“The great question, sir, is this: Am I a man? If I am such, I claim the rights of a man. Am I not a man because I happen to be of a darker hue than the honorable gentlemen around me?”

Rev. Henry McNeal Turner (1868)

The United States of America has a lengthy history  of voter disenfranchisement. For Black Americans, this history of suppression is deeply imbedded in our history and unfortunately still occurs in this 21^st century. For example, on August 29, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the New Redistricting Map, giving the GOP an additional five seats and helping to sway the balance of power to favor Republicans for the 2026 election, while taking away political power from predominantly Black congressional districts such as Houston’s Congressional District 9, belonging Sen. Al Green, and Congressional District 18, previously held by late Senators Sheila Jackson Lee  and Sylvester Turner. Shortly thereafter, California Governor Gavin Newsom responded by proposing that California redistrict by adopting new legislative districts, which would, in essence, nullify the gains made by Republicans in Texas. Proposition 50 will be decided by California voters on November 4, 2025.   Gerrymandering, voter intimidation, and, at the state level as recently as 2023, expelling Black lawmakers from the Tennessee House of Representatives, are some of the ways that Black voting and legislative power has been targeted for generations. As a Black American, I have a personal connection to this history as a descendant of one Georgia’s first Black members of the Georgia State Assembly, Jacob P. Hutchings of Jones County Georgia, who was one was one of the “Original 33”, elected in 1868 but expelled the same year because of the efforts of white supremacists.

 Courageous Forefathers

Born enslaved in Virginia in 1831, Hutchings was a stone mason who taught himself how to read and write (Hutchings, 1937, p. 195) In 1866, he was elected as the first Black state Representative from Jones County along with 32 other Black Republican men from various counties throughout the state who, immediately post Emancipation, were duly elected to serve the citizens of the state of Georgia. The names of these brave men and the counties they represented are as follows:

Senators: Aaron Alperonia Bradley (Chatham, Effingham, Bryan); George Wallace (Hancock, Baldwin, Washington); Tunis Campbell, Sr. (McIntosh, Liberty, Tattnall)

Representatives: Peter O’Neal (Baldwin); Henry McNeal Turner (Bibb); Ulysses Houston (Bryan); Malcolm Claiborn (Burke); John Warren (Burke); James Ward Porter (Chatham); James Simms (Chatham); Madison Davis (Clarke); Alfred Richardson (Clarke); Romulus Moore (Columbia); Philip Joiner (Dougherty); Abram Colby (Greene); Eli Barnes (Hancock); Samuel Williams (Harris); Thomas Allen (Jasper); Alexander Stone (Jefferson); Jacob P. Hutchings (Jones); George Linder (Laurens); William Golden (Liberty); F.H. Fyall (Macon); Robert Lumpkin (Macon); George Clower (Monroe); Monday Floyd (Morgan); Abraham Smith (Muscogee); Thomas Beard (Richmond);  John Costin (Talbot); William Guilford (Upson); Samuel Gardner (Warren); Edwin Belcher (Wilkes)

Unfortunately, this political victory was short lived. White Georgia Democrats, angered that Blacks would have the audacity to run for office and successfully win, vehemently protested and the men were expelled the same year, but reinstated in 1870. In December of the same year, Georgia Democrats assumed power after an election that saw Black Georgians overwhelmingly kept away from the polls due to the terrorist tactics of groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. With this Democratic takeover, the Reconstruction Era in Georgia came to a halt, signaling a particularly brutal era for Blacks in Georgia, and the members of the Original 33 were intensely targeted, as many of them were murdered in acts of racialized violence. My ancestor, Jacob P. Hutchings, was fortunate enough to escape mortal violence and following his expulsion, remained an influential member of Jones County’s Black community.

A Sankofa Moment

The Original 33, by their presence in the Georgia General Assembly, fought against the history of the disenfranchisement of Blacks in America, although their efforts were ultimately quelled as many of these brave men lost their lives because of their bravery. These men also paved the way for a future generation of Black politicians in Georgia and throughout the United States. As of the date of this writing (2025), there are 74 Blacks in the Georgia General Assembly   which represents 30 percent of the total number of assembly members. In the 119 United States Congress, 61 of the 434 members identify as Black, and in the Senate, 5 members identify as Black. As we are still fighting against attempts to silence us through the electoral process, it is vitally important that we remember the bravery of those who came before us.

References

American Civil Liberties Union Georgia (n.d.) Voter Rights. ACLU Georgia. https://www.acluga.org/issues/voter-rights/

BlackPast (2007, January 28). (1868) Rev. Henry McNeal Turner, “I Claim the Rights of a Man.” https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/1868-reverend-henry-mcneal-turner-i-claim-rights-man/

Brewer, K. (2025, January 22). What to know about the 2025 Georgia Assembly. Atlanta Community Press Collective. https://atlpresscollective.com/2025/01/22/2025-georgia-general-assembly/

Carnegie Corporation of New York (2019, November 18). Voting Rights: A Short History. https://www.carnegie.org/our-work/article/voting-rights-timeline/

Contreras, N. (2025, August 19). How Texas’ mid-decade redistricting could affect voters in one community. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/19/texas-redistricting-houston-18th-congressional-district/

Ghost, J. (2025, September 19). Georgia expelled America’s first black lawmakers in 1868-then lost the legal battle. When In Your State. https://wheninyourstate.com/georgia/original-33-black-legislators-expelled-and-reinstated/

Governor Gavin Newsom (2025, August 14). Governor Newsom launches statewide response to Trump rigging Texas’ elections. Governor Gavin Newsom. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/08/14/governor-newsom-launches-statewide-response-to-trump-rigging-texas-elections/

Hutchings, R.H. (1937). Hutchings, Bonner, Wyatt, An Intimate Family History. Privately Printed.

Jones County History and Heritage (n.d). Jacob Hutchings.

Klibanoff, E. (2025, August 29). Gov. Greg Abbott signs new Texas congressional map designed to give GOP five more seats. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2025/08/29/greg-abbott-signs-texas-congressional-map-redistricting/

Li, M. (last updated 2025, August 9). Gerrymandering Explained. Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/gerrymandering-explained

Schaeffer, K. (2025, January 21). 119 Congress brings new growth in racial, ethnic diversity to Capitol Hill. Pew Research Center.  https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/01/21/119th-congress-brings-new-growth-in-racial-ethnic-diversity-to-capitol-hill

Schneider, A. (2025, August 19). Houston’s 9^th Congressional District would be solidly Republican under Texas House’s redistricting map. Houston Public Media. https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/houston/2025/08/19/529009/house-pursues-redistricting-map-that-would-make-houstons-tx-9-more-solidly-republican/

Shabad, R. (2023, April 7). Black Tennessee lawmakers call expulsion of their two members ‘a horrific indictment of the GOP’.  NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/black-tennessee-lawmakers-call-expulsion-two-members-horrific-indictme-rcna78685

The Original 33 Foundation (n.d.) About Us. https://www.theoriginal33foundation.org/about