Editing Blakely, Georgia (section)

==History==
Blakely was [[plat]]ted in 1825 as the county seat for Early County.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/b.pdf | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=20 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref> It was named for [[Johnston Blakeley]], an officer in the [[War of 1812]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REtEXQNWq6MC&pg=PA221 | title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States | publisher=Routledge | date=May 13, 2013 | access-date=30 November 2013 | author=Hellmann, Paul T. | pages=221| isbn=978-1135948597 }}</ref> Between 1881 and 1947 at least seven African-Americans were lynched in Blakely,<ref name="UGA Lynching Project">{{cite web |title=THE LYNCHING PROJECT: EARLY COUNTY |url=https://digihum.libs.uga.edu/exhibits/show/the-lynching-project--murder-a/georgia-historic-overview/early-county |access-date=17 June 2020}}</ref> including at least two veterans. One of these, [[Lynching of Wilbur Little|Wilbur Little]], was murdered upon returning from service in [[World War I]] by whites who detested seeing a black person in uniform.<ref>{{Citation|last=Wilkerson|first=Isabel|title=The Warmth of Other Suns : The Epic Story of America's Great Migration|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/881023508|pages=145|isbn=978-1-4915-4542-3|oclc=881023508|access-date=2020-07-18}}. Cites "Army Uniform Cost Soldier His Life," ''Chicago Defender'', April 5, 1919, p. 1.</ref> In 1960 an African-American veteran from New Jersey who was traveling through the county was convicted of rape and sentenced to death 3 days after his arrest in a trial that featured no defense counsel and no jury. The story was chronicled in the movie ''Fair Game''.A month after the article appeared in the Chicago Defender the NAACP sent Monroe N. Work to Blakely to investigate the incident. On June 7, 1919, Work sent a telegram to NAACP officer J.R. Shillady stating "Have investigated report. Blakely, Georgia, lynching does not appear to have {{sic|occu|rred}}." Work concluded his investigation by recommending that allegations of a lynching be dropped.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hudsonreporter.com/2019/02/14/memory-of-georgia-lynching-lives-on-in-bayonne/|title = Memory of Georgia lynching lives on in Bayonne|date = 14 February 2019}}</ref> However, further review by the organization found that it had in fact occurred.<ref name="Du Bois">{{Cite book|last=Du Bois|first=William Edward Burghardt|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8ARAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Wilbur+Little%22+lynching&pg=PA155|title=The Crisis: A Record of the Darker Races|date=July 1919|publisher=[[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]]|volume=18|pages=155|language=en|issue=3 (Whole No. 105)}}</ref><ref name=Mikkelsen>{{cite thesis|last=Mikkelsen|first=Vincent|pages=139–140|date=2007|title=Coming from Battle to Face a War: The Lynching of Black Soldiers in the World War I Era|type=PhD|publisher=[[Florida State University College of Arts and Sciences]] |s2cid=161488986|url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dc00/c316c4dfc74a4b2806b59e52d3a1615c132f.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200227181222/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dc00/c316c4dfc74a4b2806b59e52d3a1615c132f.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-27}}</ref>