Primus King

Primus King (February 5, 1900–November 3, 1986) was a barber, minister, and activist involved in the civil rights movement in Columbus, Georgia. He served as the plaintiff in King v. Chapman which ruled white primaries unconstitutional in the state of Georgia.

Early life Primus King was born on February 5, 1900 near Hatchechubbee, Russell County, Alabama to sharecropper parents, Ed and Lucy King. The family moved to Columbus when King was 11 years old. He did not receive any formal education instead beginning work as a water boy at age 12 at the nearby cotton mill, Meritas Mill, with his father. After working at the mill for a few years, he became a butler for Molly Woodall for $8 a week , later beginning to chauffeur for the family earning $9 a week.

Circa 1921, King left the employ of Molly Woodall and took a position as a chauffeur for Dan Joseph. It was during this time that he married his wife Genie Mae King. (Her name is spelled as "Genie" in the New Georgia Encyclopedia and the Ledger-Enquirer, Explaining his decision, he said, "I'm a man that loved my people, Black folks, and couldn't say that about them white people." Dr.) Thomas Brewer of Columbus, in defiance of the civil rights leaders in Atlanta organized and funded a challenge to the "Whites-only primaries" that were taking place in Georgia at the time. In an act of intentional protest, King, with the support of Columbus' civil rights activists, went to the Muscogee County courthouse to attempt to vote in the primary. When he entered the building, an unnamed law enforcement officer "roughly" grabbed King and removed him from the building. In a 1979 interview with Paul Allen Davis, King recalled the event, After being thrown out of the courthouse, King walked the three blocks to the attorney's office. A white attorney, Oscar D. Smith, worked with King to file a lawsuit in the Columbus Division of the United States District Court stating that excluding black voters from the primary was unconstitutional. National NAACP attorneys were not involved in the case until it had reached the national stage.

King v. Chapman et al.

Judge Thomas Hoyt Davis who had been newly appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the station of district judge for the Middle District of Georgia would hear the case. The primary defendant named in the lawsuit was the Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of Muscogee County, Georgia, J. E. Chapman, Jr. Other defendants were the remaining members of the committee. In the lawsuit, King was seeking damages for "the alleged deprivation of his civil rights guaranteed to him by the Constitution and laws of the United States."

In 1946, after the U.S. Circuit Court decision upheld Judge Davis' decision, black people were able to vote in the Georgia state primaries for the first time. Veterans and civilians alike helped to organize groups to register black voters and challenge conservatives who wanted to uphold the "all-white" primaries. Governor Eugene Talmadge campaigned to have the court decision to be overturned. He went so far as to make a campaign promise that he would begin his term as governor by sending a bill to the state legislature reinstating the "white-only" primary.

Late life At the age of 63, King retired and sold his barber shop. In 1973, then-Columbus Mayor Bob Hydrick proclaimed June 28 as Primus E. King day in Columbus. At 86, King died in Columbus on November 3, 1986.

In 2000, then-Georgia governor Roy Barnes signed into law a bill naming a state road as the Primus King Highway.

There is a park in Columbus, Georgia named Primus King Park and Recreation Center.

At the dedication of the Primus King historical marker in downtown Columbus on April 10, 2015 by the Georgia Historical Society, local scholar and historian Dr. Gary Sprayberry said,