One of these, Wilbur Little, was murdered upon returning from service in World War I by whites who detested seeing a black person in uniform.

[8] In 1960 an African-American veteran from New Jersey who was traveling through the county was convicted of rape and sentenced to death 3 days after his arrest in a trial that featured no defense counsel and no jury.

The story was chronicled in the movie Fair Game.A month after the article appeared in the Chicago Defender the NAACP sent Monroe N. Work to Blakely to investigate the incident.

On June 7, 1919, Work sent a telegram to NAACP officer J.R. Shillady stating "Have investigated report.

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 5,371 people, 1,584 households, and 1,065 families residing in the city.