Terrell County, Georgia

Terrell County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,185.<ref name="QF">Template:Cite web</ref> The county seat is Dawson.<ref name="GR6">Template:Cite web</ref> Terrell County is included in the Albany, GA metropolitan statistical area.

History

Formed from portions of Randolph and Lee Counties on February 16, 1856, by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, Terrell County is named for Dr. William Terrell (1778–1855) of Sparta, Georgia, who served in the Georgia General Assembly and the United States House of Representatives.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

During the American Civil War, after Atlanta's capture by Union forces, a refugee settlement was established in Terrell County for civilians forced to flee the city. The Fosterville settlement, named after Georgia Quartermaster General Ira Roe Foster,<ref name="Frank2008">Template:Cite book</ref> was according to author Mary Elizabeth Massey in her 2001 history, the "most ambitious refugee project approved by the Georgia General Assembly" [during that period].<ref name="Fosterville">Template:Cite book</ref> On March 11, 1865, the Georgia General Assembly authorized General Foster to "continue to provide for maintenance of said exiles, or such of them as are unable by their labor to support themselves, or their families for the balance of the present year."<ref name="Fosterville" />

During the civil rights era of the 1960s, the local white minority resisted change, sometimes violently; it subsequently became known as "Terrible Terrell County".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1958 the county refused to register a group of African-Americans including several teachers with Bachelors and master's degrees on the grounds that they couldn't read, and a college-educated marine who was refused registration on the grounds he could not write intelligibly.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The case eventually reached the supreme court, and the county was ordered to allow them to register, but they did not immediately comply. In 1960, testimony showed that Black voters were given more tests, and more difficult tests, than White voters, and that illiterate Whites were allowed to vote, while well-educated Blacks were falsely determined to be illiterate. The county asserted that this was not discriminatory.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 1962, an African-American church was burned down after it was used for voter registration meetings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (Note: Like other southern states, Georgia had disenfranchised most blacks at the turn of the century by rules raising barriers to voter registration; they were still excluded from the political system.) That month Prathia Hall delivered a speech at the site of the ruins, using the repeated phrase "I have a dream." Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. attended her speech; afterward, he also began to use that phrase, including in his noted "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.<ref>Holsaert, Faith et al. Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC. University of Illinois Press, 2010, p. 180.</ref>

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of Template:Convert, of which Template:Convert is land and Template:Convert (0.7%) is water.<ref name="GR1">Template:Cite web</ref>

The western and southern two-thirds of Terrell County is located in the Ichawaynochaway Creek sub-basin of the ACF River Basin (Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin). The county's northeastern third is located in the Kinchafoonee-Muckalee sub-basin of the same larger ACF River Basin.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Major highways

• File:US 82.svg U.S. Route 82
• File:Georgia 32.svg State Route 32
• File:Georgia 41.svg State Route 41
• File:Georgia 45.svg State Route 45
• File:Georgia 49.svg State Route 49
• File:Georgia 50.svg State Route 50
• File:Georgia 55.svg State Route 55
• File:Georgia 118.svg State Route 118
• File:Georgia 520.svg State Route 520

Adjacent counties

• Webster County - north
• Sumter County - northeast
• Lee County - east
• Dougherty County - southeast
• Calhoun County - southwest
• Randolph County - west

Communities

City

• Dawson

Towns

• Bronwood
• Parrott
• Sasser

Demographics

2020 census

Terrell County, Georgia – Racial and ethnic composition
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Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)	Pop 2000<ref name=2000CensusP004>Template:Cite web</ref>	Pop 2010<ref name=2010CensusP2>Template:Cite web</ref>	Template:Partial<ref name=2020CensusP2>Template:Cite web</ref>	% 2000	% 2010	Template:Partial
White alone (NH)	4,101	3,366	3,189	37.38%	36.14%	34.72%
Black or African American alone (NH)	6,614	5,683	5,540	60.29%	61.01%	60.32%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)	22	14	11	0.20%	0.15%	0.12%
Asian alone (NH)	31	29	57	0.28%	0.31%	0.62%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)	3	0	1	0.03%	0.00%	0.01%
Other race alone (NH)	4	3	11	0.04%	0.03%	0.12%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)	59	63	199	0.54%	0.68%	2.17%
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	136	157	177	1.24%	1.69%	1.93%
Total	10,970	9,315	9,185	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 9,185 people, 3,399 households, and 2,348 families residing in the county.

Politics

Terrell County has consistently been a Democratic county since the 1992 presidential election, though the margins have historically been close. In 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt received 100% of all votes cast in Terrell County. Template:PresHead Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresRow Template:PresFoot

Notable people

• Benjamin J. Davis Jr., Harvard Law School graduate and elected to New York City Council. Defended Angelo Herndon in Georgia against insurrection charges for organizing a union, resulting in a U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled against Georgia's insurrection law as unconstitutional.<ref name="emory">"An Overview of the Brazier Case", Georgia Civil Rights Cold Cases Project, Emory University, accessed April 6, 2016</ref>
• Walter Washington, activist and politician, elected as the first black mayor of Washington, D.C.<ref name="emory" /> after Congress granted home rule to the city.
• Otis Redding, rhythm and blues singer; one of the first crossover artists appealing to both young blacks and whites in the post-World War II era.
• Cole Swindell, is an American country music singer and songwriter who attended Terrell Academy in Dawson, Georgia.

See also

• Dawson Five
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Terrell County, Georgia
• USS Terrell County (LST-1157)
• List of counties in Georgia

External links

• terrellcounty.georgia.gov
• The New Georgia Encyclopedia Terrell County entry Template:Webarchive