The Camilla massacre took place in

Camilla, Georgia Camilla is a city in Mitchell County, Georgia, United States, and is its county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 5,187. History The city was incorporated in 1858. The name Camilla was chosen in honor of the granddaugh ...

, on Saturday, September 19, 1868. African Americans had been given the right to vote in Georgia's 1868 state constitution, which had passed in April, and in the months that followed, whites across the state used violence to combat their newfound political strength, often through the newly founded

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

. Georgia agents of the

Freedmen’s Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was an agency of early Reconstruction, assisting freedmen in the South. It was established on March 3, 1865, and operated briefly as a ...

recorded 336 cases of murder or assault with intent to kill against freedmen from January 1 through November 15. The massacre followed the expulsion of the

Original 33 The "Original 33" were the first 33 African-American members of the Georgia General Assembly. They were elected to office in 1868, during the Reconstruction era. They were among the first African-American state legislators in the United States. ...

black members of the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...

earlier that month. Among those expelled was southwest Georgia representative

Philip Joiner Philip Joiner was a delegate to the 1867 constitutional convention in Georgia and an elected representative to the Georgia Assembly in 1868. He and other African Americans were prohibited from taking office by their colleagues in the Georgia Asse ...

. On September 19, Joiner led a twenty-five-mile march of several hundred blacks (

freedmen A freedman or freedwoman is a formerly enslaved person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, enslaved people were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their captor-owners), abolitionism, emancipation (gra ...

), as well as a few whites, from

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia ...

, to Camilla, the Mitchell County seat, to attend a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

political rally on the courthouse square. Estimates of the number of participants range from 150 to 300. The local sheriff and " citizens committee" in the majority-white town warned the black and white activists that they would be met with violence, and demanded that they surrender their guns, even though carrying weapons was legal and customary at the time. The marchers refused to give up their guns and continued to the courthouse square, where a group of local whites, quickly deputized by the sheriff, fired upon them. This assault forced the Republicans and freedmen to retreat into the swamps as locals gave chase, killing an estimated nine to fifteen of the black rally participants while wounding forty others. "Whites proceeded through the countryside over the next two weeks, beating and warning Negroes that they would be killed if they tried to vote in the coming election." The Camilla Massacre was the culmination of smaller acts of anti-Black violence committed by white inhabitants that had plagued southwest Georgia since the end of the Civil War. The massacre received national publicity, prompted Congress to return Georgia to military occupation, and was a factor in the 1868 U.S. presidential election. "The Camilla Massacre remained part of southwest Georgia's hidden past until 1998, when Camilla residents publicly acknowledged the massacre for the first time and commemorated its victims."

References

{{Lynching in the United States 1868 murders in the United States Massacres in 1868 September 1868 events Mitchell County, Georgia Riots and civil disorder during the Reconstruction Era African-American history of Georgia (U.S. state) Lynching deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) 1868 in Georgia (U.S. state) Racially motivated violence against African Americans Anti-black racism in the United States Protest-related deaths Mass murder in the United States Riots and civil disorder in Georgia (U.S. state) Ku Klux Klan in Georgia (U.S. state)

See also

References