'I claim the rights of a man': The story of Georgia’s Original 33 Black legislators

“I was just working on my family tree, and I had gotten a notice from Ancestry.com that said, ‘Hey, we’re doing a documentary on one of your ancestors. Do you have any family stories?” she said. “And I reached out to my family and was like, ‘Hey, do you guys have any stories?’ And we were all like, ‘No, but we would like to know too.’”

She wasn’t even aware of her ancestor, who was born enslaved and eventually went on to be elected to represent Greene County, Georgia, and uncovering his story wasn’t an easy task.

She says she got goosebumps as she learned more over a cup of coffee with researcher Greer Brigham, who was working on a book about Greene County at the time. 

“It was so much that I had never heard of, not just not heard of because he was my ancestor, not ever heard of, period. There was no discussion of it,” she explained.

“There were pieces of Abram Colby’s story in the county that were uncovered, but there were huge gaps. Like, people didn’t know what happened to this man. He falls off the map,” Brigham said. 

Colby began his political efforts as a freedman around the time the Civil War ended, going on to serve alongside Georgia’s first Black legislators. A group now known as the Original 33, Georgia’s first Black general assembly members, were expelled because of their race shortly after being elected.

“They decided that because there’s no provision in the state constitution that allows Black men to hold office, these men cannot hold office, and so it’s almost a slap in the face.”

Joshua Butler, a professor and historian with Albany State University

About an hour outside of Atlanta, in Greensboro, a soft yellow house-turned-museum complements a quiet road with wooden rocking chairs lining the porch. The Greene County African American Museum is curated by local historian Mamie Hillman. She has different exhibits and artifacts adorning every room of the building.

One exhibit is dedicated entirely to the Original 33, featuring the names and archival photos of the late legislators. There are also several pieces from or dedicated to Abram Colby.

“I fell in love with this man and his leadership and his heart for the community to want to make a difference in his community, where he was an enslaved individual, and he became our first representative,” Hillman said. 

Even as Colby’s story and the history of the Original 33 went largely untold for decades, Hillman has worked to preserve it.

“You’re talking about more than 157 years that these men did not get an apology. They did not get a do-over. They did not get their acknowledgment in the history books of Georgia.”

Black freedom and the birth of Black political power

More than 157 years ago, the United States experienced the Reconstruction Era. It lasted about 12 years following the end of the Civil War in 1865.

This is also the year of the 13th Amendment, and that summer, Confederate states surrendered and began to free their enslaved populations.

At the time, the Confederate states needed a revamp and new rules that included rights for the newly freed Black population. Georgia officials had to rewrite the state constitution to include the abolition of slavery, and held the state’s first post-war constitutional convention in the fall.

“These Reconstruction Amendments were actually passed to try to reconstruct America, and create a verge, an equitable version of America,” said [Dr.] La’Niece Littleton, a historian with the Atlanta History Center.

By 1866, those who were formerly enslaved now had a chance at citizenship through the Congress-passed 14th Amendment.

“So these folks … are trying to create this space for African-American citizenship and for Black folks to participate in what we would call the ‘American dream,’” Littleton said. 

An opportunity to participate in democracy and the right to vote started to look promising for Black men by the end of 1867, when Georgia faced another rewrite of the state constitution.

Soon, the Original 33 would make their debut.

“This delegation for a constitutional convention is the first time that Blacks, Black men specifically, are allowed to vote. And they’re allowed to run, to be delegates, to rewrite the Constitution,” said Dr. Joshua Butler, a professor and historian with Albany State University.

The same year, Congress passed President Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction Acts as the Republican Party gained power and popularity for its anti-slavery stance. The Act[s] placed the Confederate States under military control until they met the legislation’s conditions. 

According to Butler, [most] Black men identified as Republicans, also referred to as “Radicals.” They, alongside some white men who didn’t own land, were registered en masse.

Meanwhile, an election to pick delegates for a second post-war constitutional convention was approaching.

A group of Black delegates was selected, becoming the first elected to a Georgia constitutional convention. The convention redrafted the state constitution by the spring of 1868, meeting the conditions of the Reconstruction Acts with a provision for Black voting rights and more.

“The state electors are going to go out and vote on whether to accept this new state constitution. And most Democrats at the time are going to boycott this election,” Butler said. “But also the Original 33, as they’ve come to collectively be known as, this is when they’re going to be elected in April of 1868.”

History was made that spring: The Original 33 Black legislators elected to serve in Georgia’s General Assembly.   

It appeared to be a new Georgia. A reconstructed Georgia. But a racially-charged question was posed that spring.

“Can a Negro hold office in Georgia?” 

“There’s one provision that is argued about, and that is whether a Black man can hold office in Georgia … and this is very hotly debated,” Butler said. 

Due to the white Georgia Democrats’ boycott, that question went unanswered for a few months. By the fall, Democrats again asked whether a Black man could hold office.

“They decided that because there’s no provision in the state constitution that allows Black men to hold office, these men cannot hold office,” Butler said. “So, it’s almost a slap in the face.”

