Editing Camilla, Georgia (section)

=== 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>