March 7, 1733

1733 The Trustees ordered the printing of 600 copies of Benjamin Martyn’s "Some Account of the Designs of the Trustees for Establishing the Colony of Georgia in America." Martyn was the Trustees’ secretary, and his treatise compared the creation of Georgia to the noble objectives of ancient Roman colonization.

March 7, 1827

1827 Lawyer and Confederate general Henry DeLamar Clayton was born in Pulaski County, Ga. He practiced law until March 1861, when he became a colonel in the 1st Alabama. Clayton subsequently recruited the 39th Alabama and served as its commander during the Kentucky campaign and the Battle of Murfreesboro. In April 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general, serving at the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge and during the Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. In July 1864, Clayton was promoted to major general. Thereafter, he commanded A.P. Stewart’s Division at Jonesboro, Franklin, and during the Nashville and Carolinas campaign. After the war, Clayton served as a university president. He died Oct. 13, 1889 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

March 7, 1861

1861 Delegates to Georgia’s secession convention reconvened in Savannah. Over the next 16 days, the convention would adopt a new state constitution, authorize the governor to take emergency actions to defend the state, and turn over control of military matters to the new Confederate government.

March 7, 1866

1866 Gov. Charles Jenkins signed a joint resolution of the General Assembly creating a joint House-Senate committee to report to the next session of the legislature on a common school system for the state. The resolution also designated the State Librarian as State School Commissioner until the next election of state officials, at which time the office would become elective.

March 7, 1951

1951 Former Atlanta Braves outfielder Jeff Burroughs was born in Long Beach, California.

March 7, 1951

1951 Georgian-born Ezzard Charles won a 15-round decision against Jersey Joe Walcott in a bout in Detroit to retain the world heavyweight championship.

March 7, 1965

1965 Alabama state troopers clashed with 600 black marchers led by Martin Luther King, Jr. on the bridge at Selma, Alabama.

March 7, 1979

1979 Ray Charles performed "Georgia on my Mind" for a joint session of the Georgia General Assembly in recognition of legislation designating the work as Georgia’s official state song.

March 7, 1982

1982 In an interview with the Nashville Tennessean, Alonzo Mann asserted that Leo Frank was innocent in the murder of Mary Phagan in 1913. At the time Mann was a fourteen-year-old employee of Frank’s (as was Phagan). Mann said he returned to the factory the day of the murder after failing to find his mother at a parade. When he entered the factory he saw Jim Conley, custodian of the factory, carrying the limp body of Mary Phagan. According to Mann, Conley threatened to kill him if he ever told anyone. Mann said Frank was nowhere in sight and that he was certain Frank was not involved in the murder. Rather, Mann testified that Conley (who was the prosecution’s chief witness at the trial) was Phagan’s true killer. In conjunction with his story, Mann passed two lie detector tests and a psychological voice stress test. For more information see the GeorgiaInfo web site detailing the Leo Frank case.