Madison "Mat" Davis (September 27, 1833 – August 20, 1902) was a slave who became a member of the
Georgia Assembly representing
Clarke County, Georgia
Clarke County is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 128,671. Its county seat is Athens, with which it is a consolidated city-county.
Clarke County is included in the Athens- ...
and the first African American postmaster in
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the st ...
, after being emancipated. He was active in
Republican Party politics.
Early years: enslaved carriage-maker to emancipated delegate
Davis was born into slavery and was owned by a carriage maker.
After the
U.S. Civil War he was freed from slavery at age 31.
[ He was a delegate to Georgia's constitutional drafting convention in 1868.]
Representative of Georgia
In 1868, Davis and Alfred Richardson, also a former slave, were elected to the Georgia House of Representatives
The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. ...
from Clarke County. Later the same year, 25 of 29 African Americans were ejected from office after Georgia's legislature determined that African Americans had no protected right to serve in public office.[ Four more were investigated by a committee to determine their heritage and determine whether they were more than one-eighth African-American.
Madison Davis had a light complexion and was one of two African-American representatives allowed to continue in office.][ Georgia Supreme Court reversed the decision barring African Americans from office the following year in 1869 and all the legislators were returned to office.][ He was reelected in 1870.
]
Later career
Davis went into the real estate business. He was appointed postmaster of Athens in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...
;[ making Davis the first African American to serve in that role.]Monroe Morton
Monroe Bowers Morton, nicknamed Pink Morton (July 31, 1856 – February 12, 1919) was a prominent building owner, publisher, building contractor, developer, and postmaster in late 19th-century Georgia. An African American, he lived most of his life ...
was the second African-American postmaster in Athens.)
Davis also worked as U.S. Customs Surveyor in Atlanta and was Captain of Relief No. 2, Clarke County's first black fire company.[
He is buried at Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery in Athens.]
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Madison
1833 births
1902 deaths
African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia (U.S. state) postmasters
Politicians from Athens, Georgia
19th-century American slaves
American firefighters
Republican Party members of the Georgia House of Representatives
African-American politicians during the Reconstruction Era
Original 33
American real estate brokers
19th-century American businesspeople
20th-century African-American people