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Grace Towns Hamilton

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@ New Georgia Encyclopedia

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Photograph of Georgia representative Grace Towns Hamilton. She wears an ecru suit and round, dark-rimmed glasses. She is seated in a blue leather chair, and a bookcase holding rows of tan books stands behind her.The first African American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly, Hamilton was also the first female of her race in the Deep South to hold a public office of such consequence. She was among eight African Americans sent to the state legislature in a special election in June 1965; they were the first to enter the lower house since the end of Reconstruction. Hamilton was defeated in her bid for reelection to her legislative post in September 1984 by Mable Thomas, a woman one-third her age. Hamilton held only one other public post, as advisor to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission from January 1985 to January 1987.
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New Georgia Encyclopedia

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Digital Library of Georgia