Research reports that white Democrats and allies campaigned during the summer of 1868 to remove the Black legislators. In September, Democrats officially called a vote to expel the 33 Black legislators due to their race. 

However, the legislators attempted to defend themselves with speeches described as “eminently pathetic” and “contained passages of eloquence and argument which surprised even those who had thought they knew the Negro and his mental capacity thoroughly.” 

“The great question, sir, is this: Am I a man? If I am such, I claim the rights of a man. Am I not a man, because I happen to be of a darker hue than honorable gentlemen around me?” said Bibb County Rep. Bishop Henry McNeal Turner on the assembly floor shortly before expulsion.

“We are willing to let the dead past bury its dead, but we ask you, now, for our rights.”

Littleton says Turner’s “I Claim The Rights Of A Man” speech was the first time a Black man officially spoke on the assembly floor. 

“He’s very clear about the way they’ve been disrespected, about the way they’ve been mistreated, and how this is not the way that emancipation is supposed to look, and this is what an equitable society looks like,” she said.

But as the vote came down, archives show that nearly two dozen white members of the Republican Party, referred to as “carpet-baggers,” voted that Black men were ineligible to hold office, or they didn’t vote at all. 

Expulsion Aftermath: Racial Violence + Black Organizing

The Original 33 sought to protest their expulsion and continued to advocate for Black political and civil rights. Some of the legislators met a few days after the event for a rally of about 500 people, led by one of the expelled senators, Aaron Alpeoria Bradley.

“Bradley said … carpet-baggers and Yankees were not to be trusted … He at first thought that the Negro members would draw revolvers and assert their rights in blood … he was glad that they had done otherwise,” according to a 1868 National Republican article

Other reports indicate that the expelled members formed the 1868 Civil and Political Rights Association to advocate for their rights. The group also organized a Colored Convention, establishing committees and making a case for Black men in office.  

However, racial violence was gradually seeing an uptick following their removal.

“You’re talking about more than 157 years that these men did not get an apology. They did not get a do-over. They did not get their acknowledgment in the history books of Georgia.”

Mamie Hillman, Greene County African American Museum

Littleton says that the increase was due to some white Georgians’ and Southerners’ intense biases toward Black people and Black political engagement.

“They perceived that want[ing] to participate in democracy was a takeover of what America stood for … which actually drove a lot of the racist attitudes of the time, influenced the violence of the time. So, Black folks are in the midst of this racial violence, trying to find an identity for themselves as Americans,” she said.  

During the time, Dougherty County Rep. Phillip Joiner was one of the leaders of a nearly 30-mile trek from Albany to Camilla, Georgia, for a rally of about 300 Republicans at the city’s courthouse. 

The march resulted in a violent encounter with a drunk, white Camilla resident, leading to a shootout known as the Camilla Riot, or the Camilla Massacre.

“Once the first shots ring out, they have to leave … Philip Joyner is hit with a shotgun in the head,” Butler said. “Ultimately, I suppose the goal was to stop Black men from voting.”

Butlers says Joiner continued to campaign for his seat back in the assembly amid his injuries. Keeping that motivation despite political and racial tensions was a constant among the Original 33.

The next year, 1869, Rep. Abram Colby had a horrific encounter with the KKK.

“First, he was offered a bribe … he said, ‘I wouldn’t do it for all the county’s worth,’ and then two nights later, they came to his house in the middle of the night and took him out into the woods and attacked him for hours,” researcher Greer Brigham said.

The incident left Colby paralyzed and nearly dead, yet he continued to advocate for the Republican Party and the expelled members of the general assembly. 

“Some of them are the first-class men in our town. One is a lawyer, one a doctor, and some are farmers,” Colby said while testifying in a federal investigation of white supremacist groups.

Other county representatives, including Thomas Allen (Jasper), Romulus Moore (Columbia), and Alfred Richardson (Clarke), also faced instances of intimidation by the KKK and later testified.

Reinstatement leads to modern representation

Tensions were high, but Congress passed the 15th Amendment, and the question of whether men of color could hold office went to Georgia’s highest court in 1869.

Chatham County candidate William Clements, who was white, contested the 1868 election of Robert White as the Clerk of Superior Court. Clemets argued that, despite White getting the majority of the votes, he was ineligible because he was “colored,” or Black.

Lower courts sided with Clements. However, a Georgia Supreme Court judge and other officials ruled that Black men were eligible to hold a political seat as a result of Reconstruction and the end of slavery.

“It represented a new people–a people among whom slavery had ceased, and among whom Black people as well as white were recognized as forming part of the political society, and entitled to equal participation in its rights, privileges and immunities,” said Judge H.K. McCay during the case.

But by the end of 1869, Georgia had come under military rule again after several racially violent incidents. It had failed to accept the 15th Amendment at the state level as required by the federal Reconstruction Acts.

At the same time, the Supreme Court ruling opened the door for the reinstatement of the Original 33. 

U.S. General Alfred H. Terry forced the Georgia legislature to reseat the expelled Black members of the General Assembly in early 1870. Terry also removed and replaced ex-Confederates, leading to a Republican majority. 

