Fayette County, Georgia


Fayette County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 119,194, an increase from 106,567 in 2010. Fayette County was established in 1821. The county seat, Fayetteville, was established in 1823. Much of Fayette County is bordered on the east side by the Flint River.
Fayette County was organized in 1821 after the United States signed a treaty at Indian Springs, Georgia with the Creek people for cession of a large portion of their land. The county and its seat, Fayetteville, were both named in honor of the French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette, who aided General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War.
Since the late 20th century, Fayette County has been part of the Greater Atlanta Metropolitan Area. It is located south of Atlanta, which is based in Fulton County. Fayette County is minutes from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. As a suburb of Atlanta, Fayette County has increased rapidly in population and development since the late 20th century, nearly doubling its population since 1990.
WWW fayettecountyga.govR/ fayco

History

Fayette County was created on May 15, 1821, from territory ceded to the United States by the Creek people, who had historically inhabited the area. It was named for the Marquis de Lafayette, French hero of the American Revolutionary War.
In the years following World War II, the county developed suburban residential communities, with many workers commuting to Atlanta. Peachtree City was chartered in 1959. It was developed as the only planned community in the county and in the Southeast; it covers 16,000 acres.
The county population has increased rapidly during the late twentieth century with the growth of Atlanta. It has also benefited from a reverse migration of African Americans to the South, as new residents are attracted to jobs and opportunities. Significant growth and development continues.
In 2002, Charles "Chuck" Floyd was appointed to the position of Chief Magistrate Judge of the county. In 2004 and 2008, he was elected to the position in his own right, thereby becoming the first African American ever elected to any office in the county.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
The Flint River passes through the county and provided the earliest route for transportation and shipping of commodity crops. The entirety of Fayette County is located in the Upper Flint River sub-basin of the ACF River Basin.

Major highways

Adjacent counties

Communities

Cities

Towns

Unincorporated communities

Demographics

As of the 2020 census, the residents of Fayetteville are predominantly African American, while those of Peachtree City and Tyrone and the rest of Fayette County are predominantly white.
RaceNum.Perc.
White68,14457.2%
Black or African American29,16626.7%
Native American2120.18%
Asian6,3625.34%
Pacific Islander440.04%
Other/mixed5,7864.85%
Hispanic or Latino9,4807.95%

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, there were 119,194 people, 42,886 households, and 33,101 families residing in the county, and the median age was 44.0 years with 23.0% of residents under the age of 18 and 19.6% aged 65 or older. For every 100 females there were 92.3 males, and 81.9% of residents lived in urban areas while 18.1% lived in rural areas.
The racial makeup of the county was 58.5% White, 24.8% Black or African American, 0.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 5.4% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 3.3% from some other race, and 7.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 8.0% of the population.
Of the 42,886 households in the county, 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 23.5% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present. About 20.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 45,202 housing units, of which 5.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 80.0% were owner-occupied and 20.0% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 7.9%.

2010 census

In 2010, the median income for a household in the county was $82,216 and the median income for a family was $92,976. Males had a median income of $68,381 versus $46,140 for females. The per capita income for the county was $35,076. About 3.4% of families and 4.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.1% of those under age 18 and 3.8% of those age 65 or over.

2000 census

In 2000, the median income for a household in the county was $71,227, and the median income for a family was $78,853. Males had a median income of $54,738 versus $33,333 for females. The per capita income for the county was $29,464. About 2.00% of families and 2.60% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.80% of those under age 18 and 4.60% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Fayette County's local government is led by a board of five county commissioners, known as the governing authority of Fayette County. Since March 2016, four seats are to be filled by election from single-member districts and one at-large from the county.

