Editing Statesboro, Georgia (section)

==History==
[[File:Bulloch County Courthouse, Statesboro, GA, US.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bulloch County Courthouse]]]]
In 1801, George Sibbald of [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]] donated a {{convert|9301|acre|km2|adj=on}} tract for a centrally located county seat for the growing agricultural community of Bulloch County. The area was developed by white planters largely for cotton plantations that were worked by [[Slavery in the United States|black slave]] labor. In December 1803, the Georgia legislature created the town of Statesborough. The community most likely was named after the notion of [[states' rights]], an issue central in the [[1800 United States presidential election]].<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/s.pdf| title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | page=212 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref> In 1866 the state legislature granted a permanent charter to the city, changing the spelling of its name to the present "Statesboro."

During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] and [[William Tecumseh Sherman|General William T. Sherman's]] famous [[Sherman's March to the Sea|March to the Sea]] through Georgia, a [[Union Army|Union]] officer asked a saloon proprietor for directions to Statesboro. The proprietor replied, "You are standing in the middle of town,"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bullochhistory.com/timelineb|title=Bullochhistory – Timeline|website=Bullochhistory.com|access-date=12 July 2018}}</ref> indicating its small size. The soldiers destroyed the courthouse, a log structure that doubled as a barn when court was not in session. After the Civil War, the small town began to grow, and Statesboro has developed as a major town in southeastern Georgia. Many [[freedmen]] stayed in the area, working on plantations as [[sharecroppers]] and [[tenant farmer]]s.

Following the [[Reconstruction era]], racial violence of whites against blacks increased. In the era from 1880 to 1930, Georgia had the highest rate of [[lynching]]s of any state in the nation.<ref name="meyers2006killing">{{cite journal| author=Meyers, Christopher C| title= 'Killing Them by the Wholesale': A Lynching Rampage in South Georgia| journal=The Georgia Historical Quarterly| year=2006| volume=90| number=2| pages=214–235| publisher=| url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_q6VhhkczIYU2hSTHJtbHFmWGc/view?usp=sharing |access-date=14 May 2013}}</ref> Among them were three black men who were lynched and burned to death on August 16, 1904, near Statesboro. A fourth man was lynched later in the month in Bulloch County. After a white farm family was killed, the white community spread unfounded rumors of black clergy urging blacks to violence against whites, and more than twelve black men were arrested in this case.<ref name="moseley">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/40580763?loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Charlton Moseley and Frederick Brogdon, Review: "A Lynching at Statesboro: The Story of Paul Reed and Will Cato"], ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'' Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 104–118, accessed 29 July 2016</ref>

[[Lynching of Paul Reed and Will Cato|Paul Reed and Will Cato]] were convicted of the Hodge family murders by an [[all-white jury]] and sentenced to death on August 16, 1904, but they were abducted that day from the courthouse by a lynch mob and brutally burned to death. Handy Bell, another suspect, was lynched and burned by a mob that night.<ref name="pittsburg">[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19040817&id=LLsaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pEgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3929,7388934&hl=en  ''Pittsburg Press,'' 17 August 1904; accessed 29 July 2016]</ref> White violence against blacks did not end; both men and women were physically attacked on the streets. Two more black men were lynched in August 1904: Sebastian McBride in [[Portal, Georgia|Portal]], another town in Bulloch County, and A.L. Scott in [[Wilcox County, Georgia|Wilcox County]].<ref name="savannah.news"/><ref name="Ralph Ginzburg 1996">Ralph Ginzburg, ''100 Years of Lynching,'' Black Classic Press (1967/reprint paperback 1996); W. Fitzhugh Brundage, ''Lynching in the New South,'' Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993</ref><ref name="moseley"/>
[[File:Jaeckel Hotel, Statesboro, GA, US.jpg|thumb|left|[[Statesboro City Hall]], located downtown in the renovated [[Jaeckel Hotel]] building. The hotel served as the center of local social life in the early part of the 20th century.]]
To escape oppression and violence, many African Americans left Statesboro and Bulloch County altogether, causing local businessmen to worry about labor shortages in the cotton and turpentine industries.<ref name="savannah.news">[http://savannahnow.com/features/150years/1900industry.shtml Jenel Few, "Racial strife"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150601022015/http://savannahnow.com/features/150years/1900industry.shtml |date=2015-06-01 }}, ''Savannah Morning News,'' 20 August 2000; accessed 29 July 2016</ref>  African Americans made a [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] from the rural South to northern cities in the first half of the 20th century.<ref name="moseley"/> Local effects can be seen in the drop in Statesboro population growth from 1910 to 1930 on the census tables below in the "Demographics" section.

Around the turn of the century, new businesses in Statesboro included stores and banks built along North, East, South, and West Main streets. In 1908, Statesboro led the world in sales of long-staple [[Sea Island Cotton]], a specialty of the [[lowland|Low Country]]. Mechanization of agriculture decreased the need for some farm labor. After the [[boll weevil]] destroyed the cotton crop in the 1930s, farmers shifted to [[tobacco]]. The insect had invaded the South from the west, disrupting cotton cultivation throughout the region. By 1953, however, more than 20 million pounds of tobacco passed through warehouses in Statesboro, then the largest market of the "Bright Tobacco Belt" spanning Georgia and [[Florida]].

The 1906 First District Agricultural & Mechanical School at Statesboro was developed as a [[land grant college]], initiated by federal legislation to support education. Its mission shifted in the 1920s to teacher training; and in 1924 it was renamed as the Georgia Normal School. With expansion of the curriculum to a 4-year program, it was renamed as the South Georgia Teachers College in 1929. Other name changes were to Georgia Teachers College in 1939, and [[Georgia Southern College]] in 1959. After this period, it became racially integrated and with development of graduate programs and research in numerous fields, since 1990 it has had university status as [[Georgia Southern University]].

In March of 2025, Statesboro Chief of Police Charles “Mike” Broadhead announced a full staff of 79 sworn officers.<ref> https://www.statesboroherald.com/local/statesboro-pd-soon-to-be-at-full-force-for-first-time-this-decade/</ref>