AUGUSTA, GA – History and art share the stage in this week’s issue of the Metro Spirit.

In our main feature, “Forty Years Later,” freelance writer Timothy Cox describes how Augusta College graduates Ed Polite and Grace Beard Harris tore down racial barriers as the first black students to graduate from the university in 1969.

Harris, a long-time Chicago resident, had graduated with honors from Lucy Laney High School in 1965 and spent two years at Spelman College before transferring to Augusta College in January 1968.

She recalls to Cox a moment when a professor made his intentions about teaching black students abundantly clear.

“I had a history professor tell me, ‘You may be here, but that doesn’t mean I have to pass you.’ I wasn’t there for a fight, so I simply dropped the class,” she told Cox. “I was there to get my degree, not fight a system.”

She achieved that goal by graduating with a sociology degree in 1969.

But, with all of the history Augusta State University has in this community, it is unfortunate that the university apparently did not keep official records of the first black students accepted at the college.

According to Cox’s story this week, mountains of discrepancies exist when he was trying to determine who was the first black student to register.

There is only general consensus that students Eugene Hunt, Ed Polite, Grace Beard Harris, Rose White, Lillie Butler Johnson, Joe Greene, Charles Walker, Henry Ingram and Terry Elam are among the earliest blacks to register at Augusta College.

Those students made an extremely positive change in the course of the university’s history and they deserve recognition.

Also in this week’s issue, the Spirit’s Creative Director Jason Craig interviews local artist Henry Wynn Jr. about his love of both art and music.

Wynn, who has been drawing since he was a child, is known throughout the community for spending months arranging tiny dots onto thick paper to produce everything from portraits of folk musicians to drawings of long-time establishments around town.

Craig writes, in the feature, “Connecting the Dots,” that Wynn’s greatest honor was being asked to draw a portrait of legendary guitarist Doc Watson to be presented to the Watson family.

“Any time you can mix the art and the music together it’s just great,” Wynn told Craig. Wynn was also thrilled to be asked to draw a portrait for the Blind Willie McTell Festival in Thomson.

“Nobody had really done it, other than impressionistic,” he told Craig. “I wanted to get every string on that guitar.”

If you want an inside look at Augusta’s past, these two features will help you understand the heart and soul of Augusta and its community.