Decision to run for Georgia state legislature
Hamilton describes her decision to run for the Georgia state legislature in 1965. In so doing, Hamilton outlines the re-apportioning of congressional districts and how that process affected her successful election.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Grace Towns Hamilton, July 19, 1974. Interview G-0026. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
I understand. So you ran for the Georgia legislature in 1966?
- GRACE TOWNS HAMILTON:
-
'65.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
'65. After the county-unit system was done away with and
reapportionment?
- GRACE TOWNS HAMILTON:
-
Well, there were several stages in that. First was getting rid of the
county unit system, then there was the re-apportionment of the senate,
then there was re-apportionment of the congressional districts, then
there was re-apportionment of the house. In the state, re-apportionment
of the senate came first, and then re-apportionment of the house. And
when that got passed and the house was re-apportioned, I ran in one of
the newly created districts.
- JACQUELYN HALL:
-
How did you decide to launch into electoral politics?
- GRACE TOWNS HAMILTON:
-
Just because I … see, the whole effort was to try to find good
people to run for these new districts. See, Fulton County had been
represented by three people, and when it was re-apportioned, we had
twenty-four house districts. And twenty-six of that, the first
re-apportionment, with five at-large and … how many single
member districts there were… twenty, twenty-one single member
districts. And so all of us who'd been interested in
improving the participation of Negros in the political process were
interested in trying to locate people, and I went to talk to another
person who also ran for the first time who had run for something else,
and I said, "Who are we going to get for
this district, 112th?" And he said, he said, "Well,
why don't you run?" And I really had never
… I really hadn't thought about it. And so I said,
"Well, I'll go think about it." And I did.
And after all, I know as much about the district as anybody.