March 26, 1736

1736 After receiving ??26,000 from Parliament the previous year, Georgia’s Trustees had been advised to significantly cut their request for 1736. Consequently, on this day, the House of Commons voted the Trustees ??10,000 for sustaining the colony of Georgia.

March 26, 1867

1867 The Georgia Equal Rights Association met in Macon. Its primary goal was to encourage blacks to register and vote on a new state constitution.

March 26, 1894

1894 U.S. Senator Alfred H. Colquitt died in Washington, D.C. Born in Walton County on April 29, 1824, he graduated from Princeton University (1844). Returning to Georgia, Colquitt read law before being admitted to the bar in 1846. He began the practice of law in Columbus, Ga. but soon left to serve as a staff officer under Gen. Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War. Upon returning to Georgia, he married and moved to a plantation inherited by his wife in Baker County. He began his political career in 1849, as assistant secretary of the Georgia Senate. In 1852, Colquitt was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but served only one term because of his wife’s illness. In 1858, he represented Baker County for one year in the Georgia House of Representatives. Colquitt was a vocal advocate of Georgia’s secession and served in the secession convention in January 1861. He entered Confederate service as a captain in the 6th Georgia Regiment, was promoted to colonel in May 1861, brigadier general in Sept. 1862, and eventually major general. After the Civil War, Colquitt opposed Reconstruction policies, and became president of the Georgia Democratic Convention in 1870. In 1876, he was elected governor. Though his term saw Georgia’s finances return to normal after the turmoil of the war and Reconstruction, there was also considerable controversy as several officials were investigated and charges of bargaining and corruption were leveled at him and the other two powerful Georgia politicians of the time -- John B. Gordon and Joseph E. Brown. In 1882 Colquitt was appointed to fill the term of U.S. Senator Benjamin Hill, who had died in office. Colquitt remained in this post until his death in 1894.

March 26, 1916

1916 The Committee of Fifteen -- a panel of some of Augusta’s leading citizens who were heading the relief effort after the disastrous March 22 fire -- said immediate needs were for clothing, shoes, and bedding. Almost $35,000 had already been raised for the relief effort, but much more was needed.

March 26, 1935

1935 Gov. Eugene Talmadge signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly [see text] requiring every teacher in the public schools, colleges, and univesities of Georgia to sign an oath of allegiance of Georgia and the U.S. "and to refrain from directly or indirectly subscribing to or teaching any theory of government or economics or of social relations which is inconsistent with the fundamental principles of patriotism and high ideals of Americanism."

March 26, 1937

1937 Gov. E.D. Rivers signed an act of the General Assembly providing for state soil conservation districts in order to protect farm and grazing lands from erosion from wind and water caused by improper farming and other land-use practices. The act also created the State Soil Conservation Committee (which today exists as the State Soil and Water Conservation Committee).

March 26, 1956

1956 Despite his opposition to the National Democratic Party’s stand on civil rights, Georgia Gov. Marvin Griffin said he was not interested in forming a third party and that he still supported Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson.

March 26, 1956

1956 By this day, the Georgia State College of Business Administration had received six applications from African-Americans. Officially, the applications had neither been accepted or denied -- though college officials did note that the deadline for applying had been March 22.

March 26, 1962

1962 The U.S. Supreme Court issued its Baker v. Carr ruling, which established the legal precedent that apportionment of state legislative districts was subject to the 14th Amendment’s "Equal Protection" clause. Though the case arose in Tennessee, it set in motion a series of federal court cases involving Georgia’s county unit system and the state’s system for allocating representation in the General Assembly.

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Today in History

1820 William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio. After graduating from West Point in 1840, he served in the Mexican War and in the West. In 1844, Sherman had … read more