Georgia readmitted to Union, July 15, 1870

On this day in 1870, Georgia became the last former Confederate state to be readmitted into the Union after agreeing to seat some black members in the state Legislature. Subsequently, Democrats won commanding majorities in both houses of the General Assembly.

Congress initially had readmitted Georgia to the Union in July 1868 after a newly elected General Assembly had ratified the 14th Amendment and Rufus Bullock, a New York native, had been inaugurated as the state’s Republican governor.


Several prominent Georgia Democrats thereupon denounced post-Civil War Reconstruction policies at a mass rally in Atlanta — described at the time as the largest ever held in the state’s history. Joseph Brown, Georgia’s governor during the Confederacy, held that the state’s constitution did not allow blacks to hold office. Brown had become a Republican and served as a delegate to the Chicago convention that nominated Ulysses S. Grant for president in 1868.

In September, white Republicans joined with Democrats to expel the three black senators and 25 black representatives from the General Assembly. A week later, in the southwest Georgia town of Camilla, white residents attacked a black Republican rally, killing 12 people.

In response, in March 1869, Congress once again barred Georgia’s representatives from holding seats. That December, federal military rule was reimposed.

The terms of the bargain that had brought Georgia into the Union for a second time in 1870 soon fell apart. Bullock fled the state in order to avoid impeachment. With the voting restrictions against former Confederates lifted, James Smith, a Democrat and former Confederate colonel, was elected to complete Bullock’s term.

By early 1872, Georgia’s political scene was under the full control of so-called Redeemers, the state’s resurgent white segregationist Democrats. The Redeemers used terrorism to strengthen their rule. Expelled African-American legislators proved to be particular targets.

SOURCE: “THE RECONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIA,” BY EDWIN WOOLLEY (1901)