Ed Jackson and Charles Pou

The University of Georgia

May 23

1838 On the day Gen. Winfield Scott had told the Cherokees that their emigration to the West had to begin, Pres. Martin Van Buren wrote the governors of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina requesting an extension of two years for completion of the Cherokee removal because Scott's plans to begin the roundup had been delayed.

The reason for Scott's delay was that the U.S. troops being sent from Florida to help with the Cherokee removal had not yet arrived. So, on this day, he enrolled into federal service two regiments of Georgia militia.

1861 By a vote of 132,201 to 37,451, Virginia voters approved the Ordinance of Secession adopted by the secession convention on April 17. Assuming that the popular ratification is what made the secession official, this would mean that Virginia was the tenth state to secede. However, because Virginia's secession was seen by many as critical to the Confederacy's future, the Confederate Congress apparently felt the April 17 convention vote was good enough, for it went ahead and admitted Virginia to the Confederacy on May 7, 1861.

For more, see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1898 Lawyer, politician, and former Confederate general Henry Rootes Jackson died in Savannah.

Born June 24, 1820 in Athens, Ga., Jackson attended the University of Georgia for a while but graduated from Yale University in 1839. After reading law for two years, he was admitted to the bar. In 1844, Jackson was appointed U.S. district attorney, later serving on the Georgia Supreme Court (1849-1853). At this point, Jackson entered the diplomatic service, serving as U.s. minister to Austria (1853-1859. In 1860, he declined the offer to serve as chancellor of the University of Georgia. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Jackson was appointed as a judge of Confederate courts in Georgia. However, he resigned to accept the rank of brigadier general. Jackson was involved in the defense of Savannah and Georgia's coast. Later, he was assigned to the Confederate force opposing Sherman during his Atlanta Campaign. After the fall of Atlanta, Jackson accompanied Hood to Tennessee, where he and his division were captured at Nashville. After the war, Jackson was president of the Georgia Historical Society (1875-1898), first president of the Telfair Academy, U.S. minister to Mexico (1885-1887), director of the Central Railroad and Banking Co. (1893-98).

1913 In Atlanta, a grand jury took only ten minutes to hand down a murder indictment against Leo Frank.

No action was taken or requested against Newt Lee. While the evidence against Frank was being presented to the grand jury, Jim Conley had called for detectives and admitted to writing the two notes found near Phagan's body, but said he wrote them the day before the murder – upon the order of Leo Frank. Click here for a detailed accounting of the case.

1914 Famous writer and Atlanta Constitution columnist Celestine Sibley was born in Holley, Florida. See Aug. 15 entry for biographical information.

1954 Six days after the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP announced it intended to follow the advice of the national organization and immediately petition the Fulton County School Board to end segregation of Atlanta's public schools. Georgia governor Herman Talmadge, however, vowed the state would not abide by the ruling.

1976 In caucus voting in Virginia, Jimmy Carter picked up 24 delegates in his bid to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency. Morris Udall won 7, while the remaining 23 were uncommitted.

1990 National Football League owners voted to allow Atlanta to host the 28th Super Bowl in 1994. The decision was based on Atlanta's commitment to have a new domed stadium ready for the event.

2006 At the Academy of Country Music Awards show, Macon native Jason Aldean was named top new male vocalist and Atlanta group Sugarland was named top new vocal duo or group.

Jason Aldean (left) and Sugarland (right)

In Their Own Words on This Day. . .

1744 William Stephens' journal entry for this date in 1744 shows once again the colonists' struggle to find a cash crop:

"May 23, Wednesday. . . Our Olive Trees blooming very finely this year, and having good Store of Fruit set upon them, I was very sorry when I took a Walk this day in the Garden, to find 'twas all dropt [sic] off, which I knew not what to impute it to, unless 'twas the poverty of the Soil where they were planted. . . . whilst the Oranges shew us by experience, dying every winter, that Maugre all our Endeavours of various kinds to defend them from the Frosts, we cannot preserve them . . . ."

Source: E. Merton Coulter (ed.), The Journal of William Stephens, 1743-1745 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959), p. 106.

1864 Realizing that Confederate forces had been unable to stop Sherman's march on the city, Atlanta mayor James M. Calhoun issued the following proclamation:

"In view of the dangers which threaten us, and in pursuance of a call made by General Wright and General Wayne, I require all the male citizens of Atlanta, capable of bearing arms, without regard to occupation, who are not in the Confederate or State service, to report by 12 M. [noon], on Thursday, the 26th inst. [instant] to O.H. Jones, marshal of the city, to be organized into companies and armed, and to report to General Wright when organized. And all male citizens who are not willing to defend their homes and families are requested to leave the city at their earliest convenience, as their presence only embarrasses the authorities and tends to the demoralization of others."

Source: Franklin M. Garrett, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1969 reprint of original 1954 volume), Vol. I, p. 589.

For more, see This Week in Georgia Civil War History.

1954 In an interview for the CBS Radio program "The World Today," Georgia Gov. Herman Talmadge reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision by saying:

"We're not going to secede from the union, but the people of Georgia will not comply with the decision of the court. It would take several divisions of troops down here to police every school building in Georgia and then they wouldn't be able to enforce it. We're going to do whatever is necessary in Georgia to keep white children in white schools and colored children in colored schools."

Source: Atlanta Constitution, May 24, 1954.