History of Walker Baptist Association of Georgia

Augusta, GA: Chronicle Job Print, 1909. Good. 8¾" x 5½". Red cloth, title gilt. Pp. [author frontis], 276 + three page table of contents and 23 plates interspersed. About good: spine appears to be fully perished and crudely repaired with tape; endpapers crudely renewed; hinges cracked but holding; scrawled pencil notations to verso of frontis and last (blank) page; several leaves with tiny tears, folds or faint stains at edges.

This is a thorough and compelling history of an organization of Black Baptist churches in Georgia, the Walker Baptist Association (WBA). It was compiled by Reverend R.J. Johnson, who served as pastor of four churches and treasurer of the association. WBA was organized in 1868 with seven churches in Jefferson County, Georgia. At the time of this book's publication WBA covered eight counties and included a Sunday School program, missionary department, women's auxiliary and a high school, known as the Walker Baptist Institute (WBI). According to their website, WBA is "striving today, with the same mission: To Educate and Train."

The book provides a detailed chronology of WBA, including background on its leaders, churches, programs and WBI. One chapter was devoted to the WBA meeting of 1900, at which attendance "broke all former records" and the debt that had been acquired by WBI since its 1881 opening was paid in full. There are extended biographies of both "fallen heroes" and living leaders including the president of the women's auxiliary, Elizabeth Berrien, in whom WBI had "a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." The book also has lists of officers and pastors, and a chart of church data including membership counts and when each joined WBA. One table listed WBA meetings over the years, revealing locations, officers and money raised. Twenty-three photographic illustrations show churches, school buildings and WBA leaders including one woman, WBI teacher Inez Johnson.

A rich history of an association of African American Baptists in Georgia, which its author contended was "an institution that stands for the moral, industrial and intellectual uplift of one race of the world's great family." OCLC shows 21 holdings.