Charles Hillyer Brand (April 20, 1861 – May 17, 1933) was an American politician, businessman,
jurist and lawyer.
Biography
Brand was born in
Loganville, Georgia and graduated from the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
in 1881. He was admitted to the state bar in 1882.
In 1894 and 1895, Brand served in the
Georgia Senate
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Legal provisions
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, with the lower house being the Georgia Ho ...
and was the president ''
pro tempore'' of that body. Brand was also involved in the banking industry as president and director of the Brand Banking Co. in
Lawrenceville, Georgia
Lawrenceville is a city in and the county seat of Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Atlanta, located approximately northeast of downtown. As of the 2020 census, the population of Lawrenceville was 30,629. In 2019, the ...
, director of the Georgia National Bank and of the American State Bank in Athens. Brand was the solicitor general of the United States District Court for the Western District of Georgia, western district of Georgia from 1896 through 1904 and succeeded Richard B. Russell, Sr. as the judge of the state superior court in 1906. He served in that position until 1917.
On June 27, 1911, a Walton County mob of several hundred unmasked white men lynched two Black men named Tom Allen and Joe Watts after a local white judge—Charles H. Brand—refused to allow state guardsmen to be present to prevent mob action. Three months earlier, in Judge Brand’s hometown of Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County, he had also refused the assistance of state troops to protect a Black man named Charles Hale, who, left without the protection of those troops, was taken by a white mob and lynched.
Brand was then elected as a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic United States House of Representatives, representative of Georgia's 8th congressional district in the 65th United States Congress and served seven consecutive terms in that district. After congressional apportionment in 1932, Brand successfully ran for an eighth term in Georgia's newly redrawn Georgia's 10th congressional district, 10th congressional district. He died in Athens while still in office and was buried in Shadow Lawn Cemetery in
Lawrenceville, Georgia
Lawrenceville is a city in and the county seat of Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a suburb of Atlanta, located approximately northeast of downtown. As of the 2020 census, the population of Lawrenceville was 30,629. In 2019, the ...
.
See also
* List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49)
References
''History of the University of Georgia'', Thomas Walter Reed, Imprint: Athens, Georgia : University of Georgia, ca. 1949, pp.1159–1160
1861 births
1933 deaths
University of Georgia alumni
Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers
Georgia (U.S. state) state court judges
Democratic Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia (U.S. state)
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