Malcolm Claiborne (sometimes spelled Claiborn) (1838–July 25, 1870) was born in  Lancaster County, South Carolina in 1838. He was elected to the Georgia Assembly representing Burke County along with Black assemblyman John Warren. Claiborne was removed from the legislature in September 1868 and allowed to take office again alongside the other 32 Black representatives in January 1870 after federal intervention. 

Six months after taking his office, Claiborne was shot and killed on July 25, 1870 after a dispute with the messenger sent by the Georgia House, Moses Bentley, after a heated argument over pay of House pages as well as replacing a Black page with a white page. Bentley had been a black delegate of the 1867 Georgia Constitutional Convention.   

Claiborne is believed to be buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, GA. 

REFERENCES:
The New York Times (New York, New York) · 1 Aug 1870, Mon · Page 5

Edmund L. Drago (1992). Black Politicians and Reconstruction in Georgia: A Splendid Failure. University of Georgia Press. p. 67.

Foner, Eric (1993). Freedom’s Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction. Oxford University Press. p. 46

Davis, Ren; Davis, Helen (2012). Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery: An Illustrated History and Guide. University of Georgia Press. p. 158

John Warren was elected as representative from Burke County, which is located south of Augusta on the border with South Carolina. Little is known now of Warren beyond his election to the Georgia Assembly. On January 18, 1870, The Georgia Weekly Telegraph, Journal and Messenger reported that although reinstated, Warren did not appear at the House of Representatives to be sworn in on January 10th. In 1874 Warren was listed as owning 40 acres of land with an estimated worth of $300.

Below is a “report of assaults with intent to murder, committed upon freed people in the division of Albany from January 1st to October 31st 1868.”

JOHN WARREN (shot in the right leg while running, then shot in the back with 5 or 6 buckshot, when already wounded and unable to walk, immediately afterwards, when his pursuers came up, knocked in the head with a gun and wounded in the neck with a pistol ball while laying on the ground. Not all the wounds are healed, is just getting able to walk)

REFERENCES:

“The House of Representatives.” The Georgia Weekly Telegraph, Journal and Messenger  January 18, 1870. p. 1.

Forner, Freedom’s Lawmakers, p.223.

The Freedman’s Bureau Online. https://www.freedmensbureau.com/georgia/gaoutr8.htm