sites

=**Historic African-American Sites in Newton County, GA**= = =

Sites of significance in Newton County's African-American History include:


 * Covington:**

//Bethlehem Baptist Church.// The oldest African-American church in Newton county. 2177 Usher St.

//Covington Square//. Site of major Civil Rights marches in the 1970s.

//Jail.// (site of future Newton County History Museum). Civil rights protesters were jailed here in 1970. Corner of Stallings & Hunter St.

//Sims Barber Shop.// (Hendricks Street, just off of Washington Street in downtown Covington). Dates back to 1960.

//St. Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church.// St. Paul's served as the major meeting site for nightly civil rights mass meetings in the spring of 1970. When young people boycotted the Newton County public school system, St. Paul's served as the only freedom school in the county. St. Paul 's African Methodist Episcopal Church, Located, Stone Mountain St.

//Town House Café.// Off Covington Square, on Washington Street. Business owner Ossie Lee Hamm.

//Washington Street School.// Currently: the Washington Street Community Center on School Street, Covington.

Westside Cemetery (the largest historically African-American cemetery in the county). Location, West St.

Colored Cemetery (the historically black section of the Covington City Cemetery, on the east side of downtown)


 * Oxford:**

//Historically African-American cemetery//. Includes headstone of Rev. Potter, a free man of color, who served as a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

//Kitty's Cottage.// Slave quarters, said to have been occupied by Miss Kitty (c. 1833-c.1855), an enslaved woman owned by Bishop James O. Andrew of the Methodist Church. Located behind Old Church.

//Mitchell and Hammond marker.// Plaque and tree dedicated to the memory of Billy Mitchell and Bob Hammond, custodians at Emory College/Emory-at-Oxford. On the Oxford College campus in front of the Science building.

//Rust Chapel United Methodist Church//.

//Mt. Zion Baptist Church.// Emerged out of Bethlehem Baptist Church.


 * Mansfield**

[|Burge Plantation]. In 1860, Dolly H. Burge owned 32 slaves.


 * Porterdale** Site of the three major cotton mills and the number one employer of African-Americans in the 1950's & 1960's. The mill being owned by the Bibb Mfg. Co. of Macon, Ga. also furnished housing, and schooling for it's employees. The colored housing, being locate across the railroads track on Hwy. 81 toward Covington City limits, in the colored quarters called Rose Hill. The school for coloreds was also located there and served as a Church on Sundays. Porterdale now, some twenty years after the Bibb Mfg. left, Porterdale is now in the revitalization mode, with the some parts mill being transform into condominiums, restaurants & shops, which also includes an Art Gallery that is owned by a African-American. This complex has several African-Americans businesses that are located on the main street in Porterdale. There are several areas still under construction as of July 2007.

[|Information on Newborn]. Newborn is a town in Newton County, Georgia, United states. The population was 520 at the 2000 census. [|**Starrsville Info**] Starrsville is a community or populated place in Newton County.
 * Newborn -**
 * Starrsville -**

//For more information about the African-American Historical Association of Newton County, or to share information about the county's African-American history, please contact the association president Mr. Forrest Sawyer, Jr. (770) 788-0792.// //forrestsawyer1@gmail.com//