Unit 11 – People of the New South
The Bourbon Triumvirate*
Joseph E. Brown* – Born in South Carolina but spent most of his life in
North Georgia. He attended Yale law school and became a successful lawyer in Georgia. He
was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1849 and later became a judge in 1855. He
was elected governor of Georgia in 1857 and remained governor of Georgia through the Civil
War. He also served as chief justice of Georgia’s Supreme Court and as a U.S. Senator from
1880-1890.
Alfred H. Colquitt* – He graduated from Princeton University in 1844 and
became a lawyer in Georgia. He became a member of the GA General Assembly in 1859. He
fought for the South in the Civil War and fought in some major battles from 1861-1863. He
became a major general because of his service. He served as Georgia’s governor from 18761882 and as a U.S. Senator from 1883-1894.
John B. Gordon* – Born in Upson County, Georgia but later moved to
Walker County, Georgia. He left the University of Georgia before graduating to manage his
father’s coal mine. He was wounded in the Civil War 5 times, once in the Battle of Antietam and
the Battle of Gettysburg. He was an outspoken opponent of Reconstruction and believed to be
the leader of the Georgia chapter of the KKK. He served as a U.S. Senator from 1872-1880,
leader of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and he was elected Governor of Georgia in 1886.
He was elected back to the U.S. Senate from 1883-1894.
Henry Grady – He is best known for his continued promotion of the New
South. He was the managing editor of the Atlanta Journal, where he used his newspaper to
promote ideas that the South had indeed changed since the Civil War. He is given credit for
being instrumental in bringing the International Cotton Exposition to Atlanta, and for the creation
of Georgia Tech.
Tom Watson – He is known for his support of blacks and whites who were
tenant farmers and sharecroppers. He was elected to the GA General Assembly in 1882. He
was the spokesman for the Populist Party in Georgia. He is best known for his work in
Congress for passing the Rural Free Delivery Act. He staunchly supported poor whites and
blacks through Populist ideas in his early years, however, in his later years he became a white
supremacist and anti-capitalist.
Rebecca Latimer Felton – a writer, political activist, reformer, and served as
the first female senator in U.S. history (she was appointed because of Tom Watson’s death; she
was not elected). She was an independent democrat and a huge supporter of progressive
causes such as Women’s Suffrage.
Leo Frank – He was a manager at the National Pencil Company. He was
Jewish. He was charged with murdering 13 years old Mary Phagan, who was an employee at
the pencil factory. He was originally sentenced to death, but because of some gaps in
evidence, the Governor commuted his sentence from death to life in prison. He was dragged
out of the state prison by members of the KKK and hung.
Booker T Washington – He was born a slave in Virginia. He was an author,
educator, speaker, and a political activist. He received a college degree and was offered the job
to head the Tuskegee Institution in Alabama. He promoted the idea that the best approach for
African-Americans to gain a foothold in white society was through hard work, education, and
economic accomplishments.
W.E.B. DuBois – He was born a free man in Massachusetts. Sheltered from
the blight of slavery for most of his life; he supported most of Booker T. Washington’s
philosophy early in his life. But after being exposed to Jim Crow laws after attending Fisk
University in Tennessee, DuBois took a much more aggressive approach in fighting segregation
in the South. He formed “the talented tenth” or an elite group of college educated AfricanAmericans who would use their talent and position to eradicate segregation in the South.
John and Lugenia Burns Hope – John was an important educator, civil
rights leader, and social reformer in Atlanta. He was born to a Scottish father and a black
mother. He was the first black president of both Morehouse and Atlanta University.
Lugenia was John’s wife and a community organizer, reformer, and social
activist. She is known for establishing the Neighborhood Union, which fought for better schools
and health education for black families. She also became the first vice-president of the Atlanta
chapter of the NAACP.
Alonzo Herndon – He was born to a slave mother and a white father in Social
Circle, Georgia. Became a barber in 1878 in Senioa, GA and then Jonesboro, GA. He later
moved to Atlanta where he began a partnership as part owner of a barbershop. He became a
very successful barber, and real estate mogul. He established the Atlanta Mutual Life Insurance
Company which would go to become a hugely successful company. Today, Atlanta Life
Financial Group is worth over $100 million.