The Georgia Historical Society just approved a new state historical marker on the site of the 1868 Camilla Massacre. According to the news coverage of the approval:
Camilla Massacre, Camilla, Mitchell County. This racist mass killing on Sept. 19, 1868, played a significant role in Reconstruction-era Georgia and was a factor in the state remaining under military rule and delaying its readmission into the U.S. after the Civil War. The precursor to the murders was white supremacists forcing the expulsion of Georgia’s first Black General Assembly members shortly after their election. One of the expelled members, Philip Joiner, led a march from Albany to Camilla, the county seat, to join a Republican Party rally. The marchers were confronted by a sheriff and vigilantes who opened fire on the crowd and chased and killed some attendees. The New Georgia Encyclopedia estimates about a dozen people died and about 30 were wounded, though exact numbers are unknown.
The massacre was widely publicized at the time as one of the worst acts of violence against Black voters during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential campaign. After Reconstruction, its memory was covered up and Camilla did not mark the violence until a ceremony was held there in 1999.
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