Learn how Paine College just honored its first graduate who helped change the world

Jordan Johnson’s grandmother lived in the Gilbert Manor public housing development, but when he was young, he didn’t know who the neighborhood was named after.

More people know about it now. A state historical marker honoring John Wesley Gilbertthe first black archaeologist, was unveiled Thursday to students, faculty, local government and university dignitaries at Paine College.

Gilbert, Paine’s pioneering first graduate, embraced his lifelong passion for learning from his Richmond County home to the ancient ruins of Greece and back.

“I think today is a testament to the legacy that Mr. Gilbert left as the first of many,” said Johnson, now an Augusta District 1 commissioner and a former student of Paine. “I hope this monument will not only allow us to honor his legacy, but also encourage the next generations to leave their mark on their communities, whether through public service, business or any other endeavor .”

The Georgia Historical Society erected a double-sided marker on Druid Park Avenue in front of Paine’s Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel, named for Gilbert and missionary Walter Russell Lambuth, who in 1911 began missionary trips to the Belgian Congo and founded a church and a school which are still in operation. operates there today.

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Born to slaves in Hephzibah in 1863, Gilbert and his mother Sarah moved to Augusta to be “nurtured in the arms of poverty,” in his words. Excelling academically at Paine in 1884 and 1885, he transferred in 1886 to Brown University in Rhode Island, where he was among the school’s first 10 black students.

Gilbert was awarded a Brown Fellowship to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Greece. His work excavating the ancient city of Eretria made him the first black archaeologist and one of the first Americans to do archaeological work in Greece.

Dr. John WI Lee is the author of the 2021 book “The First Black Archaeologist: A Life of John Wesley Gilbert” and Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Lee also attended the American School and discovering Gilbert while there piqued his interest.

“I followed in Professor Gilbert’s footsteps. I sat in the same library where he was. I saw the same sites. So it was that connection,” said Lee, who attended the ceremony Thursday in Augusta. “Otherwise, I might never have heard of him. I’m a guy from Hawaii, he’s a guy from Georgia, and it was Greece that brought us together.”

This article was originally published on Augusta Chronicle: Paine pays homage to Augusta’s roots, legacy of the first black archaeologist.