02/20/2025
Professor William Hubbard was born in Wilkinson County just after the Civil War. He attended Ballard Normal School in Macon and graduated from Ballard in 1891. He went on to attend Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Hubbard married Mollie Helena Worthy, a Ballard Normal graduate from Monroe County.
After he graduated from Fisk, he taught for four years in Cuthbert, Georgia. As an educated Black man, always focused on teaching opportunities and giving back to the community. Hubbard entered the teaching arena in Monroe County by a unique way.
As he attempted to support his family as a photographer, a minister at the Kynette Methodist Church allowed him to maintain his photography lab in the basement of the church. In exchange for having a place to work, Hubbard taught seven students at the minister’s request, thus beginning William Hubbard’s historic educational efforts in Monroe County.
With the help of both white and Black residents in Monroe County, Hubbard went only to establish the Forsyth Industrial School in December of 1902. In 1931, the name changed to the State Teachers and Agricultural College under the University System of Georgia. It became one of Georgia’s top institutions to educate Black teachers. After much debate, the school was merged with the Fort Valley State College in 1938. Hubbard served as Director of Public Relations at Fort Valley State, until he was hospitalized at Saint Luke Hospital in Macon.
Today, Samuel Hubbard Elementary School, named after William's son, educates students in Monroe County. The William Hubbard campus, where the original building once stood, is now a community park and museum of educational history. Decades of students have passed through the schools which also served a site of community unity.
