Henry County, Georgia

Henry County is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2020 census, the population of Henry County was 240,712, up from 203,922 in 2010. The county seat is McDonough. The county was named for Patrick Henry.

Henry County is part of the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA metropolitan statistical area. The Henry County Courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

Henry County, Georgia, was created by the Georgia State Legislature in 1821 from land acquired from the Creek Indian Nation by the First Treaty of Indian Springs. Henry's original land area was much larger than it is today, stretching from near Indian Springs (present-day Indian Springs State Park) in the south to the Chattahoochee River near Sandy Springs in the north; encompassing most of present-day Metropolitan Atlanta. Before one year had passed, the size of the county was diminished through the separation of land areas which, in whole or in part, became the present-day DeKalb, Fulton, Fayette and Newton counties. Later divisions resulted in Clayton, Spalding, Rockdale and Butts counties.

In the beginning Henry County was a virgin wilderness, having just been ceded from the Creek Nation. Prior to 1821, the Creeks and a few trappers and traders were the only residents of this area. The Creek Indians left their mark through place names, a few small Indian Mounds scattered around the county and through the arrowheads and broken pottery which can be found throughout Henry County.

Jesse Johnson, son of John Johnson and great-grandfather of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson, was a "first settler" of Henry County. He was a prosperous farmer, the second sheriff (1822–1835), and judge, before he moved to Texas.
Jonesboro Road stretches through the county. In 1995, Henry County was the sixth-fastest-growing county in the United States.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.4%) is water.

The vast majority of Henry County is located in the Upper Ocmulgee River basin, with just a very small western corner, west of Hampton, located in the Upper Flint River sub-basin of the ACF River Basin (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin).

Adjacent counties

* DeKalb County – north
* Rockdale County – northeast
* Newton County – east Northeast
* Butts County – southeast
* Spalding County – southwest
* Clayton County – west

Communities

Cities

* Hampton
* Locust Grove
* McDonough
* Stockbridge

Census-designated place

* Heron Bay (part)

Unincorporated communities

* Blacksville
* Ellenwood (part)
* Flippen
* Kelleytown
* Luella
* Ola

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 240,712 people, 79,550 households, and 60,471 families residing in the county.

Economy

Goya Foods has its Atlanta offices in an unincorporated area near McDonough.

Additionally, a pair of warehouses used to exist along US 23 south of McDonough, one of which was owned by Whirlpool Corporation, and the other by Toys 'R' Us.

Media

WKKP is the local radio media outlet. It broadcasts 24 hours a day on 100.9 FM and 1410 AM, and has a classic country format.

The '' Henry Herald'' is the local county news print media.

Sports

The semi-professional soccer team Georgia Revolution FC plays in the National Premier Soccer League at the Warhawk Stadium.

Atlanta Motor Speedway is located in Henry County and hosts an annual NASCAR race and many other events throughout the year, including the 2021 Publix Atlanta Marathon, which moved to the Speedway premises.

Education

Local public schools are operated by the Henry County Schools.

Enriched Virtual Program

* Impact academy

Alternative schools

* EXCEL Academy (known as Patrick Henry alternative)
* Mainstay Academy (GNETS - Special Education)

Private schools

* ABC Montessori (Toddler - 12)
* Bible Baptist Christian School (K4–12)
* Community Christian School (Nursery–12)
* Creekside Christian Academy
* Eagle's Landing Christian Academy (K3–12)
* Lake Dow Christian Academy
* New Creation Christian Academy
* North Henry Academy (K3–8)
* Strong Rock Christian School (K–12)
* Peoples Baptist Academy
* Heritage Baptist Christian School
* The Sharon School
* McDonough Methodist Academy

Higher education

Mercer University has a Regional Academic Center in McDonough. The center, opened in 2003, offers programs through the university's College of Continuing and Professional Studies and Mercer's Tift College of Education. Clayton State University and Gordon College also offer a range of college courses at the Academy for Advanced Studies in McDonough.

Southern Crescent Technical College's Henry County Center (in McDonough) offers programs in Allied Health, Business Technology, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Computer Information Systems, Personal Services, Public Safety, and Drafting Technology.

