Editing Camilla, Georgia (section)

==History==
The city was incorporated in 1858.<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/c.pdf | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=32 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref> The name "Camilla" was chosen in honor of the granddaughter of Henry Mitchell, a [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]] general for whom Mitchell County was named.<ref>[http://www.camillaga.com/HistoricalPhotos.cfm camillaga.com] Retrieved September 11, 2009.</ref>

Camilla and Mitchell County were originally [[Muscogee|Creek]] country, surrendered to the United States in the 1814 [[Treaty of Fort Jackson]]. Georgia divided the land ceded by Native Americans into lots to be given away in land lotteries. The lottery of 1820 awarded lands covering much of the southwest section of the state (applying only to land south of the future [[Lee County, Georgia|Lee County]] line and extending west to the [[Chattahoochee River]] and east to settled counties in east Georgia), including the area later known as Mitchell County. Despite having access to free land, few people moved to the region. Citizens hesitated to improve land, according to an early twentieth-century history the region "which God Almighty had left in an unfinished condition."{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} It took approximately forty years (1820–1857) for the area to obtain its necessary legal population to become a separate county, after which Camilla became the [[county seat]].<ref name=butler2012>Joshua Butler, "'Almost Too Terrible to Believe': The Camilla, Georgia Race Riot and Massacre, September 1868," (M.A. Thesis: Valdosta State University, 2012), pp. 17–18 (Content taken from the work with permission of the author).</ref>

In the early 2000s, the city was hit by two disastrous sets of [[tornado]]es, both occurring in the dark hours of the early morning and both going through roughly the same area. The [[2000 Southwest Georgia tornado outbreak|first outbreak]] was on February 14, 2000;<ref>[http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tae/research-gould_sls.php 10.5 SOUTHWEST GEORGIA TORNADO OUTBREAK OF 13–14 FEBRUARY 2000 – noaa.gov] Retrieved September 11, 2009.</ref> the second was on March 20, 2003.<ref>[http://www.srh.noaa.gov/tae/events/20030320.php Tornado Outbreak of March 20, 2003 – noaa.gov] Retrieved September 11, 2009.</ref>

=== Camilla massacre ===
{{main|Camilla massacre}}
Camilla became the site of a racially-motivated political white-on-black riot on Saturday, September 19, 1868.<!-- reported as August 1868 in <ref name=johnson2014>  -->  Determined to promote political and social reform with an organized rally, 150<ref name=butler2012/>–300 [[freedmen]], along with [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] political candidates, marched toward the town's courthouse square for the rally.<ref name=johnson2014/> The local sheriff and "[[Vigilance committee|citizens committee]]" in the majority-white town warned the black and white activists of the impending violence and demanded that they forfeit their guns, even though carrying weapons was customary at the time.<ref name=johnson2014/> The marchers refused to give up their guns and continued to the courthouse square, where a group of local whites, quickly deputized by the sheriff, fired upon them. This assault forced the Republicans and freedmen to retreat as locals gave chase into the swamps, killing an estimated nine to fifteen of the black rally participants while wounding forty others. "Whites proceeded through the countryside over the next two weeks, beating and warning Negroes that they would be killed if they tried to vote in the coming election."<ref name=johnson2014>{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Nicholas|title=Negroes and The Gun: the black tradition of arms|year=2014|publisher=Prometheus|location=Amherst, New York|isbn=978-1-61614-839-3|pages=90–92}}</ref> The Camilla massacre was the culmination of smaller acts of violence committed by white inhabitants that had plagued southwest Georgia since the end of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref name=butler2012/><sup>(pp.&nbsp;1–2)</sup>

=== Beating of Marion King ===
On July 23, 1962, a group of [[civil rights]] activists tried to visit fellow demonstrators from [[Albany, Georgia]], who had been jailed in Camilla. While the rally took place, Marion King, wife of [[Albany Movement]]'s vice president Slater King, was beaten to the ground and kicked by Camilla police guards until she was unconscious. Mrs. King was pregnant at the time and had her young children with her. She suffered a [[miscarriage]] after the ordeal.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/crdl/id:ugabma_wsbn_44817 |publisher=[[Civil Rights Digital Library]] |access-date=December 12, 2015 |title=WSB-TV newsfilm clip of Marion King, interviewed after her beating by Camilla police}}</ref> The 2012 song "Camilla" from the eponymous album by [[Caroline Herring]] pays a tribute to Mrs. King's memory.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://carolineherring.squarespace.com/blog/2012/9/20/the-story-behind-camilla.html |publisher=[[Caroline Herring]] |access-date=December 12, 2015 |title=The Story Behind Camilla}}</ref>