but the organization had begun working with bootleggers, stuffing ballot boxes just like the other political parties and had seemingly turned its back on the concept of capitalism.
By 1930, Bell’s last year in office, the organization officially crumbled and out of its ashes rose the Cracker Party.
The year 1930 is when Bell’s name fell off the historic record, and it would only turn up again in 1940 when the new Municipal Auditorium was named in his honor.
While Black people held little to no political power in Augusta in 1940, it is hard to imagine that the Catholic and Jewish communities would have tolerated having the name of a bigot grace the façade of the city’s largest entertainment venue.
So, likely, Bell was simply a victim, crushed by the political headwinds of his time and is a part of Augusta’s history that should be remembered.
…And that is something you may not have known.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
