Camilla Massacre

Camilla Massacre is a Georgia historical marker in Mitchell County, dedicated 2023.

At 11 West Broad Street in Camilla.

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In one of the most violent episodes in Reconstruction Georgia, a rally in Mitchell County in September 1868 resulted in about a dozen freedmen being killed and several dozen wounded. Georgia had been re-admitted to the United States just two months prior. Leading up to the terrible events of September 19, White Democrats and Republicans in the Georgia legislature expelled all 28 African-American legislators. One of those expelled, Philip Joiner from southwest Georgia, led several hundred freedmen from Albany to Camilla for a rally in the Mitchell County seat. Upon arrival, the sheriff and other local Whites opened fire. Many Black voters stayed home for the 1868 presidential election two months later. News of the massacre circulated throughout the country, and Congress returned Georgia to military occupation and further Reconstruction.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1856 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1863 · (Alabama, Georgia, Florida) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Colton's Georgia (1864) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1866 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Georgia, 1869, covering the location of Camilla Massacre, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Georgia, 1869, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

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