William “Bill” Thomas Barnes

An Educator, Statesman, Mentor, Friend

Today, we bid fare-de-well to our friend and mentor, William “Bill” Thomas Barnes. My grandmother called him Junior Barnes. The year I started first grade, Barnes graduated from Morehouse College.

By happenstance, Barnes became the first male teacher in an elementary school in Bibb County, Georgia. His Morehouse classmate, Donn Clendenon, had been hired to become the…