Aaron Alpeoria Bradley

Aaron Alpeoria Bradley (–1881) was a lawyer and civil rights activist in the United States. He was born into slavery, escaped, and became a lawyer in Massachusetts in 1856. After the American Civil War he moved to Georgia. During the Reconstruction Era he was denied admittance to the Georgia Bar, but became a political activist and worked as a lawyer from South Carolina In 1865 he was arrested for his political activism. He was elected as a representative to Georgia's Constitutional Convention of 1867. He was a critic of segregation, police brutality, and capitalism. He advocated for equal rights. Others include Robert Morris (lawyer) in Massachusetts, 1847; George Boyer Vashon in New York, 1848; and John Mercer Langston in Ohio, 1854.

Early career In 1856 Bradley became the third African American admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. He moved to Savannah, Georgia, in 1865. In 1867 he applied for admission in United States District Court in Georgia. Due to the anti-black socio-political culture of the time, as well as Bradley's confrontational activism against racial injustice, he was denied admission. But he was defiant, and practiced law in Georgia without a license until 1875. As a leader of the Lincoln Council of the Union League in Chatham City, he established a new government and decided to run for senatorship. He soon became nominated and promised that if he was elected rent would not have to be paid. He rallied and tried to gain as much support as he could. Soon after, he won the election against his opponent Rufus E. Lester. The railway company had a policy of forcing blacks to stand on an uncovered platform outside of the covered portion of the railway car. These systems not only effect black people in masses, but highly effected poor whites as well considering they did not have financial mobility to escape these systems.

Bradley was famously known for his pro-violence and offensive approach in making change. Very uniquely in history, he “Led riots against white citizens and police.” His policies were radical and fairly progressive for his time. He expressed that Black individuals should hold office in districts where they are the majority population. Much to the help of Bradley, and other Black activists, Black individuals were able to hold offices in the county until the late 1870s. This was possible due to the rural black population of Chatham. However, they were unable to hold office in Savannah due to being the minority population. He gained the support of the Black citizens with his pro-violence attacks, belief in women’s suffrage, to end convict leasing, and incorporate Blacks into the state militia.

Bradley was very famous within the newspapers during his time for his role in politics. It is recorded that Bradley was very confrontational with white citizens and police. According to the Georgia Weekly Telegraph and Georgia Journal & Messenger, “The whites in Savannah were but 11,000 – but the blacks 14,000 and if they got to fighting, at every corner of the streets the whites would meet another black with hatchets in their hands.” This was Bradley’s pro-violence response to the Chairman when Georgia was denied the right to assess the polls. Bradley threatened that “servant girls would burn the beds of white daughters and wives and their fathers and husbands would stop fighting to find them.”

His name is listed on the historical marker the "Original 33", a plaque listing the first 33 African-American members of the Georgia General Assembly who were elected to office in 1868.