The 128th Georgia General Assembly convened its first session on January 13, 1965, at the
Georgia State Capitol
The Georgia State Capitol is an architecturally and historically significant building in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The building has been named a National Historic Landmark which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As t ...
in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. The 128th Georgia General Assembly succeeded the
127th and served as the precedent for the
129th in 1967.
Governor
Carl Sanders
Carl Edward Sanders Sr. (May 15, 1925 – November 16, 2014) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 74th Governor of the state of Georgia from 1963 to 1967.
Early life and education
Carl Sanders was born on May 15, 1925 in ...
, who was elected in 1962 as the first governor elected by popular vote since 1908, spearheaded a massive
reapportionment
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionme ...
of
Georgia's General Assembly and 10
U.S. Congressional districts
Congressional districts in the United States are electoral divisions for the purpose of electing members of the United States House of Representatives. The number of voting seats in the House of Representatives is currently set at 435, with ...
, providing more proportional representation to the state's urban areas.
This, as well as passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
and
Voting Rights Act of 1965
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movement ...
had opened voter registration to blacks, saw eleven
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in special elections in 1965 and 1966. By ending the disfranchisement of blacks through discriminatory voter registration, African Americans regained the ability to vote and entered the political process. This was the first time that African-Americans had sat in the House since
W. H. Rogers
W. H. Rogers was an American politician. He was a state legislator in Georgia and was the only African-American to serve in the Georgia State Assembly, 99th Georgia State Assembly. He represented McIntosh County, Georgia from 1902 until 1907.
Pol ...
of
McIntosh resigned his seat in 1907 during the
99th Assembly. Among them were six from Atlanta (William Alexander,
Julian Bond,
Benjamin D. Brown
Benjamin D. Brown (November 14, 1939 – February 1, 1999) was an American politician. He served as a Democratic member of the Georgia House of Representatives.
Life and career
Brown was born in Macon County, Georgia. He attended South Fult ...
,
Julius C. Daugherty Sr., J. D. Grier,
Grace Towns Hamilton
Grace Towns Hamilton (February 10, 1907 – June 17, 1992) was an American politician who was the first African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly. As executive director of the Atlanta Urban League from 1943 to 1960, Hamilt ...
,
John Hood John Hood may refer to:
People
* John Hood (MP, fl.1393–99), English politician, MP for Leominster
* John Hood (MP, fl.1421–29), English politician, MP for Leominster
*John Hood (inventor) (1720–1783), Irish surveyor and inventor
*John Hood ( ...
) and one each from Columbus (
Albert Thompson) and Augusta (
Richard Dent
Richard Lamar Dent (born December 13, 1960) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL), primarily for the Chicago Bears. He was the MVP of Super Bowl XX. He was elected to t ...
).
Horace T. Ward
Horace Taliaferro Ward (July 29, 1927 – April 23, 2016) was a lawyer, state legislator, and judge in Georgia. He become known for his efforts to challenge the racially discriminatory practices at the University of Georgia School of Law and was ...
also joined
Leroy Johnson as the second African-American in the State Senate.
Controversy
On January 10, 1966, Georgia state representatives voted 184–12 not to seat
Julian Bond, one of the eleven African-American members, because he had publicly endorsed
SNCC's policy regarding
opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. They disliked his stated sympathy for persons who were "unwilling to respond to a military draft".
[''The World Almanac 1967'', pp. 54–55] A three-judge panel on the
ruled in a 2–1 decision that the Georgia House had not violated any of Bond's constitutional rights. In 1966, the
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
ruled 9–0 in the case of ''
Bond v. Floyd
''Bond v. Floyd'', 385 U.S. 116 (1966), was a United States Supreme Court case.
Background
Julian Bond, an African American, was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in June 1965. Bond was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinat ...
'' (385 U.S. 116) that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
and was required to seat him.
Party standing
Senate
* Republicans: 9
* Democrats: 44
* Independents: 1
House
Officers
Senate
* President:
Peter Zack Geer
Peter Zack Geer (August 24, 1928 – January 5, 1997) was an American lawyer and a Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Georgia.
Geer was born in Colquitt in Miller County in southwestern Georgia. In 1951 he graduated from the Wal ...
* President pro tempore:
Harry C. Jackson
* Administration Floor Leader:
Julian Webb
Thomas Julian Webb (October 2, 1911 – October 29, 2002) was a member of the Georgia State Senate from 1963 to 1974. He was also a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals from 1974 to 1979.
Early life
Webb was born in Byromville, Georgia in Doo ...
* Secretary:
George T. Stewart
* Assistant Secretary: Lamont Smith
House
* Speaker:
George T. Smith
George Thornewell Smith (October 15, 1916 – August 23, 2010) was an American Democratic Party politician and jurist from the state of Georgia. The sixth Lieutenant Governor, state legislator, Speaker of the State House of Representatives, was ...
* Speaker pro tempore:
Maddox Hale
* Administration Floor Leader:
George Busbee
George Dekle Busbee Sr. (August 7, 1927 – July 16, 2004), was an American politician who served as the 77th Governor of the State of Georgia from 1975 to 1983, and a senior partner at King & Spalding thereafter.
Early life
Born in Vienna, Geor ...
* Assistant Floor Leader:
J. Robin Harris
Members of the State Senate
Members of the House
References
{{reflist
External links
Georgia's Official Register 1965–1966
Georgia (U.S. state) legislative sessions
1965 in Georgia (U.S. state)
1966 in Georgia (U.S. state)