The 1867–1868 Georgia State Constitutional Convention was held for the purpose of constructing a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

for the state following the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Held in Atlanta, the convention started on December 9, 1867 and ran through March 1868.
Journal of the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the people of Georgia : held in the City of Atlanta in the months of December, 1867, and January, February and March, 1868, and ordinances and resolutions adopted / published by order of the Convention
'. Augusta, Georgia: E. H. Pughe Book & Job Printer, 1868. Accessed January 18, 2023. Its delegates included 137 white men and 33 African American men. It was the first constitutional convention to involve the participation of African-American delegates. It created a new constitution for Georgia that included suffrage for African-American males; this was a mandate of the congressional Reconstruction Acts.

Delegates

Delegates to the convention were elected by district. Its members included the following:

First Election District

* M. H. Bentley *

Aaron Alpeoria Bradley Aaron Alpeoria Bradley (–1881) was born into slavery, escaped, and became a lawyer in Massachusetts. After the American Civil War he moved to Georgia. He was denied admittance to the Georgia Bar, but became a political activist and worked as a l ...

* Walter L. Clift * A. L. Harris * C. H. Hopkins * W. H. D. Reynolds * Isaac Seeley *

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...

Second Election District

* Tunis G. Campbell * William A. Goulding

Third Election District

* A. M. Moore

Fourth Election District

* F. M. Smith

Fifth Election District

* P. B. Bedford

Sixth Election District

* Levi J. Knight * Lewis H. Roberts

Seventh Election District

* W. C. Carson * J. L. Cutler * M. C. Smith

Eighth Election District

* John Higden * B. F. Powell *

Richard H. Whiteley Richard Henry Whiteley (December 22, 1830 – September 26, 1890) was a U.S. representative and U.S. senator-elect from Georgia. He is the only Republican to ever hold the 2nd congressional district from Georgia. Biography Born in County Kild ...

Ninth Election District

* H. H. Christian * William W. Dews * Charles C. Martin

Tenth Election District

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 ...

* John Murphy *

Benjamin Sikes Bartholomew Sikes (died 1803) was an officer in the employ of HM Excise who in the late 18th century perfected a device by which the alcoholic content of a liquid can be measured. The success of the device caused his name to be immortalised in an ...

* F. O. Welch

Eleventh Election District

* Robert Alexander *

J. A. Jackson ''J. The Jewish News of Northern California'', formerly known as ''Jweekly'', is a weekly print newspaper in Northern California, with its online edition updated daily. It is owned and operated by San Francisco Jewish Community Publications In ...

* W. H. Noble * John Whitaker

Twelfth Election District

* J. E. Blount * G. W. Chatters * Thomas Crayton

Thirteenth Election District)

* Jesse Dinkins * J. E. Hall * Robert Lumpkin * H. K. McCoy * F. Snead

Fourteenth Election District

* J. M. Buchan * S. F. Salter *

Simeon Stanley Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated as Shimon. In Greek it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, so ...

* J. W. Trawick

Fifteenth Election District

* A. J. Cameron

Sixteenth Election District

E. W. Lane Edward William Lane (17 September 1801 – 10 August 1876) was a British orientalist, translator and lexicographer. He is known for his ''Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians'' and the '' Arabic-English Lexicon,'' as well as his transla ...

* George Linder

Seventeenth Election District

Malcolm Claiborne Malcolm Claiborne (c. 1838–July 25, 1870), sometimes spelled Claiborn, was an elected representative in the Georgia Legislature. An African American, he along with 25 of 29 African Americans elected in Georgia in 1868 were denied seats by ...

* H. H. Glisson * J. A. Madden * J. M. Rice * Robert Whitehead

Eighteenth Election District

Simeon Beard Simeon W. Beard was an American minister, teacher, and politician who worked in Charleston, South Carolina and then in Augusta, Georgia. He served in the Union Army. He was a delegate to Georgia's constitutional convention in 1867 and 1868.Freedom ...

Foster Blodgett Foster Blodgett Jr. (c. 1827–1877) was an American politician elected mayor of Augusta, Georgia, from 1859 to 1860, and returned to the mayoralty via military appointment between 1867 and 1868. Blodgett was elected to the United States Senate b ...

* J. E. Bryant *

Rufus B. Bullock Rufus Brown Bullock (March 28, 1834 – April 27, 1907) was a Republican Party politician and businessman in Georgia. During the Reconstruction Era he served as the state's governor and called for equal economic opportunity and political rights f ...

Benjamin Conley Benjamin Conley (March 1, 1815 – January 10, 1886) was an American politician from the state of Georgia, who served as the 47th Governor of Georgia from October 30, 1871, to January 12, 1872. He also previously served as the mayor of Augusta ...

John Neal John Neal may refer to: * John Neal (writer) (1793–1876), American writer, critic, and activist * John R. Neal (1836–1889), American politician * John Randolph Neal Jr. (1876–1959), American lawyer * John Neal (politician) (1889–1962), Br ...

Alexander Stone Alexander Stone was a member of Georgia's constitutional convention held in 1867 and 1868 and was an elected member of the Georgia Legislature in 1868. He was a Republican. Biography Stone and 25 of 29 African Americans elected during the post-A ...

