Fayetteville is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,957, up from 15,945 at the 2010 census. Fayetteville is located south of downtown Atlanta. In 2015 the city elected its first African-American mayor, Edward Johnson, a retired US navy commander and pastor. He was previously a three-term president of the NAACP and a city council member in Fayetteville. History Fayetteville was founded in 1822 as the seat of the newly formed Fayette County, organized by European Americans from territory ceded by force the Creek people under a treaty with the United States during the early period of Indian removal from the Southeast. Both city and county were named in honor of the Revolutionary War hero the French Marquis de Lafayette. Fayetteville was incorporated as a town in 1823 and as a city in 1902. The area was developed for cotton plantations, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans, who for more than a century comprised the majority of the county's population. Fayetteville became the trading town for the agricultural area. In the first half of the 20th century, as agriculture became more mechanized, many African-American workers left the area in the Great Migration to northern and midwestern industrial cities, which had more jobs and offered less oppressive social conditions. A reverse migration has brought new residents to the South, and the city of Fayetteville has grown markedly since 2000, as has the county. The city's population increased from 11,148 in 2000 to 18,957 in 2020. Government The city has a mayor-council form of elected government. Five council members are elected at-large, in non-partisan post, and the mayor is elected at-large in a non-partisan race. In 2015 Ed Johnson was elected mayor, the first African American to serve in the position. The retired US Naval Commander and pastor of Fayette County's oldest black church is described as a consensus builder. In 2011 Johnson was elected as the first black member of the city council after having served three terms as president of the local chapter of the NAACP. Johnson was re-elected in 2019. Demographics 2020 census As of the 2020 United States census, there were 18,957 people, 6,833 households, and 4,833 families residing in the city. 2010 census As of the 2010 census, there were 15,945 people, 6,006 households, and 4,264 families residing in