Government and politics

The Henry County Board of Commissioners is responsible for administering county government to residents. Four commissioners are elected by voters in individual districts, while the commission chairman is elected countywide and serves as the county's chief executive. June Wood, the former commission chair, was the first African-American to serve in the position after being elected in a December 2016 run-off election. She left office in December 2020 after losing her bid for re-election. As of January 2023, the following individuals serve the county on the Board of Commissioners:

Prior to 1984, Henry County had a presidential voting pattern typical of any other Solid South county in Georgia, consistently awarding landslide margins to Democrats. In 1920, it was one of three counties in the state (alongside Bleckley and Columbia) to give 100% of the vote to Democratic nominee James M. Cox. The first Republican to win Henry County was Richard Nixon in 1972, doing so with 77.93% of the vote, though it returned to the Democratic column when native Georgian Jimmy Carter won it in 1976 and 1980.

From 1984 to 2004, Henry County was a Republican stronghold, consistent with several Atlanta suburbs, as well as other suburban areas across the country. Strong margins in Henry County and other Atlanta suburbs were vital to Republicans' performance, offsetting strongly Democratic Black voters in Atlanta proper. Republican dominance peaked in 1988, when George H.W. Bush won 71.11% of the vote to Michael Dukakis' 28.41%, a 42.7% margin of victory. During this time, no Democrat managed to attain even 40 percent of the county's vote.

In the 2010s, the county rapidly flipped from being safely Republican at the start of the decade to safely Democratic by the end, thanks to explosive population growth that brought an influx of Democratic-leaning minority voters into the county, and a growing Democratic trend among suburban voters in general. The African American percentage of the population increased from 14.7% in the 2000 Census to 36.9% in 2010 and 48.4% in 2020, while the white proportion of the population fell from 81.4% in 2000 to 55.0% in 2010 and 35.9% in 2020. In 2004, Democrat John Kerry lost the county by 33.7%, but in 2008 and 2012, Democrat Barack Obama lost the county by only 7.4% and 3.3%, respectively. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the county for the Democrats for the first time in 36 years, by a 4.4 percentage point margin of victory, despite the rightward shift taken by the rest of the country. In 2020, the county swung 16.1 points deeper into the Democratic column, the largest Democratic swing of any county in the country in that election, culminating in Joe Biden winning the county by 20.5 percentage points as he carried Georgia. In 2022, it was one of the few counties where Stacey Abrams improved on her 2018 margin against Republican Brian Kemp even as she performed worse statewide. She took 61% of the vote, and Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker with a similar share of the vote in the concurrent Senate race. In 2024, Kamala Harris won 64.5% of the vote in Henry, a continued improvement on both Clinton and Biden's margins despite her statewide loss, and also the best showing for a non-Georgian Democrat in the county since John F. Kennedy in 1960. Henry swung the furthest for Harris than any other county in the state that year.

Henry County is one of six "reverse pivot counties", counties that voted Republican in 2008 and 2012 before voting Democratic in 2016 onward. It is also the county that shifted furthest to the left since 2012, having done so by 33 percentage points as of 2024.

Transportation

Major highways

* Interstate 75
* Interstate 675
* U.S. Route 19
* U.S. Route 23
* U.S. Route 41
* State Route 3
* State Route 20
* State Route 42
* State Route 81
* State Route 138
* State Route 155
* State Route 401 (unsigned designation for I-75)
* State Route 413 (unsigned designation for I-675)

Pedestrians and cycling

* Reeves Creek Trail

Transit systems

* Henry County operates its own reservation-based transit service for use by county residents. In addition, Xpress, a regional commuter bus service operated by the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, serves park-and-ride lots in Stockbridge, Hampton, and McDonough.

See also

* National Register of Historic Places listings in Henry County, Georgia
*List of counties in Georgia

References

External links

Henry County Board of Commissioners

Henry County Chamber of Commerce

Taste of Henry
An annual fundraiser that showcases many of Henry County's best restaurants.

A Friend's House
Henry County's emergency shelter for abused, neglected, and abandoned children.
* Howard, John.
The Sub Series: Henry County, Georgia
" ''Southern Spaces'', January 26, 2010.

Henry County
historical marker

{{Coord, 33.46, -84.16, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-GA_source:UScensus1990

Georgia (U.S. state) counties
1821 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)
Populated places established in 1821
Henry
Majority-minority counties in Georgia