Lee County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 33,163. The county was established in 1825 and its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Leesburg. Lee County is included in the Albany, GA metropolitan statistical area.

History

The land for Lee,

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands Here they waged war again ...

, Troup, Coweta, and Carroll counties was

ceded The act of cession is the assignment of property to another entity. In international law it commonly refers to land transferred by treaty. Ballentine's Law Dictionary defines cession as "a surrender; a giving up; a relinquishment of jurisdicti ...

by the

Creek people The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek or just Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language; English: ), are a group of related Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsTreaty of Indian Springs. The counties' boundaries were created by 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 directl ...

on June 9, but they were not named until December 14, 1826. The county was named in honor of

Henry Lee III Henry Lee III (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was an early American Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot and politician who served as the ninth Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia United States House of Representatives, Representa ...

, popularly known as "Light-Horse Harry," the father of

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

general

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a general officers in the Confederate States Army, Confederate general during the American Civil War, who was appointed the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate ...

. On January 29, 1916, five

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

men were

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged or convicted transgressor or to intimidate others. It can also be an extreme form of in ...

; they were taken from the Worth county jail and hanged, their bodies riddled with bullets. The

Leesburg Stockade The Leesburg Stockade was an event in the civil rights movement in which a group of African-American teenage and pre-teen girls were arrested for protesting racial segregation in Americus, Georgia, and were imprisoned without charges for 60 days ...

occurred in Lee County.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.6%) is water. Most of the western three-quarters of Lee County is located in the Kinchafoonee- Muckalee sub-basin of the

ACF River Basin The Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River Basin (the ACF River Basin) is the drainage basin, or watershed, of the Apalachicola River, Chattahoochee River, and Flint River, in the Southeastern United States. This area is alternatively know ...

(Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin). The eastern quarter of the county is located in the Middle

Flint River The Flint River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from th ...

sub-basin of the same ACF River Basin, while a very small corner in the south of Lee County is located in the Lower

sub-basin of the same larger ACF River Basin. An even smaller southwestern corner is located in the

Ichawaynochaway Creek Ichawaynochaway Creek is a creek in southwest Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People ...

sub-basin of the ACF River Basin.

Major highways

U.S. Route 19 U.S. Route 19 or U.S. Highway 19 (US 19) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the Eastern United States. Despite encroaching Interstate Highways, the route has remained a long-haul road, connecting the Gulf of Mex ...

U.S. Route 19 Bypass * US 82

U.S. Route 82 U.S. Route 82 (US 82) is an east–west United States highway in the Southern United States. Created on July 1, 1931 across central Mississippi and southern Arkansas, US 82 eventually became a route extending from the White Sands of New ...

State Route 3 The following highways are numbered 3, H-3, PRI-3, AH3, E03 and R3. For roads numbered A3, see A3 roads. For roads numbered M3, see M3 (disambiguation)#Roads, M3. For roads numbered N3, see N3 (disambiguation)#Roads, N3. For roads numbered 3A, see ...

State Route 3 Bypass * Georgia 32

State Route 32 * Georgia 91

State Route 91 * Georgia 118

State Route 118 * Georgia 133

State Route 133 * Georgia 195

State Route 195 * Georgia 377

State Route 377 * Georgia 520

State Route 520

Adjacent counties

* Sumter County (north) *

Crisp County Crisp County is a county located in the central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,128. The county seat is Cordele. The county was created on August 17, 1905, from Dooly County and named for G ...

(northeast) * Worth County (east) * Dougherty County (south) * Terrell County (west)

Communities

* Leesburg (county seat) * Smithville

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 33,163 people, 10,226 households, and 7,872 families residing in the county.

Education

Public schools are operated by the Lee County School District. Lee County High School is the sole high school of the district.

Politics

Historically, Lee County was part of the solidly Democratic

Solid South The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of the Co ...

Phillips, Kevin P.; ''The Emerging Republican Majority'', p. 267 where control of the dominant black population dictated unified white voting for Democratic candidates due to the Republican association with

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...

and black political power. However, with a combination of the Great Migration and white in-migration, the black share of the county's population has declined and it is now powerfully Republican, having voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, with the exception of 1968 and 1976 when it backed Southern “

favorite son Favorite son (or favorite daughter) is a political term referring to a presidential candidate, either one that is nominated by a state but considered a nonviable candidate or a politician whose electoral appeal derives from their native state, r ...

s”

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who was the 45th and longest-serving governor of Alabama (1963–1967; 1971–1979; 1983–1987), and the List of longest-serving governors of U.S. s ...

and

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

References

External links

Official Website
{{Authority control Georgia (U.S. state) counties 1825 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Populated places established in 1825 Albany metropolitan area, Georgia