Henry McNeal Turner Leads Black Political Mobilization in Georgia

Reverend Henry McNeal Turner, an AME bishop and Union Army chaplain, was a dominant figure in Georgia Reconstruction politics, helping register Black voters, organizing Union League chapters, and serving in Georgia's Reconstruction legislature. In September 1868, Georgia's legislature expelled all 27 of its Black members, arguing the right to vote did not include the right to hold office. Turner delivered a devastating speech on the expulsion; Congress eventually restored the members and Georgia