Abram Colby

Historical Marker Dedication: Representative Abram Colby

| Cynthia L Jennings

The Georgia Historical Society will be dedicating a historical marker for Abram Colby on April, 26, 2026. For more information, please visit their website.

The marker will read:

Representative Abram Colby (c.1820-1872)

African-American leader Abram Colby represented Greene County’s Black community following emancipation. Under the US Southern Homestead Act (1866), Colby unsuccessfully applied for land in Arkansas to relocate Greene County African-American citizens. Colby later advocated for Black education and fair labor contracts. Elected a Republican state representative in 1868, Colby and his fellow Black legislators were expelled because of their race. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) targeted Republicans who supported Reconstruction and assaulted Colby in a near-fatal attack. In White v. Clements (1869), the Georgia Supreme Court affirmed African Americans’ right to hold political office, reinstating Colby’s seat. In 1871 Colby testified about the KKK’s political terrorism in the South before a federal congressional committee, leading to the prosecution of KKK members and shifting public perception. Colby was targeted until his death in 1872.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society and the Greene County African American Museum

Director Mamie Hillman on Abram Colby, One of The Original 33

| Cynthia L Jennings

Many years ago, while researching Greene County, Georgia’s African American Historical Narrative, I discovered Abram Colby. From childhood to adulthood I always desired to know how I became a part of my community’s historical narrative. When I discovered Abram Colby, this began an unearthing and à feeling of ownership in this place. Abram Colby enslaved on the plantation of John Colby (Abram’s biological father) to a sixteen-year-old enslaved girl in Penfield, Georgia, around 1820. John Colby was one of Greene County’s wealthiest plantation owners. Although Abram’s experiences were that of enslavement. He esteemed to greatness with a clarity of heart and mind to serve others. He became a minister, barber, and Greene County’s first African American to be elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1868. This was a time of supposed change, betterment, and new beginnings for communities and the state of Georgia. However, it was a time of violence, horrific systematic racism, and engagements. When only, Representative Abram Colby desired to serve his community and its people. Such a viable, phenomenal and committed leader. It is my hope that our community, its citizens, and the state of Georgia will acknowledge, honor, and celebrate the lives of Georgia’s First African American Legislators.