George Hall

George Hall. . In 1920, this building was dedicated in honor of James Zachariah George (1826-1897). Born in Georgia, George moved with his family to Mississippi in 1834, settling two years later in Carroll County., At the outbreak of war between the United States and Mexico, George volunteered for service with the First Mississippi Rifles. Upon his return, he completed his study in law and was elected reporter of the state Supreme Court in 1854 and again in 1860. In 1861, he served as a delegate to Mississippi's Secession Convention and later served in the Confederate Army as well as commanded Mississippi state militia., From 1875 to 1876, George chaired Mississippi's Democratic Executive Committee. During this time, George was most responsible for crafting the “Mississippi Plan,” a program of voter intimidation, violent repression, and riot aimed at returning his state to white Democratic rule. Mississippi historian Dunbar Rowland later described the struggle as “bitter and bloody.” In 1878, George was appointed to the University of Mississippi Board of Trustees. In that role he attended one meeting and then resigned the following year to serve as a trustee for what would become Mississippi State University. In 1879, he was appointed to the state's Supreme Court, and there elected to serve as chief justice. He resigned from the bench after being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880, a post he would hold until his death., While in the Senate, George returned to Mississippi to become the chief architect of the 1890 state constitution. Alarmed that African Americans comprised a majority of Mississippians, George and others crafted a new state constitution that effectively reduced the number of qualified black Mississippi voters from 147,205 to 8,615. As a result, whites gained an electoral majority in every county. So successful was the denial of voting rights of African Americans, the pattern of constitutional exclusion pioneered by George was repeated in Alabama, Louisiana, Virginia, and the Carolinas. The franchise would not be restored to African Americans in Mississippi until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.