Philip Joiner Explained

State House:Georgia
District:Dougherty County
Term Start:1868
Term End:1868
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State House1:Georgia
District1:Dougherty County
Term Start1:1870
Term End1:?
Party:Republican

Philip Joiner was a delegate to the 1867 constitutional convention in Georgia[1] and an elected representative to the Georgia Assembly in 1868. He and other African Americans were prohibited from taking office by their colleagues in the Georgia Assembly. Federal intervention in 1870 overruled the discriminatory exclusion, and Joiner would win re-election to a second term in office.

A month after being barred from taking office he was a leader of a march from Albany, Georgia to Camilla, Georgia. Participants were shot at and attacked at the Republican campaign rally in Camilla, including by the sheriff. Joiner submitted his testimony on the event to the Freedmen Bureau's O.H. Howard.[2] Many were killed and wounded in the attack on freedmen. It was commemorated 100 years after it happened as the Camilla massacre.[3]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Grace Towns Hamilton and the Politics of Southern Change. Lorraine Nelson. Spritzer. Jean B.. Bergmark. 1 February 2009. University of Georgia Press. 9780820333878. Google Books.
  2. https://www.umbrasearch.org/catalog/b52a7254aa90525d6e006eb8ced6ba089b400ab3 Affidavit of Philip Joiner
  3. Web site: The Camilla Massacre.