Dawson News

HISTORY

Rowell's American Directory 1887: Roberts & Marshall, publishers, established the Southwestern News in 1884. George M. Roberts served as editor for the four-page weekly, which circulated every Wednesday and supported the Democratic Party.
March 1889: E. L. Rainey, former managing editor of the Dawson Journal, purchases the Southwestern News, and he changes its masthead to the Dawson News.
The Dawson News overtakes the Dawson Journal in popularity and forces the Journal out of business by 1895.
1936: Clem Rainey, E. L. Rainey's son, takes over editing duties following his father's death.
February 1, 1946: Carl Rountree purchases the Dawson News from Clem Rainey.
Dawson News ceases publication in the late-2000s.

New Georgia Encyclopedia entry
From Chaney, B. (1980). Political changes in 'Terrible Terrell.' Southern Changes, 2(7), pp. 7-10: "For this small, predominately Black, southwestern Georgia town, the county seat for "Terrible Terrell" County, making history is not something new. Back in 1960 it became the first jurisdiction to be sued by the Justice Department under the 1957 Civil Rights Act for discrimination in voter registration. This time, however, unlike much of its past history when Black men lined up against White to do battle, three Black men stood alongside three White men and were sworn in together as Dawson City Council members. The victories for the Black men, Robert Albritten, Abraham Breedlove and Lucius Holloway, did not come easy. In fact they were the culmination of a long and fierce struggle. Terrell County was not nicknamed "terrible" because it rhymed; it had one of the worst records of race repression and violence in the South. Headlines about bombing and shooting of Black homes, the burning of Black churches, and even the murder of Blacks by Whites were not uncommon in Terrell County."

Superior Court Districts

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