Tunis Campbell

Tunis Campbell (April 1, 1812 – December 4, 1891) was a prominent African American politician of the 19th century, and a major figure in Reconstruction Georgia.

Born in Middlebrook, New Jersey, Campbell served as a Justice of the Peace, a delegate to the State Constitutional Convention, and as a Georgia state senator. He died in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 4, 1891.

In 1867, with a goal to help freedmen vote, Campbell was appointed to the Board of Registration in Georgia. He was elected to congress as a senator in Georgia in 1868 only to be expelled from office because white congressmen agreed that blacks didn't have the right to hold office. He was able to return to office in 1871, but lost in 1872 and eventually imprisoned in a Georgia labor camp before fleeing the state.

References

• Eric Foner ed., Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996).
• New Georgia Encyclopedia: Tunis Campbell (1812-1891)

• Tunis Campbell, Sufferings of the Reverend T.G. Campbell and His Family in Georgia. (1877).

• Edmund L. Drago, Black Politicians and Reconstruction in Georgia: A Splendid Failure (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1982).

• Russell Duncan, Freedom's Shore: Tunis Campbell and the Georgia Freedmen (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986).