William Jefferson White (December 25, 1831 – April 17, 1913) was a civil rights leader, minister, educator, and journalist in Augusta, Georgia. He was the founder of Harmony Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia in 1869 as well as other churches. He also was a co-founder of the Augusta Institute in 1867, which would become Morehouse College. He also helped found Atlanta University and was a trustee of both schools. He was a founder in 1880 and the managing editor of the Georgia Baptist, a leading African American newspaper for many years. He was an outspoken civil rights leader. Early life William Jefferson White was born at Ruckersville, Georgia on December 25, 1831 to Chaney and William White. His father was white and his mother had African-American and Native American ancestors. He could pass for white, but self-identified as black. His mother was a slave, but he never was. He was taught to read by his mother. At the age of seven he started working in a cotton factory, where he worked for three years. He also spent a short time working on a wagon travelling rural parts of the state selling the factory's goods. In June, 1842 he went to Augusta, Georgia where he lived with the family of Captain W. G. Nimms where he learned to write. He then took an apprenticeship as a carpenter for W. H. Goodrich, where he stayed for five years before moving on to cabinet making under C. A. Platt & Co. where he spent two years. He continued this work until 1867. During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the blockade shut out printing supplies to southern printers, and White learned to make printers' wooden furniture, which helped him in his later journalism career. He never formally attended college, but did take part in the courses at the Augusta Institute, which he helped found, and in 1889 was given an honorary Doctor of Divinity by the State University of Kentucky. Career as an educator During the early period of White's career, he began teaching. In 1853, he opened a secret night school at the home of Samuel Ketch. He started another school at the home of Deacon Anderson Hartwell in 1854, which remained open until the Hartwell family moved to Liberia. After that point, this school was taught on the premises of Judge W. T. Gould without Gould's knowledge. Later in 1854 he opened