Camilla, Georgia
| Camilla, Georgia | |
|---|---|
| City | |
Camilla City Hall
|
|
 Location in Mitchell County and the state of Georgia |
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| Coordinates: 31°13′49″N 84°12′33″W / 31.23028°N 84.20917°WCoordinates: 31°13′49″N 84°12′33″W / 31.23028°N 84.20917°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Georgia |
| County | Mitchell |
| Area | |
| • Total | 6.1 sq mi (15.8 km2) |
| • Land | 6.1 sq mi (15.8 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 177 ft (54 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 5,360 |
| • Density | 880/sq mi (340/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 31730 |
| Area code(s) | 229 |
| FIPS code | 13-12624 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0331312 |
| Website | http://www.camillaga.net/ |
Camilla is a city in Mitchell County, Georgia, United States, and is its county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,360.
The city was incorporated in 1858. The name Camilla was chosen in honor of the granddaughter of Henry Mitchell, an American Revolutionary War general for whom Mitchell County was named.
Camilla and Mitchell County were originally Creek country surrendered to the United States in the 1814 Treaty at 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 line and extending west to Chattahoochee 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." 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’s seat.
Camilla became the site of a racially motivated political riot on Saturday, September 19, 1868. Determined to promote political and social reform with an organized rally, 150–300 freedmen, along with Republican political candidates, marched toward the town’s courthouse square for the rally. The local sheriff and "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. 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." 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 Civil War.(pp. 1–2)
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