The September 19, 1868 Camilla Massacre was one of the bloodiest in Reconstruction Georgia. Freedpeople marching in a political demonstration were attacked by whites near Albany, Georgia, and as many as a dozen Blacks were killed. The massacre was to prevent Blacks from voting in the upcoming elections, which made Ulysses S. Grant the president. Over the weekend, a new historical marker was erected in Albany telling the story of the mass killing.
Until 1998, Albany never commemorated the massacre. Like much white supremacist violence in Georgia, local history books left out the horrific stories of violence against Blacks. The massacre led to the reintroduction of Federal troops into the region to protect African Americans. The same history books that ignored the massacre, attacked the Federal government for sending troops to guard against further violence. And while many Confederate monuments were erected in this part of Georgia, white terrorists blocked the commemoration of incidentists like the Camilla Massacre.
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