Colfax massacre

1873 murder of black men by white militia in Colfax, Louisiana

Colfax massacre

Part of the Reconstruction era

Gathering the dead after the Colfax massacre, published in Harper's Weekly, May 10, 1873
| Date| April 13, 1873

|

Location|

Colfax, Louisiana, United States

31°31′01″N 92°42′42″W﻿ / ﻿31.51691°N 92.71175°W﻿ / 31.51691; -92.71175
Result|

* Attackers put on trial
* Attackers later released

Belligerents

Courthouse attackers

* White locals
* Christopher Nash's white paramilitary

Courthouse occupiers

* Black locals
* Republican officials

Casualties and losses
3 dead|  Between 62 and 153 dead

class=notpageimage|

Location within Louisiana

Show map of Louisiana

Colfax massacre (the United States)

Show map of the United States

* v
* t
* e

Conflicts of the Reconstruction era

* Memphis riots of 1866
* New Orleans massacre of 1866
* Pulaski riot (1868)
* Opelousas massacre (1868)
* Barber–Mizell feud
* Lowry War
* Kirk–Holden war (1870)
* Meridian race riot of 1871
* Colfax massacre
* Brooks–Baxter War
* Battle of Liberty Place
* Vicksburg massacre (1874–1875)
* South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876
* Hamburg massacre

Former historical marker in Colfax. Erected in 1950, the marker was removed in May 2021 due to allegedly biased language (it uses the term "riot" and refers to the incident as "the end of carpetbag misrule in the South").

The Colfax massacre, sometimes referred to as the Colfax riot, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the parish seat of Grant Parish. An estimated 62–153 Black men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Three White men also died during the confrontation.

After the contested 1872 election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a group of White men armed with rifles and a small cannon overpowered Black freedmen and state militia occupying the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax.[1][2] Most of the freedmen were killed after surrendering, and nearly another 50 were killed later that night after being held as prisoners for several hours. Estimates of the number of dead have varied over the years, ranging from 62 to 153; three Whites died but the number of Black victims was difficult to determine because many bodies were thrown into the Red River or removed for burial, possibly at mass graves.[3]

Historian Eric Foner described the massacre as the worst instance of racial violence during Reconstruction.[1] In Louisiana, it had the most fatalities of any of the numerous violent events occurring after the disputed gubernatorial contest in 1872 between Republicans and Democrats. Foner wrote, "...every election [in Louisiana] between 1868 and 1876 was marked by rampant violence and pervasive fraud".[4] Although the Fusionist-dominated state "returning board," which ruled on vote validity, initially declared John McEnery and his Democratic slate the winners, the board eventually divided, with a faction declaring Republican William P. Kellogg the victor. A Republican federal judge in New Orleans ruled that the Republican-majority legislature be seated.[5]

Federal prosecution and conviction of a few perpetrators at Colfax by the Enforcement Acts was appealed to the Supreme Court. In a major case, the court ruled in United States v. Cruikshank (1876) that protections of the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to persons acting individually, but only to the actions of state governments. After this ruling, the federal government could no longer use the Enforcement Act of 1870 to prosecute actions by paramilitary groups such as the White League, which had chapters forming across Louisiana beginning in 1874. Intimidation, murders, and Black voter suppression by such paramilitary groups were instrumental to the Democratic Party regaining political control of the state legislature by the late 1870s.

During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, historians have given renewed attention to the events at Colfax and the resulting Supreme Court case.[6]

## State and national background

[edit]

In March 1865, Unionist planter James Madison Wells became governor. As the Democratic-dominated legislature passed Black Codes that restricted rights of freedmen, Wells began to favor allowing Black people to vote and temporarily disenfranchising ex-Confederates. To accomplish this, he scheduled a new constitutional convention for July 30, 1866.[7]

It was postponed because of the New Orleans massacre that day, in which armed Southern White Democrats attacked Black Americans who had a parade in support of the convention. Anticipating trouble, the mayor of New Orleans had asked the local military commander to police the city and protect the convention. The US Army failed to respond promptly to the mayor's request and a group of White residents attacked numerous unarmed Black residents, resulting in 38 deaths, 34 Black and four White, and more than 40 wounded, most of them Black folks.[8]

