ATLANTA — In the hallways of the state capitol, nearly every post-Civil War governor is remembered with a portrait. There is one glaring absence—noteworthy because that absent governor, Rufus Bullock, was the first Republican governor in state history.
"I certainly see him as a great leader and someone who was within the Republican tradition established by Abraham Lincoln, really at the time of the party’s founding," said Josh McKoon, chairman of Georgia's Republican party.
Rufus Bullock had served in the Confederate army, but --- following the Civil War -- he advocated for newly enfranchised Black voters and ran for governor as a Republican.
"Gov. Bullock was one of the most consequential governors of the state of Georgia," said Michael Thurmond, the Democrat who is retiring next month as DeKalb County CEO.
After he won, he unsuccessfully advocated for 33 newly elected Black legislators who were expelled by the white majority.
Bullock had beaten Democrat John Gordon, whose statue is enshrined on the lawn of the state capitol and was a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Gordon won his term as governor later.
Bullock’s term was tumultuous. Confederate sympathizers, smarting from Reconstruction, made Bullock’s term as governor miserable.
"Consequently, he was run out of the state -- threatened by the Ku Klux Klan to either leave Georgia or die," Thurmond said.
After Bullock left Georgia, Democrats regained power at the capitol, and Black Georgians mostly lost the right to vote for nearly another hundred years. Those Democratic governors – many of them obscure today, are enshrined at the capitol.
Two 21st-century Republicans—Sonny Perdue and Nathan Deal—have also taken prominent portrait spots. Current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will also get a place. No Republicans were elected to lead the state between Bullock's departure and Deal's 2010 victory.
But the Republican governor who came first 156 years ago remains entirely absent from the portrait gallery. He gets no mention in the fourth-floor historical exhibit devoted to Georgia governors in a building currently run by Republicans.
"In the 1800s, for him to take the stand he took?" asked McKoon. "It wasn’t something that was just bold; it was dangerous, right? That’s someone I think people would want to know more about."
"We should celebrate those people who had the courage and the commitment, the dedication to stand up for the constitutional rights granted to all citizens. He was that person," Thurmond said.
Georgia lawmakers could introduce a measure to honor Rufus Bullock with a painting at the capitol. It would have the backing of both parties and fix glaring historical oversights.