Back in 1868, during an era called Reconstruction, 33 Black legislators were elected to Georgia's legislature, known as the General Assembly.

This would mark the first time any Black person held a seat in the General Assembly, so having 33 Black legislators was a big deal.

But these lawmakers wouldn't hold their seats for long.

In almost no time, all 33 of them were expelled from office.

So why were these Black legislators removed from the General Assembly and what did it mean for Georgia, and the country?

(gentle music) When the American Civil War ended in 1865, the Reconstruction Era began.

The major goal of Reconstruction was to reunite the country by integrating formerly enslaved Black people into political and social systems.

Congress promised the states that seceded, which included Georgia, that they could rejoin the United States if they cooperated with the new federal rules.

Georgia, along with all other states, also had to adhere to the freshly amended U.S.

Constitution.

That's the document that governs the entire country.

Slavery was now abolished under the 13th Amendment, and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution established that all people born or naturalized in the U.S.

were citizens and therefore given equal protection under the law.

This meant that no man, regardless of race, could be denied the rights and privileges given by the Constitution, and that included the right to vote.

As a result, in a state like Georgia where nearly half of its population was Black, there was a big increase in African-American political involvement.

So, the year was 1868.

That spring marked Georgia's first election that included Black voters and Black candidates.

The results included 33 Black Americans who were elected to the General Assembly.

All of these legislators were progressive Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln.

Together, they occupied 1/6 of the total congressional seats in the General Assembly.

This was a massive triumph.

Remember, this was only three years after the Civil War ended.

Of the 33 Black legislators, 24 of them were licensed ministers.

And you may be asking yourself, why were so many of them ministers?

Well, prior to the end of the Civil War, there were few places Black Americans could congregate or hold official titles.

One exception though was African Methodist Episcopal, or AME, churches.

They were among the first places enslaved people organized and engaged with the communities professionally, so it was natural to elect someone like a minister who already had strong leadership skills and relationships with people in their districts.

As for the other Black legislators, some of them had served in the Civil War and even worked alongside General Sherman in his March to the Sea.

But one thing all 33 of them had in common was that they were well respected amongst their constituents.

That's why it came as a shock when they were all expelled from the General Assembly in the fall of 1868.

But how did 33 elected representatives get expelled at the same time?

Well, many conservative Democrats and ex-Confederates who feared they were losing their political power in Georgia used several arguments to oust the Black legislators.

One argument claimed that even though Black citizens were now allowed to vote, the Georgia Constitution did not entitle them to hold office.

28 of the 33 were expelled for this argument alone.

Another strategy was to charge the Black legislators with salacious crimes against citizens of their communities.

One of them was even accused of being illiterate.

So what were the immediate effects of this expulsion?

A big one was that in the eyes of the US Congress, Georgia was ignoring many of the rules of Reconstruction, and the state wasn't following the Constitution either.

For these reasons, Georgia was the last Confederate state granted legal return to the United States.

Another effect was the rise of racial violence and intimidation against Black people who were politically active.

One example of the many violent events was the Camilla Massacre.

Following the expulsion of all 33 Black legislators, protestors challenged the removal by marching from Albany, Georgia, to Camilla, where they would attend a political rally.

But many white residents in Camilla were determined that no such rally would be held.

When the protestors arrived in Camilla, they were met with violence and gunfire.

Even as the peaceful protestors tried to retreat, the angry white mob continued to attack them for several miles.

Ultimately, an estimated 12 protesters were killed and more than 30 of them suffered injuries.

But despite these acts of violence, the fight to reinstate the Black legislators continued.

The ex-lawmakers, along with then Republican Governor Rufus Bullock, petitioned state and federal courts to intervene, or step in.

In June 1869, nearly a year after the expulsion, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Black people did in fact have the right to hold public office in the state.

As a result, the Black Republican lawmakers were reinstated and white Democrats who had used violence, intimidation, or manipulated ballots to win their seats were now the ones booted out of the General Assembly.

Since these conservative Democrats were replaced with their runners up in their elections, progressive Republicans now held a heavy majority in Georgia's House of Representatives and Senate, so they went to work.

They pushed for more civil and human rights.

They were successful in getting the state to establish a public education system.

And in early 1870, they ratified the 15th Amendment of the US Constitution, which prohibited or banned the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of enslavement.

Now, the Constitution explicitly said all men had the right to vote.

As a result of these changes and its cooperation, Georgia was finally allowed to rejoin the union.

But this more progressive and racially diverse state government was short-lived.

So what were the long-term effects of the expulsion?

1870 was another election year and conservative Democrats, who ran on a platform of white supremacy and sought to redeem the state, defeated many of the progressive Republicans.

In the years to come, Democrats and white supremacists utilized harsh tactics, like violence, intimidation, and the Ku Klux Klan, to keep Black citizens and Republicans away from the polls.

They passed restrictive voting laws, like poll taxes and residency requirements, to disenfranchise Black voters.

Despite these obstacles, the few counties with the majority of Black voters continued to elect Black lawmakers at the state level in the 1870s and 1880s.

And Black Georgians retained some influence in the Republican Party.

But as threats of violence continued to increase and more laws were passed to legally disenfranchise Black voters, it proved harder for Black elected officials to hold onto their positions.

By 1906, in a state whose population was nearly 50% Black, political representation was down to just one Black legislator in the General Assembly.

In 1907, there were zero after Georgia's constitution was amended to include literacy tests as a voting requirement.

And Georgia wasn't the only state that effectively eliminated Black suffrage.

White supremacists across the South passed laws that severely restricted many of the rights and freedoms that were finally granted to African Americans following the Civil War.

In Georgia, there were no Black state lawmakers from 1907 until 1962, when Leroy Johnson was elected to the State Senate.

That's more than 50 years in a state with a large Black population.

But for a brief period during Reconstruction, Black people in the South, including Georgia, were given more political rights and representation than they have ever had, and would have for decades to come.

During the Reconstruction Era, 16 African Americans served in the US Congress, more than 600 Black citizens were elected to state legislatures, and hundreds more held local offices across the South.

The story of Georgia's original 33 Black legislators during Reconstruction showed just how hard the fight for racial equality and fair representation would be.

Black Georgians lost many of the rights they had only just gained and were treated as second-class citizens, and the discriminatory laws and practices from that time would have long-lasting impacts for generations of Black Americans.

But the service of these original 33 lawmakers helped lay the groundwork for future leaders and policies that would advance the rights and suffrage for all Americans to come.

(gentle music continues) (bright music)