When President Andrew Johnson blamed the massacre on Republican agitation, a popular national reaction against Johnson's policies resulted in national voters electing a majority Republican Congress in 1866. It passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 despite Andrew Johnson's veto. Earlier, the Freedmen's Bureau and the occupation armies had prevented Southern Black Codes, which had limited the rights of freedmen and other Black people (including their choices of work and living locations), from becoming effective.[9][10] On July 16, 1866, Congress extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, also despite Johnson's veto. On March 2, 1867, they passed the Reconstruction Act, over Johnson's veto, which required that Black men be given the franchise—in Southern states but not in Northern states—and that reconstructed Southern states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before admission to the Union.[11][12]

By April 1868, a biracial coalition in Louisiana had elected a Republican-majority state legislature, but violence increased before the fall election. Almost all of the victims were Black and some White Republicans who were protecting the Black Republican freedmen. Insurgents also attacked people physically or burned their homes to discourage them from voting. President Johnson, a Democrat, prevented the Republican governor of Louisiana from using either the state militia or US forces to suppress the insurgent groups, such as the Knights of the White Camelia.[13][page needed]

## Background in Grant Parish

[edit]

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The Red River area of Winn and Rapides parishes was a combination of large plantations and subsistence farmers; before the war, African Americans had worked as slaves on the plantations. William Smith Calhoun, a major planter, had inherited a 14,000-acre (57 km2) plantation in the area.[14] A former slaveholder, he lived with a mixed-race woman as his common-law wife and had come to favor Black political equality, encouraging the political organization of the local African American-based Republican party.[15]

On election day in November 1868, Calhoun led a group of freedmen to vote. The ballot box was originally at a store owned by John Hooe,[16] who had threatened to whip freedmen "if they voted Republican".[17] Calhoun arranged for the ballot box to be moved to a plantation store owned by a Republican. In addition, he oversaw the submission of 150 Black votes from freedmen on his plantation land.[18] The Republicans received 318 votes, and the Democrats received 49.[19] A group of Whites threw the ballot box into the Red River, and Democrats arrested Calhoun, alleging election fraud. With the original ballot box gone, Democrat Michael Ryan went on to claim a landslide victory.[20]

The election was also marked by violence. Election commissioner Hal Frazier, a Black Republican, was murdered by Whites.[21] After this, Calhoun drafted a bill to create a new parish out of parts of Winn and Rapides parishes, which passed the Republican legislature; as a major planter, Calhoun thought he would have more political influence in the new parish, which had a Black majority. Other new parishes were created by the Republican state legislature to try to develop areas of Republican political control.

## Enforcement against the Klan

[edit]

According to Lane, after Ulysses S. Grant became President in 1869, he "lobbied hard for the Fifteenth Amendment" (ratified February 3, 1870),[22] which guaranteed that Black men, most of whom were newly freed slaves, would have the right to vote.[23] However, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) continued violent attacks and killed scores of Black residents in Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and elsewhere.[24] In response, on May 31, 1870, Congress passed an Enforcement Act which prohibited groups of people from banding together to violate citizens' constitutional rights.[25] Soon afterwards on April 20, 1871, Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, which Grant used to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and sent federal troops to South Carolina, a state with particularly egregious Klan activity.[26]

## Louisiana and Grant Parish

[edit]

Governor Henry Clay Warmoth struggled to maintain political balance in Louisiana. Among his appointments, he installed William Ward, a Black Union veteran, as commanding officer of Company A, 6th Infantry Regiment, Louisiana State Militia, a new unit to be based in Grant Parish to help control the violence there and in other Red River parishes. Ward, born a slave in 1840 in Charleston, South Carolina, had learned to read and write as a valet to a master in Richmond, Virginia. In 1864 he escaped and went to Fortress Monroe, where he joined the Union Army and served until after General Robert E. Lee's surrender. About 1870 he came to Grant Parish, where he had a friend. He quickly became active among local Black Republican Party members. After his appointment to the militia, Ward recruited other freedmen for his forces, several of whom were veterans of the war.[27]

## Louisiana election of 1872

[edit]

In Louisiana, Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth defected to the Liberal Republicans (a group that opposed President Grant's Reconstruction policies) in 1872. Warmoth previously supported a constitutional amendment that allowed former Confederates, who had been denied the right to vote, to be re-enfranchised. A "Fusionist" coalition of Liberal Republicans and Democrats nominated ex-Confederate battalion commander and Democrat John McEnery to succeed him as governor. In return, Democrats and Liberal Republicans were to send Warmoth to Washington as a US Senator. Opposing McEnery was Republican William Pitt Kellogg, one of Louisiana's US Senators. Voting on November 4, 1872, resulted in dual governments, as a Fusionist (Liberal Republicans and Democrat)-dominated returning board declared McEnery the winner while a faction of the board proclaimed Kellogg the winner. Both administrations held inaugural ceremonies and certified their lists of local candidates.

