Abram Colby was responsible for giving testimony to a joint House and Senate Committee in 1872. Colby was a former slave who was elected to the Georgia State Legislature during Reconstruction. In such testimony, he recalled being attacked by the KKK in 1869. Colby stated that the men who attacked him were "first-class citizens of the community." He also stated that they were lawyers, doctors and farmers. This shows that the people who made up the KKK were common people, and sometimes even "admired" people.