Voting rights suit and settlement

Until 2013, the county was divided into three "county commission districts." Three of the members of the board of commissioners were required to live inside one of the designated districts. The remaining two commissioners could live anywhere in the county. All members of the county commission were elected "at-large," which meant that each candidate had to attract the majority of votes across the county in order to win. Since 1982, more than 100 cases of such at-large voting systems in Georgia have been replaced by single-member districts.
The five members of the school board were also elected at-large. In the early 21st century, Fayette County was one of only 20 school boards among 180 in the state of Georgia to maintain at-large voting to elect members of these boards. The practical effect was the exclusion of African Americans from these positions. The county has been majority-white and majority-Republican since the late 20th century. Neither Republican nor Democratic African-American candidates had any electoral success.
In 2011 the NAACP and several African-American county residents filed suit against the county and the board for the at-large voting system. In May 2013, the federal district court ordered the county and school board to change their systems of at-large voting, finding that it violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by diluting the voting power of the minority. African Americans make up 20% of the county population but were unable to elect candidates of their choice, as every commission and school board seat required a majority of county voters. The county has a majority-white, majority-Republican population.
Under the federal ruling, five districts were established so that members of both the school board and county commission are elected from single-member districts. This broadened representation on the boards. Voters of each district elect a commissioner living within its boundaries.
In 2014, Democrat Pota E. Coston was elected as the first black county commissioner in the 194-year history of the county. Leonard Presberg was first appointed and then elected in his own right as the first Jewish member of the school board.
The county and school board both appealed the federal district court ruling. In January 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta remanded the case to the district court for a bench trial by the federal district judge, ruling that Judge Timothy Batten Sr. had made a technical error in granting summary judgment in the case. It did not overturn his ruling to establish the single-member district system. The bench trial by Judge Batten would give the county an opportunity to present additional evidence to support its case.
After Coston died in office, the Fayette Board of Elections voted to use at-large voting in a special election to replace her. The NAACP returned to court as it opposed using the former system. Judge Batten ruled that the county had to use the single-member district system established by his earlier ruling. In September 2015 Democrat Charles Rousseau was elected from District 5 to succeed Coston, becoming the second African American elected to the county commission. In October 2015 the Fayette Chamber of Commerce and two prominent white leaders urged the county to settle the nearly five-year lawsuit and accept district voting. Judge Batten ordered the two sides into mediation and postponed the bench trial. In January 2016 the Fayette County School Board voted unanimously to settle the lawsuit and accept district voting for election of its members. The County Commission voted to settle by a 3–2 vote.
Together with the NAACP and black county plaintiffs, the county commission agreed in January 2016 to a system of electing four members from single-member districts and the fifth as an at-large member. A law implementing this change was signed by Governor Nathan Deal in March 2016.

Representation

Fayette County has five incorporated municipalities within its borders; Fayetteville, Brooks, Woolsey, Tyrone and Peachtree City. Formerly, Inman was also a municipality, but gave up its charter years ago. In 2015, Fayetteville, a majority-white city, elected its first African-American mayor, Ed Johnson. In 2011, he had been the first African American elected to its city council and only the second African American elected to any office in the history of Fayette County. Fayette County is represented in the United States House of Representatives by the 3rd and 13th congressional districts, and in the Georgia General Assembly by the 16th and 34th state senate and 63rd, 64th, 71st, 72nd and 73rd state house districts.

Politics

Fayette County has been a Republican stronghold since 1980. In 1980 and 1984, it was the most Republican county in the entire state. However, as the county's population has grown, the proportion of Republican voters has decreased significantly in recent elections. Republican presidential candidates' margins of victory have decreased from 31.2 percentage points for Mitt Romney in 2012, to 19.1 points for Donald Trump in 2016, to 6.8 points for Trump in 2020, to 3.1 points for Trump in 2024.
In the runoff for the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia, Raphael Warnock narrowly lost the county in his re-election bid by a margin of 491 votes or 1%.
Fayette County is one of nine counties that shifted more than 25 percentage points to the left from 2012 to 2024.

Education

Fayette County is served by the Fayette County School System. The governing authority for the school system is known as the Fayette County Board of Education, a board of five elected persons. They hire a superintendent to manage daily operations of the schools.
Since a federal court ruling in 2013, resulting from the federal voting rights lawsuit described above, the five board members are each elected from single-member districts. In January 2016 after mediation, the school board voted unanimously to settle the lawsuit they had earlier appealed along with the county. The board accepted single-member districts for election of board members.

High schools

Alternative schools

  • Fayette County Alternative Education Program

Notable people

Other reading

  • Charles S. Bullock III and Ronald Keith Gaddie, The Triumph of Voting Rights in the South
  • Carolyn C. Cary, ed., The History of Fayette County, 1821-1971.
  • Fayette County Historical Society, The Fayette County Georgia Heritage Book.