After failing to win their case in state court, the Kellogg forces appealed to federal judge Edward Durell in New Orleans to intervene and order that Kellogg and the Stalwart Republican-majority legislature were to be seated, and for Grant to authorize US Army troops to protect Kellogg's government. This action was widely criticized across the nation by Democrats and both factions of the Republican Party because it was considered to be a violation of the rights of states to manage their own (non-federal-office) elections. Thus, investigating committees of both chambers of the federal Congress in Washington were critical of the Kellogg choice. The House majority ruled Durell's action illegal and the Senate majority concluded that the Kellogg regime was "not much better than a successful conspiracy". In 1874 a House investigating committee in Washington recommended that Judge Durell be impeached for corruption and illegally interfering in the Louisiana 1872 state elections, but the judge resigned in order to avoid impeachment.[28][29]

McEnery's faction tried to take control of the state arsenal at Jackson Square, but Kellogg had the state militia seize dozens of leaders of McEnery's faction and control New Orleans, where the state government was located.[13][page needed] McEnery returned to try to take control with a private paramilitary group. In September 1873 his forces, more than 8,000 strong, entered the city and defeated the city/state militia of about 3500 in New Orleans. The Democrats took control of the state house, armory and police stations, where the state government was then located, in what was known as the Battle of Jackson Square. His forces held those buildings for three days before retreating before Federal troops arrived.[4][30] Warmoth was subsequently impeached by the state legislature due to a bribery scandal resulting from his actions in the 1872 election.

Warmoth appointed Democrats as parish registrars, and they ensured the voter rolls included as many Whites and as few freedmen as possible. A number of registrars changed the registration site without notifying Black residents. They also required Black voters to prove they were over 21, while knowing that former slaves did not have birth certificates. In Grant Parish, one plantation owner threatened to expel Black people from homes they rented on his land if they voted Republican. Fusionists also tampered with ballot boxes on election day. One was found with a hole in it, apparently used for stuffing the ballot box. As a result, Grant Parish Fusionists claimed a landslide victory, even though Black voters outnumbered Whites by 776 to 630.

Warmoth issued commissions to Fusionist Democrats Alphonse Cazabat and Christopher Columbus Nash, elected parish judge and sheriff, respectively. Like many White men in the South, Nash was a Confederate veteran (as an officer, he had been held for a year and a half as a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio). Cazabat and Nash took their oaths of office in the Colfax courthouse on January 2, 1873. They dispatched the documents to Governor McEnery in New Orleans.

William Pitt Kellogg issued commissions to the Republican slate for Grant Parish on January 17 and 18. By then Nash and Cazabat controlled the small, primitive courthouse. Republican Robert C. Register insisted that he, not Alphonse Cazabat, was the parish judge and that Republican Daniel Wesley Shaw, not Nash, was to be the sheriff. On the night of March 25, the Republicans seized the empty courthouse and took their oaths of office. They sent their oaths to the Kellogg administration in New Orleans.[31]

Grant Parish was one of a number of new parishes created by the Republican government in an effort to increase local control in the state. Both the land and its people were originally associated with the Calhoun family, whose plantation had covered more than the borders of the new parish. The freedmen had been slaves of the plantation. The parish also included the less-developed hill country. The total population had a narrow majority of 2400 freedmen, who mostly voted Republican, and 2200 Whites, who voted as Democrats. Statewide political tensions were represented in the rumors going around each community, often about White fears of attacks or outrage from Black people, which added to local tensions.[32]

## Colfax courthouse conflict

[edit]

Fearful that the Democrats might try to control the local parish government, Black people started to create trenches around the courthouse and drilled to keep alert. The Republican officeholders stayed there overnight. They held the town for three weeks.[33]

