MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — As James Finney Jr. looks over a monument on the front lawn of Harrisburg’s Shiloh Baptist Church Thursday, he just barely makes out the 100-year-old names etched on its sides. 

“He died in a hospital in 1918,” said Finney of Willie Warren, one of three black Baldwin County servicemen killed in World War I. “Augustus Austin was killed in battle September the 29th, 1918, and Alex Threat died at Fort Gordon in 1918.”

Erected Jan. 1, 1920, an inscription on the roughly 5-foot obelisk reads, “IN MEMORY OF THE COLORED SOLDIERS OF THE WORLD WAR.” Although the obelisk, which was paid for and raised by the residents of Harrisburg at that time, stood as the first monument to black World War I soldiers of its kind in Georgia, Finney said the marker has been largely forgotten by residents of Harrisburg and Baldwin County. After years of compiling photographs, records, and in-person conversations on the history of Baldwin County, the local historian and Harrisburg native is on a mission to educate residents on this and other forgotten pieces of history.

“I served in the Air Force during Vietnam, and I’ve been noticing the monument here for years and years and years,” said Finney, who lives just a few minutes’ drive away. “When I did the book [“The Making of Milledgeville: The Pictorial History of Baldwin County”], I came out here and took pictures for the book and everything. Well, the book is out, but no one has done anything.”

In compiling data for “The Making of Milledgeville” and his own personal archives, Finney has spent more than a decade uncovering little-known facts about Milledgeville and the surrounding area. Much of his research has focused on the history of black people in Baldwin County, and it seems his research has come at an opportune time. Recently, somebody covered the Harrisburg monument with white and blue paint, and Finney said the paint may require removal by a professional so as not to damage the inscription further. While Threat, Warren and Austin represent a small portion of the black soldiers killed while fighting for America throughout its history, and of the stories and people of Baldwin County, Finney said something as small as a wreath placed near their monument at Christmas would go a long way toward continuing their legacy.

“This year, somebody put wreaths on some of the graves in the veterans cemetary, but I noticed there weren’t any here,” he said. “I said, ‘I’ll fix that,’ because people have forgotten about these soldiers in our neighborhood. … We don’t tend to keep up with stuff like that. We don’t follow up, we don’t take notes, and things get torn down.”

Although the Harrisburg monument represents an important memorial for Milledgeville, and for its black residents especially, the obelisk is not the only piece of history in Finney’s sights. Recently, Finney was approached by Milledgeville City Manager Barry Jarrett about a project to record the experiences of elderly residents for generations to come. 

“What we’re trying to do is to get all the people my age and older to do an oral history about their life in Milledgeville,” he said. “Like the people that worked at the state hospital. How were they treated? What did they do? And stuff like that … just an oral history of their life in Baldwin County as a black person.”

Although the project is still in its early stages, Finney will join local resident Benjamin Lewis and Georgia College Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Veronica Womack in gathering accounts of life in Milledgeville in the early- to mid-20th century. A lifelong resident of Harrisburg, the project holds a certain importance to Finney in his decades-long quest to uncover Baldwin County’s history, and the team already has a few people in mind for the subjects of the first interviews. In continuing his efforts to preserve history that would otherwise pass on with the people who lived it, Finney expressed excitement at the chance to add to his extensive record.

“If I do something on the Masonic Lodge down the road [on West Walton Street], I will have run out of ideas — I can’t think of anything else,” said Finney with a grin. “I am going to update my book, because I have about 20 more pictures. I think they will add about 20 more pages.”