Richmond D. Hill: Georgia's First Black Mayor

In 1973, Richmond D. Hill became the first African American to be elected mayor of a municipality in Georgia. Following the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the NAACP began a campaign to educate, organize, and register rural African American voters. Hill, a local member of the NAACP, was instrumental in leading Black voter participation efforts in Meriwether County. This grassroots effort resulted in him becoming the county's and the city of Greenville's first Black councilman in 1968. His subsequent successful campaign for the mayor's office in Greenville illustrated the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and voter registration efforts in the rural communities of Georgia. Elections across the country in 1973 resulted in a wave of Black elected officials. Mayor Hill served the city for nearly a decade and died in 1992.