On March 28, Nash, Cazabat, Hadnot, and other White Fusionists called for armed Whites to retake the courthouse on April 1. Whites were recruited from nearby Winn and surrounding parishes to join their effort. The Republicans Shaw, Register, and Flowers and others began to recruit armed Black men to defend the courthouse.[34]

Black Republicans Lewis Meekins and state militia captain William Ward, a Black Union veteran, raided the homes of the opposition leaders: Judge William R. Rutland, Bill Cruikshank, and Jim Hadnot. Gunfire erupted between White and Black militias on April 2 and again on April 5, but the shotguns were too inaccurate to do any harm. The two sides arranged for peace negotiations. Peace ended when a White man shot and killed a Black bystander named Jesse McKinney. Another armed conflict on April 6 ended with the White militia fleeing from armed Black militia.[35] With the threat of violence in the community, Black women and children joined the men at the courthouse for protection.

William Ward, the commanding officer of Company A, 6th Infantry Regiment, Louisiana State Militia, headquartered in Grant Parish, had been elected state representative from the parish on the Republican ticket.[36] He wrote to Governor Kellogg seeking US troops for reinforcement and gave the letter to William Smith Calhoun for delivery. Calhoun took the steamboat LaBelle down the Red River but was captured by Paul Hooe, Hadnot, and Cruikshank. They ordered Calhoun to tell the Black community members to leave the courthouse.

The Black defenders refused to leave although threatened by parties of armed Whites commanded by Nash. To recruit men during the rising political tensions, Nash had contributed to lurid rumors that Black men were preparing to kill all the White men and take the White women as their own.[37] On April 8 the anti-Republican Daily Picayune newspaper of New Orleans inflamed tensions and distorted events by the following headline:

> THE RIOT IN GRANT PARISH. FEARFUL ATROCITIES BY THE NEGROES. NO RESPECT SHOWN TO THE DEAD.[38]

Such news attracted more Whites from the region to Grant Parish to join Nash; all were experienced Confederate veterans. They acquired a four-pound cannon that could fire iron slugs. As the Klansman Dave Paul said, "Boys, this is a struggle for White supremacy."[39]

Suffering from tuberculosis and rheumatism, on April 11 the militia captain Ward took a steamboat downriver to New Orleans to seek armed help directly from Kellogg. He was not there for the following events.[40]

## Massacre

[edit]

Cazabat had directed Nash as sheriff to end what he called a riot. Nash gathered an armed White paramilitary group and veteran officers from Rapides, Winn and Catahoula parishes. He did not move his forces toward the courthouse until noon on Easter Sunday, April 13. Nash commanded more than 300 armed White men, most on horseback and armed with rifles. Nash reportedly ordered the defenders of the courthouse to leave. When that failed, Nash gave women and children camped outside the courthouse thirty minutes to leave. After they left, the shooting began. The fighting continued for several hours with few casualties. When Nash's paramilitary maneuvered the cannon behind the building, some of the defenders panicked and left the courthouse.

About 60 defenders ran into nearby woods and jumped into the river. Nash sent men on horseback after the fleeing Black Republicans, and his paramilitary group killed most of them on the spot. Soon Nash's forces directed a Black captive to set the courthouse roof afire. The defenders displayed white flags for surrender: one made from a shirt, the other from a page of a book. The shooting stopped.

Nash's group approached and called for those surrendering to throw down their weapons and come outside. What happened next is disputed. According to the reports of some Whites, James Hadnot was shot and wounded by someone from the courthouse. "In the Negro version, the men in the courthouse were stacking their guns when the White men approached, and Hadnot was shot from behind by an overexcited member of his own force."[41] Hadnot died later, after being taken downstream by a passing steamboat.[42]

In the aftermath of Hadnot's shooting, the White paramilitary group reacted with mass murders of the Black men. As more than 40 times as many Black people died as did White people, historians generally describe the event as a massacre. The White paramilitary group killed unarmed men trying to hide in the courthouse. They rode down and killed those attempting to flee. They dumped some bodies into the Red River. About 50 Blacks survived the afternoon and were taken prisoner. Later that night they were summarily killed by their captors, who had been drinking alcohol. Only one Black man from the group, Levi Nelson, survived. He was shot by Cruikshank but managed to crawl away unnoticed. He later served as one of the Federal government's chief witnesses against those who were indicted for the attacks.[43]

