Georgia

douglas9

(4,474 posts) Thu Nov 3, 2022, 11:24 AM Nov 2022

Governor Kemp's Family Brought Slavery to Georgia

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp does not want you to know that it was his family that first brought enslaved Africans to Georgia.

The original settlers in Georgia had outlawed slavery until James Habersham — Kemp’s ancestor — won a bloody battle to bring humans in chains to his plantations.

Habersham’s reward for bringing the slave system to Georgia? He was appointed acting Governor under King George II. So Kemp can claim a governing dynasty going back nearly three centuries. His mother was quite proud of it (her records and photo albums are priceless resources), but the current Governor demurs.

Let’s be clear: Brian Kemp did not bring enslaved humans to Georgia. Nor is he responsible for the horrors perpetrated by his long-dead ancestors.

But Kemp, who fanatically avoids association with his dark origins, has gone so far as to ensconce historical amnesia into law. This April, Kemp signed HB1178, the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights” and a companion bill that makes it darn difficult for any schoolteacher in the Peach State to teach uncensored history and keep their job.

As Kemp noted in his signing ceremony, the law “will ban the teaching of divisive concepts” and, as a gleeful local newscaster said, “would make it easier to ban books.”

My question for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation: Is it divisive, under the law, to state the fact that the Kemp Dynasty’s power and privileges are sourced in human trafficking?

https://www.gregpalast.com/governor-kemps-family-brought-slavery-to-georgia/

3 replies

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Governor Kemp's Family Brought Slavery to Georgia (Original Post) douglas9 Nov 2022 OP

My family brought enslaved Africans to the Eastern shore Virginia in colonial times Walleye Nov 2022 #1

Greg Palast is reduced to channeling his inner Dinesh D'Souza now. NT mahatmakanejeeves Nov 2022 #2

THIS is major appalachiablue Nov 2022 #3

Walleye

(35,656 posts)

1. My family brought enslaved Africans to the Eastern shore Virginia in colonial times

Reply to douglas9 (Original post)

Thu Nov 3, 2022, 11:32 AM

Nov 2022

I’m certainly not proud of it and not particularly ashamed of it I would hate to think they wouldn’t be teaching about it in school, though. I just use it as incentive to be a better person than my ancestors were

mahatmakanejeeves

(60,915 posts)

2. Greg Palast is reduced to channeling his inner Dinesh D'Souza now. NT

Reply to douglas9 (Original post)

Thu Nov 3, 2022, 11:47 AM

Nov 2022

appalachiablue

(42,903 posts)

3. THIS is major

Reply to douglas9 (Original post)

Thu Nov 3, 2022, 12:01 PM

Nov 2022

* Article Excerpt: ('Jim Crow 2.0')

.. SUPPRESSING THE HISTORY IS SUPPRESSING THE VOTE. Darien City Councilman Griffin Lotson.

Councilman Lotson draws a direct line between suppressing history and Kemp’s other legislative accomplishment: suppressing the vote of the descendants of the enslaved. Last year, Kemp, as he prepared for his re-match for the Governorship against Stacey Abrams, signed SB202 — what the NAACP calls “Jim Crow 2.0.”

- Among the bill’s little noticed but most threatening clauses: any Georgian can challenge the vote of an “unlimited” number of other Georgians ballot. During our research for the film Vigilante, we met one GOP county chairman who personally challenged and blocked the vote of over 4,000 voters in Columbus, Georgia, including Major Gamaliel Turner, an African-American career military specialist. The Major was assigned by the military to a base on the West Coast — and was denied his ballot because this Republican official, Alton Russell, challenged the Major on grounds the soldier was not a citizen of Georgia.

The history of the vigilante challenge law is elucidating, originally used in 1946 by Eugene Talmadge, who successfully won the Governorship by organizing his Ku Klux Klan followers to challenge Black voters en masse. Instead of white sheets, Kemp’s vigilantes use spreadsheets to challenge thousands of legitimate at the push of a button. (Note: Not a single voter challenged, out of over 168,000 challenged has been charged with attempting to vote illegally.)...

But Lotson knows his history and makes the connection. He said, “When you suppress the history, you suppress the vote.”
I thought I’d warn Councilman Lotson about making “divisive” statements in Georgia. No matter how true.
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Greg Palast’s investigation of Brian Kemp and the history of vote suppression, the documentary Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman, will have a no-charge screening this week only at VigilanteMovie.com

The film’s Director, David Ambrose, contributed research for this article.

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