Race, Class, and the Cumming Case

The third of three lectures that I delivered in Augusta during the centennial of the decision in the Cumming case, this paper examined not only the significance of the Ware High story for interpretations of the course of the history of southern race relations, but also two questions of social history: First, what were the attitudes of whites toward the high school education of Blacks in late 19th century Augusta, and did they differ by class? And second, was the African-American group that defended the Ware High School an unrepresentative, irresponsible elite, divorced from and opposed to the interests of the black masses?