Kellogg sent state militia colonels Theodore DeKlyne and William Wright to Colfax with warrants to arrest 50 White men and to install a new, compromise slate of parish officers. DeKlyne and Wright found the smoking ruins of the courthouse at Colfax, and many bodies of men who had been shot in the back of the head or the neck. They described that one body was charred, another man's head beaten beyond recognition, and another had a slashed throat. Surviving Blacks told DeKlyne and Wright that Blacks dug a trench around the courthouse to protect it from what they saw as an attempt by White Democrats to steal an election. They were attacked by Whites armed with rifles, revolvers and a small cannon. When Blacks refused to leave, the courthouse was burned, and the Black defenders were shot down. While the Whites accused Blacks of violating a flag of truce and rioting, Black Republicans said that none of this was true. They accused Whites of marching captured prisoners away in pairs and shooting them in the back of the head.[44]

On April 14, some of Governor Kellogg's new police force arrived from New Orleans. Several days later, two companies of Federal troops arrived. They searched for White paramilitary members, but many had already fled to Texas or the hills. The officers filed a military report in which they identified by name three Whites and 105 Blacks who had died, plus noted they had recovered 15–20 unidentified Blacks from the river. They also noted the savage nature of many of the killings, suggesting an out-of-control situation.[45]

The exact number of dead was never established: two US Marshals, who visited the site on April 15 and buried dead, reported 62 fatalities;[46] a military report to Congress in 1875 identified 81 Black men by name who had been killed, and also estimated that between 15 and 20 bodies had been thrown into the Red River, and another 18 were secretly buried, for a grand total of "at least 105";[47] a state historical marker from 1950 noted fatalities as three Whites and 150 Blacks.[48]

The historian Eric Foner, a specialist in the Civil War and Reconstruction, wrote about the event:

> The bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era, the Colfax massacre taught many lessons, including the lengths to which some opponents of Reconstruction would go to regain their accustomed authority. Among Blacks in Louisiana, the incident was long remembered as proof that in any large confrontation, they stood at a fatal disadvantage.[1]

> "The organization against them is too strong. ..." Louisiana Black teacher and Reconstruction legislator John G. Lewis later remarked. "They attempted [armed self-defense] in Colfax. The result was that on Easter Sunday of 1873 when the sun went down that night, it went down on the corpses of two hundred and eighty negroes."[1]

## Aftermath

[edit]

James Roswell Beckwith, the US Attorney based in New Orleans, sent an urgent telegram about the massacre to the US Attorney General. The massacre in Colfax gained headlines of national newspapers from Boston to Chicago.[49] Various government forces spent weeks trying to round up members of the White paramilitaries, and a total of 97 men were indicted. In the end, Beckwith charged nine men and brought them to trial for violations of the Enforcement Act of 1870. It had been designed to provide federal protection for civil rights of freedmen by the Fourteenth Amendment against actions by terrorist groups such as the Klan.

The men were charged with one murder, and charges related to a conspiracy against the rights of freedmen. There were two succeeding trials in 1874. William Burnham Woods presided over the first trial and was sympathetic to the prosecution[citation needed]. Had the men been convicted, they would not have been able to appeal their decision to any appellate court according to the laws of the time. However, Beckwith was unable to secure a conviction—one man was acquitted, and a mistrial was declared in the cases of the other eight.

In the second trial, three men were found guilty of sixteen charges. However, the presiding judge, Joseph Bradley of the United States Supreme Court (riding circuit), dismissed the convictions, ruling that the charges violated the state actor doctrine, failed to prove a racial rationale for the massacre, or were void for vagueness. Sua sponte, he ordered that the men be released on bail, and they promptly disappeared.[50][51]

When the federal government appealed the case, it was heard by the US Supreme Court as United States v. Cruikshank (1875). The Supreme Court ruled that the Enforcement Act of 1870 (which was based on the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment) applied only to actions committed by the state and that it did not apply to actions committed by individuals or private conspiracies (See, Morrison Remick Waite). This meant that the Federal government could not prosecute cases such as the Colfax killings. The court said plaintiffs who believed their rights were abridged had to seek protection from the state. Louisiana did not prosecute any of the perpetrators of the Colfax massacre; most southern states would not prosecute White men for attacks against freedmen. Thus, enforcement of criminal sanctions under the act ended.[52]

The publicity about the Colfax massacre and subsequent Supreme Court ruling encouraged the growth of White paramilitary organizations. In May 1874, Nash formed the first chapter of the White League from his paramilitary group, and chapters soon were formed in other areas of Louisiana, as well as the southern parts of nearby states. Unlike the former KKK, they operated openly and often curried publicity. One historian described them as "the military arm of the Democratic Party."[53] Other paramilitary groups such as the Red Shirts also arose, especially in South Carolina and Mississippi, which also had Black majorities of population, and in certain counties in North Carolina.

