public_html directory authentication

[John D <javadevelopercl@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm running Apache/2.2.3 on a centos 5 server and trying to setup authentication for a subdirectory in a user's public_html folder.
I created a .htaccess file and .htpasswd file in that subdirectory  with permissions 0644. But now the subdirectory does not show up 
on the web page. In my httpd.conf file I have:

 <Directory /home/*/public_html>
   AllowOverride AuthConfig
 </Directory>

I've also tried adding this to the httpd conf file
 <Directory /home/username/public_html/Private>
    AuthType Basic
    AuthUserFile  /home/username/public_html/Private/.htpasswd
    AuthName Test
    Require valid-user
</Directory>


but that also doesn't seem to work. The only thing that works a bit for me is to set AllowOverride to None in the /home/*/public_html directory config but that just enables the folder to show and does no authentication. Can anyone help me?

Thanks