Georgia Stories Video

The first woman to serve as a United States Senator was from Georgia. Her name was Rebecca Latimer Felton.

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The Judicial Branch of Georgia state government handles matters of the law. Most legal matters in the state of Georgia are reviewed by a judge or a jury, who are both a central part of the court system.

The Judicial Branch of Georgia consists of several different types of courts. There are two appellate level courts: the Supreme Court, and the Court of Appeals. There are five trial level courts: superior, state, juvenile, probate, and magistrate.

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Sequoyah, a Cherokee Indian with ties to Georgia and Oklahoma, did something no other person in recorded history has done. He created a system of writing for an unwritten language.

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Perhaps the fatal mistake made by William McIntosh, born in 1778 to a Scottish father and a Creek Indian mother, was to try to satisfy the demands of both cultures.

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Abraham Baldwin only lived 53 years, but in that time he accomplished more than most people ever dream of doing. In his lifetime he was a state legislator, founder and president of a university, member of the Confederation Congress, signer of the U.S. Constitution, and member of the U.S. House and later the U.S. Senate.

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Henry Grady (1850-1889), journalist and speaker, brought fame and industry to a New South during Reconstruction period.  Grady and other progressives knew that the South would have to do more than depend on agriculture to support their economy. The South needed to industrialize with the help of Northern investors.  His speeches around the country and his editorials in the Atlanta Constitution supported industrialization and the rising of the “New South.”

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Not long after the Articles of Confederation were drawn up in 1777, Georgia and the United States decided they would need a strong central government. In 1887, each state sent representatives to Philadelphia to a Constitutional Convention. They met to write a new Constitution that would set-up the government we have today. Georgia sent four men, most notably University of Georgia founder Abraham Baldwin, who played a critical role in what came to be known as the “Great Compromise.” By 1789, Georgia had a new Constitution of its own, and the new U.S. Constitution had been ratified by all of the states.

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The executive branch is the largest of Georgia’s three branches of state government. The Georgia constitution names eight officers that are elected by all Georgia voters to serve in the executive branch. They lead agencies responsible for enforcing state laws and carrying out programs like education, elections, and law enforcement.

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On the second Monday of every year, the Georgia General Assembly convenes for a 40-day session. The General Assembly is our state’s legislative body. Located in the capital of Atlanta, it’s where state laws are written, debated, and amended. The Legislature consists of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Much of the work in the General Assembly concerns bills. A bill is a draft of a proposed law that’s presented to a legislative body for approval.

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Thomas Watson is one of Georgia’s most perplexing historical figures. An early champion of poor farmers in the shambles after the Civil War, he was the voice of the Populist Party. In his later years, however, he was known as a divisive and racist politician.

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