Henry McNeal Turner and Black Legislators

Henry McNeal Turner was a minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Georgia who was elected to the Georgia General Assembly, although he and other black legislators were taken out of power by the white supremacists who ran the mostly Democratic legislature. The white democrats claimed that the blacks had the right to vote but not to hold office, and the federal government had to intervene and called it unconstitutional to do that. The black legislatures got their seats back. Before the whole ordeal, Turner received an education in Washington D.C., where he met some powerful friends, Charles Sumner (who was caned to death) and Thaddeus Stevens, as well as other powerful figures. He used them to get a jump start into the political world, in which he excelled greatly. Despite receiving many threats from the KKK and other hate groups, Turner established a Republican party in Georgia and went on to serve the legislature as a representative from Macon. His accomplishments happened because he defied the odds to get an education and he effected Georgia by acting as a prominent black politician and role model at the time.



















http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-632
en.wikipedia.org