Reports show some of the Black legislators were either killed, threatened, beaten, or jailed. But historians say the majority of them served their terms.

Meanwhile, “Redeemer” Democrats were gaining control with 1870 being an assembly election year.

“Congressional legislation that restored military rule in Georgia … also called for [Georgia] Gov. Rufus Bullock to re-establish the original 1868 legislature, complete with the ousted Black politicians,” Dr. Joshua Butler said. 

Newspapers reported that the state legislature had Black politicians until 1907, with McIntosh County Representative W. H. Rogers as the last Black man standing. The state wouldn’t see another until the early 1960s, as the Democratic and Republican beliefs shifted.

Today, the Georgia Legislature has 236 members, and nearly 75 of them are Black women and men. One member, Democratic Rep. Carl Gilliard, is also a descendant of Liberty County Rep. William Golden.

Golden served from 1868 to 1870, including expulsion. Like many of the Black legislators, Golden was born enslaved but later helped found a small school for Black people.

“The Liberty County area has a lot of the Golden roots that are still there now …  He was a good statesman, very smart, came from that background of the Gullah Geechee culture,” Gilliard said.

As he dug into his family history, he was prompted to start working on House Bill 303. He says it was his mission to honor and spread awareness of the Original 33 after being elected in 2016.

The legislation wouldn’t become law until nearly ten years later.

Still, HB 303, or the Original 33 Memorial Act, slowly made its way to the assembly floor and passed unanimously. It was signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp last year. 

The law recognizes the late legislators and calls for a modern monument inside the State Capitol. 

“It was very exciting to see that it unfolded in this session because we had come close before. It was carried by a Republican who was the rules chair, Sen. Matt Brass … a white Republican,” Gilliard said. “Then, the governor not only had the courage to sign it in the DEI environment, but to sign it and stand on it. That’s the power of when God Almighty puts his hand down.”

“In 1865, our country took a new direction, and these men represent that new direction we took. They represent the direction we continue to take as a state that’s always moving forward,” said Brass during a 2025 floor session. 

Officials celebrated the law’s first anniversary at the state capitol in February.

History continues with the Original 33 … Plus One.

But the work and search for descendants hasn’t stopped since the bill’s passage, suggesting there’s more to the story of the Original 33. 

Gilliard says he was contacted by a mother-son duo, Cynthia Phillips and Kevin Brown, about an unknown 34th member elected to the 1868 assembly – Jacob P. Hutchings of Jones County.

“Jacob was a self-taught individual who learned to read and write. He was described historically as a tall, very strong man with long arms and a great stature, with a presence that was undeniable,” Brown said.

“It represented a new people–a people among whom slavery had ceased, and among whom Black people as well as white were recognized as forming part of the political society, and entitled to equal participation in its rights, privileges and immunities.”

Judge H.K. McCay during the 1869 White v. Clements case.

Hutchings campaigned during the 1868 elections. According to reports, Hutchings ran against a white Democrat but didn’t secure the majority of votes. His opponent was seated, but Hutchings successfully contested the election.    

“The Republicans being in the majority … seated Jake as Representative of Jones County. This is the only time that Jones County was ever represented by a Negro,” Carolyn White Williams, author of “History of Jones County: 1807-1907 (1957)“

Brown says his ancestor wasn’t initially counted among the legislators. He says Rep. Gilliard confirmed he was seated following the 1868 elections, referring to the group as the “Original 33 Plus One.” 

“The story has to continue, not just for now, but for the future. You can’t forget where you came from or who brought you to this point or who brought you to this point. One of the things that the representative is doing is putting a spotlight on things that should have been spotlighted a long time ago,” said Phillips.

The duo says they’ve wanted to honor their ancestor with a memorial park on a portion of ancestral land they inherited and sold to Jones County. Currently, the county has a historical marker from the early 2000s. 

The memorial park effort has stalled, and the family took legal action last year.  

Still, Gilliard says he wants to see efforts to place markers in all 34 counties the legislators once represented, in addition to a SCAD-designed modern monument at the state Capitol.

“It’s a defining moment in not just Georgia, but America,” Gilliard said. “We want America to set its eyes on Georgia and hear the stories.”

Recently, a marker was dedicated to Rep. Abram Colby and unveiled at the Greene County Courthouse in Greensboro, Georgia.

Mamie Hillman, with the county’s African American Museum, says Colby’s marker is the first to honor a Black person in the area.

“An accomplishment has been made, but it is so much more to do … These kinds of things are important because we’re not going to be here all the time to tell the story,” Hillman said during the April unveiling.

And descendant Pam Colby believes it’s important for Black stories like these to be preserved, even amid actions that threaten Black political inclusion today, such as the Georgia legislature considering redistricting. 

She says her ancestor helped pave the way for the Civil Rights leaders who later advocated for Black people’s right to democracy.  

“The amount of time I’ve spent researching, reading the different articles, realizing what the community was like, what the country was like during that time period, and what he went through, and how he was so selfless,” Colby said. “Literally, he sacrificed himself because he believed in freedom. He believed in rights for everyone.”