cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/35381746

Original 33 Expelled (1868)

Sun Sep 03, 1865

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Image: A statue commemorating the Original 33 on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol, titled “Expelled Because of Color” (1973) [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1868, Georgia state legislators voted to expel all black members of the General Assembly during Southern Reconstruction. A 25 mile march in protest, led by Phillip Joiner, was attacked by a white lynch mob.

The “Original 33” were the first 33 African-American members of the Georgia General Assembly who were elected to office in 1868, during the Reconstruction era. They were among the first black state legislators in the United States. 24 of the members were ministers.

After most of the legislators voted for losing candidates in the legislature’s elections for the U.S. Senate, the white majority conspired to remove the black and mixed-ethnicity members from the Assembly.

On September 3rd, 1868, the Georgia legislators voted to expel all black members of the General Assembly (4 of the 33 were allowed to stay due to being 1/8 or less black).

The expelled members appealed to the federal government and state courts. In protest of the expulsion, former representative Phillip Joiner led a 25 mile march to Camilla, the county seat on September 19th.

There, the march was attacked by an armed white lynch mob, and approximately a dozen marchers were killed. The Camilla Massacre marked a new era of de facto voting discrimination and political disenfranchisement of the black population in Georgia.