Nineteenth Election District

Joseph Adkins Joseph Adkins (February 5, 1815 – May 10, 1869) was a Minister (Christianity), minister and state senator in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia during the Reconstruction Era after the American Civil War. He was a Republican (Third Party System), Repu ...

* D. P. Baldwin * John W. T. Catchings * Robert Crumbley * Henry Strickland

Twentieth Election District

* William Henry Harrison * Daniel Palmer *

Charles H. Prince Charles Henry Prince (May 9, 1837 – April 3, 1912) was a U.S. Representative from Georgia. Early life Charles Henry Prince was born in Buckfield, Maine to Noah Prince and Sarah Farrar. His father was a judge and a state politician. Noah P ...

* C. C. Richardson * W. C. Supple *

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...

Twenty-first Election District

* Thomas Gibson * Samuel Gove * William Griffin *

Charles Hooks Charles Hooks (February 20, 1768 – October 18, 1843) was a United States Representative from North Carolina; born in Bertie County, North Carolina, February 20, 1768; when he was two years old his parents moved to Duplin County, North Carolina a ...

Twenty-second Election District

* F. Wooten * A. Bowdoin * M. Cooper * W. J. Howe * M. A. Potts * T. J. Speer *

Henry McNeal Turner Henry McNeal Turner (February 1, 1834 – May 8, 1915) was an American minister, politician, and the 12th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). After the American Civil War, he worked to establish new A.M ...

* G. G. Wilbur

Twenty-third Election District

* J. H. Anderson * S. A. Cobb *

William P. Edwards William Posey Edwards (November 9, 1835 – June 28, 1900) was a U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower ch ...

* Posey Maddox * O. H. Walton

Twenty-fourth Election District

George W. Ashburn George W. Ashburn (April 13, 1814 – March 31, 1868) was a Radical Republican US Senate candidate and judge assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan in Columbus, Georgia, for his pro-African-American actions. He was the first murder victim of the Klan in ...

* J. C. Casey * Thomas Gilbert * Van Jones * J. G. Maul

Twenty-fifth Election District

* T. J. Costin *

William Guilford William A. Guilford (5 February 1844 – c. October 1909) was a businessman and state legislator from Upson County, Georgia.; Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds., ''African American National Biography'' (Harvard University ...

* E. J. Higbee * L. L. Stanford * Samuel Williams

Twenty-sixth Election District

* S. T. W. Minor * W. H. Rozar * W. H. Whitehead

Twenty-seventh Election District

* James C. Barton * J. W. Christian * C. D. Davis * John Harris * N. P. Hotchkiss

Twenty-eighth Election District

* A. G. Foster * H. S. Glover * J. R. Hudson * William F. Jordan * T. P. Saffold

Twenty-ninth Election District

* D. G. Cotting * James Knox * Romulus Moore * Lewis Pope * Josiah Sherman

Thirtieth Election District

Amos T. Akerman Amos Tappan Akerman (February 23, 1821 – December 21, 1880) was an American politician who served as United States Attorney General under President Ulysses S. Grant from 1870 to 1871. A native of New Hampshire, Akerman graduated from Dartmouth ...

* J. Bell * E. S. Cobb * J. McWhorter

Thirty-first Election District

* William F. Bowers * S. W. Crawford * Philip Martin

Thirty-second Election District

* Milton Moore * J. A. Woody

Thirty-third Election District

* Madison Bell * Benjamin Dunnigan * William L. Marler

Thirty-fourth Election District

* J. R. Bracewell * Shadrick Brown * S. E. Dailey * J. Mathews * B. D. Shumate

Thirty-fifth Election District

Nedom L. Angier Nedom L. Angier (November 10, 1814 – February 3, 1882) was the Mayor of Atlanta from 1877 to 1879. To date, he is the last Republican to hold that office. Biography Born in Acworth, New Hampshire, he came to Georgia in 1839 and taught sch ...

* H. G. Cole * James L. Dunning * J. H. Flinn * David Irwin * W. C. Lee * H. V. M. Miller

Thirty-sixth Election District

* J. S. Bigby * J. C. Bowden * P. W. Chambers * J. W. Key * W. C. Smith

Thirty-seventh Election District

John H. Caldwell John Homer Caldwell (born November 28, 1928) is a retired American nordic skier who competed in the 1952 Winter Olympics, then became a cross-country ski coach and authority on cross-country skiing. He wrote a series of books that helped popula ...

* A. H. Harrison *

George Harlan George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

* E. B. Martin * Robert Robertson

Thirty-eighth Election District

* T. J. Foster * R. B. Hutcherson * J. D. Waddell

Thirty-ninth Election District

* A. W. Holcombe * S. T. Houston * J. G. Lott

Fortieth Election District

* John Bryson * W. T. Crane

Forty-first Election District

* C. A. Ellington * Wilkey McHan

Forty-second Election District

* George B. Burnett * William A. Fort * W. L. Goodwin * J. R. Parrott * Wesley Shropshire

Forty-third Election District

* S. E. Fields *

John H. King John Haskell King (February 19, 1820 – April 7, 1888) was a United States Army officer who fought in the Mexican–American War and in the American Civil War. A regular soldier with a career span of 45 years; he distinguished himself in the civ ...

* Leander Newton Trammell

Forty-fourth Election District

* John M. Shields * Presley Yates

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1867-1868 American constitutional conventions Constitution of Georgia (U.S. state)