New sheriff in town

last updated 8 January 2015

Clayton County, Ga.

The first black sheriff of Clayton County, Ga., promptly fired 27 employees last week. Most were white, and all had supported his opponent in the election. Sheriff Victor Hill posted snipers on the roof before the fired employees were escorted from the building, “just in case someone got emotional.” The area—the setting for Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone With the Wind—was once nearly all white, but recently elected its first black county commission majority, after an influx of black professionals from nearby Atlanta. Leaders of the new government complained that the “blatant mass political firing” would make the community look “like we’re a bunch of goofballs.” A judge ordered Hill to rehire everybody, pending a hearing.