As one of several emancipated African Americans who were elected to public office, Floyd faced considerable resistance.
He received a threatening note from the Ku Klux Klan promising that there would be no more "Negro" legislators in Georgia, and requesting him to leave town.
[1] Elected in 1868, he was among the 25 of 29 African American legislators in Georgia who were blocked from taking office.
In December 1870 he was threatened and shot, while in his home in Madison, Georgia, by the Ku Klux Klan.
Three days later the Klan returned and Floyd fled to Atlanta.