Silas Xavier Floyd

Silas Xavier Floyd was born on October 2, 1869, in Augusta, Georgia. His parents, David Floyd and Sarah Jane, were slaves. His father later became a preacher. By 1891, Floyd was a writer and an editor at the Augusta Sentinel, an African American weekly newspaper and later wrote for the Augusta Chronicle. In 1892, he cofounded the Negro Press Association of Georgia, four years later, he received his license to preach. In 1899, he was a pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church, and while a college student, Floyd began his teaching career. When he returned to Augusta, he served as a principal from the early 1890s to the late 1910s. Inspired by Booker T. Washington, Floyd worked for racial justice through his speeches and writings. The Augusta Chronicle called Floyd the ‘Paul Laurence Dunbar of the South.’ His works include Floyd’s Flowers; Or Duty and Beauty for Colored Children (Hertel, Jenkins & Co., 1905); Silas X. Floyd’s Short Stories for Colored People Both Old and Young (Hertel, Jenkins & Co., 1905); Life of Charles T. Walker (National Baptist Publishing Board, 1902); and A Sketch of Charles T. Walker, D. D.: Pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church (Sentinel Publishing Co., 1892). In the aftermath of the Great Augusta Fire of 1916, Floyd chaired the Colored Charitable Relief Fund. Seven years later, Floyd died in Augusta on September 19, 1923.