Georgia Day – February 12, 2025

History of Georgia Day

The history of the U.S. state of Georgia dates back as far as the pre-Columbian era. The area in which Georgia presently is, was initially inhabited by Native American tribes for thousands of years. There was some Spanish presence in the late 16th century, which was predominantly centered on Catholic missions. By the 18th century, the Spanish settlers had mostly left the area. The English settlers arrived in Georgia sometime in the 1730s, led by James Oglethorpe. As of April 8, 1776, royal officials had been removed from the region and Georgia’s Provincial Congress issued a constitutional document that served as an interim constitution until the following year, 1777, when the state constitution was adopted. Although it was the territory of both the Creek and the Cherokee nations, European Americans began to settle in Georgia. Upon their arrival, the European Americans pressured the state of Georgia and the U.S. Federal Government to remove the Indians. The Indian Removal subsequently took place in the 1830s, under President Jackson, and after this, there was an influx of the settlement of European Americans in Georgia.

On January 19, 1861, Georgia seceded from the Union and joined other Southern states on February 8, to form the Confederate States of America. Georgia contributed nearly one hundred twenty thousand soldiers to the Confederate war effort. The first major battle in the state was the Battle of Chickamauga, which Georgia won. It was the last major Confederate victory in the west. After the war, Georgians faced a period of economic hardship. With the enfranchisement of freedmen, who allied with the Republican Party, came a biracial legislature. The biracial legislature established public education and welfare institutions for the first time in Georgia, as well as initiated economic programs. White Democrats regained political control of the state through violence and intimidation at elections in 1875. They passed new laws and constitutional amendments that disenfranchised black people as well as a number of poor white people close to the turn of the century. From the late 19th century to 1964, blacks were suppressed as second-class citizens and were nearly excluded from politics. Thousands of black people had to migrate up North to escape the harrowing conditions and accompanying violence. All residents of the state of Georgia suffered in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The training bases, which were established in Georgia during the Second World War, became an economic boost for the state, thereby providing new opportunities for black people. During the broad-based activism of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the city of Atlanta, Georgia became the base of African-American leader, minister Martin Luther King Jr. After 1950, Georgia’s economy experienced growth and diversity and Atlanta became a major regional city and transportation hub, as it expanded into neighboring communities through its fast-growing suburbs. Since 2000 the white majority in Georgia has supported the Republican Party, which generally dominates American politics in the 21st century.