May these voices ever be heard in this forum from this point
: forward.

: Let us add to the list and shout the deeds of previously
: undersung heroes and sheroes from all valleys and hills.

(1868) Reverend Henry McNeal Turner, “I Claim the Rights of a Man”

African Methodist Episcopal minister and later Bishop Henry McNeal Turner emerged immediately after the Civil War as one of the most ardent defenders of African Ameriacn rights. Turner was also among the first group of Reconstruction-era African American elected officials. In July 1868, Turner was among the two state senators and twenty-five black Republican state representatives elected to serve in the Georgia legislature. Less than two months later, Georgia Democrats, the majority of the legislature, boldly expelled all of the black members. On September 3, 1868, Turner stood before the assembled representatives and denounced the legislators who had refused to seat the African American senators and representatives.