provided by Joyce D. Law:

A 1968 alumnus of T. W. Josey High School and current resident of Stone Mountain, GA, Samuel Chiles visited the Georgia Room (15 September 2023) with Friends of the Augusta Library council member Joyce Law to donate materials from his late mother’s collection. Mrs. Samuella Willoughby Chiles, a graduate of both Paine Institute and Paine College, retired from the Richmond County Board of Education, after several decades of teaching at Lucy Craft Laney Comprehensive High School. As a resident of a Rosalie Street, Samuel is among the early graduating classes of Josey, who otherwise would have attended Laney before the construction of the second high school in a predominantly African-American neighborhood. The proximity enabled him to walk to school and more freely participate in extracurricular activities. Samuel’s older sister, Francene, is represented in the Laney Class of 1963, which includes internationally renowned vocalist Jessye Norman.

Willie Chiles, paternal uncle of Samuel, is remembered as Sunday School Superintendent of Bethel A. M. E. Church. Reared in the Little Dublin Section of Laney-Walker Historic District, Mr. Chiles became one of the most knowledgeable individuals about Augusta’s popular history through his role as a window clerk at the Main Branch of the U.S. Post Office. Mr. Chiles interrupted his academic work at Paine College to serve as a logistics warrant office during WWII. He returned and graduated with the Class of 194-. His spouse, Maude, also Paine Institute and Paine College graduate became one of the inaugural faculty members handpicked by Charter Principal Lloyd K. Reese. Mrs. Chiles gained her experience as a professional Librarian at the Calloway Library of her Alma mater Paine College.

Mrs. Chiles father, Samuel Willoughby, graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 189-. He trained at Ft. Des Moines, Iowa during WWI and later worked as the Richmond County Negro Extension Service Agent during the Jim Crow period of racial segregation. Mr. Willoughby eventually entered federal employment, retiring from the U. S. Postal Service. These class pictures represent milestones in education, individual and collective achievement, as well as the hope and dreams of multiple generations to pierce the limits of racial segregation and build foundations to achieve their dreams.