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Photographer: Photo of a 1974 oil painting by George Mandus via Laurens County African American History
Caption: Representative Henry McNeal Turner
One of the Original 33
Additional Description: Excerpt from his speech on the floor of the House:

Never, in the history of the world, has a man been arraigned before a body clothed with legislative, judicial or executive functions, charged with the offense of being a darker hue than his fellow men. ... never in the history of the great nations of this world, never before, has a man been arraigned, charged with an offense committed by the God of Heaven Himself.

... it has remained for the state of Georgia, in the very heart of the nineteenth century, to call a man before the bar, and there charge him with an act for which he is no more responsible than for the head which he carries upon his shoulders.

The Anglo Saxon race, sir, is a most surprising one. No man has ever been more deceived in that race than I have been for the last three weeks. I was not aware that there was in the character of that race so much cowardice or so much pusillanimity.

Submitted: August 18, 2022, by J. J. Prats of Powell, Ohio.
Database Locator Identification Number: p673020
File Size: 0.016 Megabytes

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