Blakely’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Blakely. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Blakely was platted in 1825 as the county seat for Early County. It was named for Johnston Blakeley, an officer in the War of 1812. Between 1881 and 1947 at least seven African-Americans were lynched in Blakely, including at least two veterans. One of these, Wilbur Little, was murdered upon returning from service in World War I by whites who detested seeing a black person in uniform. In 1960 an African-American veteran from New Jersey who was traveling through the county was convicted of rape and sentenced to death three days after his arrest in a trial that featured no defense counsel and no jury. The story was chronicled in the movie Fair Game.A month after the article appeared in the Chicago Defender the NAACP sent Monroe N. Work to Blakely to investigate the incident. On June 7, 1919, Work sent a telegram to NAACP officer J.R. Shillady stating "Have investigated report. Blakely, Geo…
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Blakely’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Blakely’s history is told.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewBlakely GA - Street Scene (NBY 42…, 1941: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Blakely
See all 6 →
Blakely, decade by decade
1930s
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Court House (1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via WikidataFrom Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (1) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.