Interviewee: Mr. Corey Rogers, Male, African American, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, Augusta, Georgia
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Interviewee: Mr. Corey Rogers, male, African American, Lucy Craft Laney Museum of Black History, Augusta, Georgia Interviewer: Dr. Niki Christodoulou, Augusta University ******************** Dr. Christodoulou: Mr. Rogers, Thank you for coming here and so uh, so first of all, I want you to tell me a little bit of information about yourself. Your name, um, ethnic background - if you want to tell me when you were born and where, and this information so that I have an idea of who you are. Mr. Rogers: Sounds good. Um, my name is Corey Rogers. Uh, I was born here in Augusta, Georgia December 15th, 1973. Um, for the most part, I’ve spent most of my life here in Augusta with the exception of going off to school, to Undergraduate, and then graduate school so there was about a seven year stinge I was away from the city. Um, came back around 1999 and I’ve been here ever since - I’ve been back since. Um, Augusta growing up here was a very interesting city, um you know, lots of history, lots of culture here in the Augusta area. Um, it’s a fun place to grow up. One of the things from a personal standpoint: I didn’t know much about Augusta’s history growing up here. My parents are from South Carolina so uh most of my holidays, if not all of my holidays, a lot of what sort of what shaped me came from South Carolina. So it wasn’t till I was in graduate school where I began to fully understand the importance of individuals like Lucy Craft Laney, and Reverend C.T. Walker, and other sort of icon figures in the Augusta history. So, that really wasn’t until I was involved, and I was working on various projects as an adult. Um, but uh let’s see. I guess personally - I love this big city difference it has in bearing but I consider myself sort of a worldly person. I love to travel. I love to meet people. Different people from different walks of life - and actually doing that helps me sort of frame a lot of my worldview, and also helps me understand and do my job here, as well. Um, that’s all, I think, about it. All I can think of about now. (laughs) (2:50 seconds). Dr. Christodoulou: Can I ask more about your personal experiences and how they connect with your work here, as we move on? (2:57 seconds) Mr. Rogers: Sounds good. (2:58 seconds) Dr. Christodoulou: Um, so what is the importance of Mrs. Laney, of Lucy Laney in education… (3:09 seconds) Mr. Rogers: Ok… (3:09 seconds) Dr. Christodoulou: … in the CSRA and even more broadly? (3:13 seconds) Mr. Rogers: Well one thing to understand about Lucy Craft Laney is that she was a national figure of prominence. That’s one thing that I often like to stress when people come to the museum or people ask me about Ms. Laney. Ms. Laney was not this obscure educator living in Augusta with this backwards school that only catered to a certain clientele. At the height of its popularity, the Haines Institute was a nationally recognized school with a very comprehensive education - very detailed outlined programming that Ms. Laney crafted from the very beginning. She as a national figure of prominence - not only did she rise to notoriety but also many of the people that she mentored would also become prominent educators and prominent activists in their own right. Now, there’s a lot to take in when it comes to looking at Ms. Laney and looking at her life. I guess that to your initial question, “What was her contribution to education?” I think that the first thing to understand is that Ms. Laney created what we today would call a comprehensive style approach education. So um, many schools that have a comprehensive education where they offer various tracks from vocational to more classical style, business, a little bit of everything, Ms. Laney had this all the way back to the late 1800s – early 1900s. So, in that case, she was a visionary where she created a school that catered to the various needs of her community. In other words, she recognized early that not everybody could go to college. She recognized early on that not everybody would work well with their hands. So she created a school that offered various avenues for different people, so I think that’s very important. Know that even before it was sort of in vogue to talk about a comprehensive education, here was Ms. Laney who created such, such an uh instrument here in the Augusta area. Um, most of her focus in my opinion, was on a classical style of education. Um, so her – and her students for a four- year liberal arts education. Most of her students once they graduated from Haines would go to certain schools: Atlanta University, which is today Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta Georgia; Lincoln University in Pennsylvania; Howard University – Washington D.C.; and most her students ended up going to Howard would either go to the medical school or the law school. So um, Ms. Laney firmly believed in preparing her students for higher education and the bulk of them ended up going to those schools, and from there ended up carving out their own legacy with respect to their own profession. Whether they were doctors, lawyers, dentists. In the case of Frank Yerby, he became of the most recognizable African American authors of the 20th century educated right at Ms. Laney’s school at Haines and later Payne College. Um and so, that was Frank Yerby. I often use him as an example of the type of product that Ms. Laney produced - the type of student that came out of Haines. Very well prepared, um, you know with a strict curriculum. Strict discipline in terms of how students should act, behave, things of that nature, and it also culminated in these young people who became very, very successful in their personal lives. So, Ms. Laney just had it - the it factor - and education was paramount to her, it was paramount. One thing I often like to point out, uh, is Ms. Laney creating the Haines Institute, it was chartered in 1886. So, here you have 21 years removed from the formal end of slavery in the United States. I think in the mind of Ms. Laney, she wanted to create a school that would educate the sons and daughters of former slaves. It was one generation removed, and even though Ms. Laney was never a slave herself, she was born during slavery in 1854. So, Ms. Laney was born in an era in which African Americans were second class citizens. She saw education as a vehicle to pull them out of the mental shackles of slavery, the physical shackles of slavery, and pull them out of this whole notion of being second class citizens. Education was that doorway they would create - this balance - within American society and so um, I often say Ms. Laney’s purpose in creating the school, and creating the climate of education, it was very purpose driven. She had a purpose in mind. She had a calling in mind, and um she used every resource at her disposal to create the schools and to create the climate for education. (9:08 seconds) Dr. Christodoulou: What were some things about 1886 with uh that’s when slavery ended? (9:17 seconds) Mr. Rogers: Ended in 1865. (9:19 seconds) Dr. Christodoulou: 1965. (9:20 seconds) Mr. Rogers: In 1865. (9:21 seconds) Dr. Christodoulou: In 1865. (9:21 seconds) Mr. Rogers: (smiles, laughter) Yeah. (9:23 seconds) Dr. Christodoulou: So … tell me, what were the happenings during that era? So, the slavery ended. Do you know what other happenings might have helped her formulate her vision, and also gave her the ways to bring her vision to life? (9:58 seconds). Mr. Rogers: Well, first thing um you have is…and this number is pretty staggering if you think about it. But, the first thing that really gave Ms. Laney license to do what she did was Four Million. For the 13th amendment to the Constitution freed 4 million people. So, you have 4 million newly freed slaves as a result of a civil war that was fought that killed over 600,00 Americans. The passage of the 13th Amendment, uh the assassination of our president, so you have a whole lot going on. For these 4 million people who are freed, now what do you do? You have your freedom, what do you do with the freedom? Not only that but let’s not forget the quarter of a million freed people of color and there’s a distinction that I often like to make. Prior to the civil war, there’s always been sort of this myth about the American south, that every person of color was slaved. In fact, at the onset of the hostilities in Charleston in 1861, there was a quarter of a million African Americans who freely lived within the south with very few rights - if not little - to none - no rights at all, in many cases. Some fought for the South as a matter of fact. Thousands of African Americans fought with the South during the Civil War. But, that’s another story for another time. Uh, but here you have 4 million people that's free now; what’s there to do? You also have a federal government who’s come in and imposed um sort of an, almost, formal martial law if you will.