{"id":4720,"date":"2025-05-14T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/?page_id=4720"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:59:13","slug":"georgia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/delegates-and-attendees\/georgia\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"sketch
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. “Col. John H. Deveaux, collector of customs, Savannah, Ga.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections<\/a>. 1899.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

John H. Deveaux<\/strong> was the founder of the newspaper Colored Tribune<\/em>. It was forced to fold in 1878 after only three years, but it reopened as the Savannah Tribune<\/em> in 1886 [1]. He held several public office positions, including Savannah\u2019s custom house clerk and collector of Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia. He also served as colonel in the state militia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwin Belcher<\/strong> was a former Union army officer and Freedmen\u2019s Bureau agent. In 1873, Ulysses Grant nominated Belcher to be the deputy postmaster of Macon, Georgia [2]. He held this office from 1873 to 1875. After a much contested election, in which whites refused to seat elected African Americans in the state legislature, Belcher maintained his seat [3].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Merilus Simms<\/strong> was a minister of the First Colored Baptist Church. In 1863, he was fined for teaching enslaved children, which was illegal in Georgia [4]. For this he was also publicly whipped. After the war, Simms, undettered by white violence, mobilized Black men to vote and held public office. In 1868, he testified before the US Congress about the terrorism white Georgians unleashed during the presidential election in the same year [5]. During the Georgia General Assembly in 1890, Simms presented a resolution to create a normal school for Black Georgians. The Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youths was thus established. The institution stands today as Savannah State University [6].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henry McNeal Turner<\/strong>: Learn more about Mc Neal Turner in the exhibit \u201cBefore Garvey! Henry McNeal Turner and the Fight for Reparations, Emigration, and Black Rights<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles L. Bradwell<\/strong> was a formerly enslaved person-turned-minister. He was among the many Black men who met with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Major General William T. Sherman in an 1865 assembly to discuss securing education for Black Georgians. At the time, he had been a preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church [7]. Along with Turner and other ministers, Bradwell actively participated in the African Methodist Episcopal Church\u2019s general conferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William Henry Noble<\/strong> was an African Methodist Episcopal Church pastor. He succeeded Henry McNeal Turner\u2019s pastorate at St. Philip\u2019s Church in Savannah [8]. He was among the elected officials expelled from the legislature by whites in 1868.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"image
Tunis G. Campbell, Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tunis G. Campbell<\/strong> (pictured at right) was a Black businessman from New York who served in the Union military and also as a Freedmen\u2019s Bureau agent [9]. Toward the end of the war, he was appointed as military governor of the Sea Islands in Georgia. He was elected into the Georgia Senate in 1868 and his son, Tunis G. Campbell Jr., was elected as state representative in the same year. Unlike Edwin Belcher, the Campbells were forced out. In 1871, Campbell ran again and kept his seat as state senator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John McCluskey<\/strong>: No additional information available at this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L. W. West<\/strong> encouraged and mobilized Black men to vote in Georgia. In 1880, he published \u201cAn Address to the Colored Men of Savannah, Georgia,\u201d in which he urges Black men to \u201cRally to the pools [sic, polls] for once in your life and be men. Make sacrifices to show your manhood, and all classes of people will respect you \u2013 not only at home, but abroad. We demand representation in the city government, not on account of color, but as a matter of justice\u201d [10].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John F. Quarles<\/strong> was a lawyer, consul, and politician. As a formerly enslaved person, he defied Georgia law to teach enslaved children [11]. After the war, Quarles studied law at Westminster College, Pennsylvania and \u201cgraduated at the head of his class\u201d In 1870, Ulysses Grant appointed him as US consul at Port Mahon, Spain. At the end of his tenure in 1876, he requested to be reinstated, and Frederick Douglass and several others wrote a recommendation on his behalf: \u201cMr. Quarles is the only colored man holding such position in this branch of foreign service and this he not only represents his state, but we regard him in a peculiar sense as the representative of the colored people of the country I this branch of public service\u201d [12]. He again served as consul and returned to the US. In 1880, he was admitted to the bar in New York [13].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William H. Harrison<\/strong> was an elected state legislator and a formerly enslaved person. Like many other elected officials, Harrison was refused his seat in 1868.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

William A. Golden<\/strong> was also a pastor and elected official, representing Liberty County. He too was expelled out of the legislature in 1868. He and the others were reseated by an act of Congress in 1870. He was again elected to represent the same county between 1873 and 1874 [14].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

[1] \u201cJohn H. Deveaux,\u201d New Georgia Encyclopedia<\/em>, Accessed on November 18, 2021, https:\/\/www.georgiaencyclopedia.org\/articles\/arts-culture\/savannah-tribune\/m-10940\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1875, Inclusive,<\/em> vol. xix, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901, p. 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] Wight, Willard E. \u201cNEGROES IN THE GEORGIA LEGISLATURE: THE CASE OF F. H. FYALL OF MACON COUNTY.\u201d The Georgia Historical Quarterly<\/em>, vol. 44, no. 1, Georgia Historical Society, 1960, p. 89.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] Love, Emanuel King. History of the First African Baptist Church, from Its Organization<\/em>, January 20th, 1788, to July 1st, 1888: Including the Centennial Celebration, Addresses, Sermons, Etc,<\/em> Savannah: The Morning News Print, 1888, p. 166.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] Harris, Leslie M. and Daina Ramey Berry eds. Slavery and Freedom in Savannah<\/em>, University of Georgia Press, 2014, p. 175.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] \u201cPurpose and Goals of the University,\u201d Savannah State University, Accessed 20 November 2021, http:\/\/catalog.savannahstate.edu\/content.php?catoid=4&navoid=107<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] Townsend, E. D. Anecdotes of the Civil War in the United States<\/em>, New York: Appleton and Co., 1884, p. 268.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8] Angell, Stephen Ward. Bishop Henry McNeal Turner and African-American Religion in the South<\/em>, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, p. 131.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9] Fraser, Walter J., Jr.. Savannah in the New South : From the Civil War to the Twenty-First Century<\/em>, University of South Carolina Press, 2018, p. 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10] West, L.W. \u201cAn Address to the Colored Men of Savannah, Georgia<\/a>,\u201d Savannah: Savannah Echo Print, 1880.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11] Cusic, Don. The Trials of Henry Flipper: First Black Graduate of West Point<\/em>, Deer Park: MacFarland, 2014, p. 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12] Frederick Douglass et al. Letter to Ulysses Grant. Undated. The Papers of Ulysses Grant<\/em>, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000, p. 314.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[13] Yorkville Enquirer<\/em>, 20 May 1880, p. 2. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers<\/em><\/a>. Library of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[14] Georgia\u2019s Official Register<\/em>, compiled by Ruth Blair, Atlanta: Stein Printing Co., 1925, p. 369.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Written by <\/strong>Samantha de Vera<\/a>, University of California, San Diego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by<\/strong> P. Gabrielle Foreman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgements: <\/strong>Samantha de Vera and Michelle Byrnes for further edits, visualization contributions, and technical assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John H. Deveaux was the founder of the newspaper Colored Tribune. It was forced to fold in 1878 after only three years, but it reopened as the Savannah Tribune in 1886 [1]. He held several public office positions, including Savannah\u2019s custom house clerk and collector of Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia. He also served as colonel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4604,"parent":4625,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4720","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4720"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4911,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4720\/revisions\/4911"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/hbcus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}