Paramilitary groups used violence and murder to terrorize leaders among the freedmen and White Republicans, as well as to repress voting among freedmen during the 1870s. Black American citizens had little recourse. In August 1874, for instance, the White League threw out Republican officeholders in Coushatta, Red River Parish, assassinating the six Whites before they left the state, and killing five to 15 freedmen who were witnesses. Four of the White men killed were related to the state representative from the area.[54] Such violence served to intimidate voters and officeholders; it was one of the methods that White Democrats used to gain control of the state legislature in the 1876 elections and ultimately to end Reconstruction in Louisiana.

## Remembrances

[edit]

"Liberty Monument", a piece of pottery which was created in 1873 by White artists Wallace and Cornwall Kirkpatrick, owners of Anna Pottery in Anna, Illinois. It depicts Lady Liberty at the top, it depicts the Colfax massacre as its main scene, and it also depicts Schuyler Colfax, criticizing his involvement in the Crédit Mobilier scandal. This photo was taken at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in 2022.

In Louisiana as well as in the rest of the United States, the scale of the massacre and the political conflict which it represents are significant in relation to the history of Reconstruction, the history of racism against African Americans and the history of racism in the United States.[6]

In 1920, a committee met in Colfax to purchase a monument to memorialize the three White men who died. This monument stands in the Colfax Cemetery and it reads "Erected to the memory of the Heroes, / Stephen Decatur Parish / James West Hadnot / Sidney Harris / Who fell in the Colfax Riot fighting for White Supremacy."[55][56]

In 1950, Louisiana erected a state highway marker which read that the event of 1873 was "the Colfax Riot," as the event was traditionally known in the White community. The marker states, "On this site occurred the Colfax Riot, in which three white men and 150 negroes were slain. This event on April 13, 1873, marked the end of carpetbag misrule in the South."[52][55][57] The marker[58] was removed on May 15, 2021, for eventual placement in a museum.[59][60] On April 13, 2023, the 150th anniversary of the Colfax massacre, the removed marker was replaced by a seven-foot granite monument that lists 57 Black people confirmed to have been killed in the massacre and has artwork about the experience of Black people during Reconstruction.[61]

## Renewed attention

[edit]

The Colfax massacre is one of the events of Reconstruction and late 19th-century American history which have received renewed national attention during the early 21st century, as much attention as the 1923 massacre in Rosewood, Florida received near the end of the 20th century. In 2007 and 2008, two new books about the topic were published: Leeanna Keith's The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction,[62] and Charles Lane's The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction.[63] In his book, Lane addressed the political and legal implications of the Supreme Court case, which were derived from the prosecution of several men who were member of the White paramilitary groups.[64] In addition, a film documentary is in preparation.[citation needed]

In 2007, the Red River Heritage Association, Inc. was formed as a group which intended to construct a museum in Colfax, collect materials and store them in the museum, and interpret the history of Reconstruction in Louisiana, especially in the Red River area.[citation needed]

In 2008, on the 135th anniversary of the Colfax massacre, an interracial group commemorated the event. It laid flowers on the place where some of the victims had fallen and it also held a forum in an attempt to discuss the history of the massacre.[65]

In 2021, a state highway marker which had been erected in Louisiana in 1950 was removed, the marker read that the event of 1873 was "the Colfax Riot," as the event was traditionally known in the White community. The marker states, "On this site occurred the Colfax Riot, in which three white men and 150 negroes were slain. This event on April 13, 1873, marked the end of carpetbag misrule in the South."[52][55][57] The marker[58] was removed on May 15, 2021, for eventual placement in a museum.[59] On April 13, 2023, the 150th anniversary of the Colfax massacre, the removed marker was replaced by a seven-foot granite monument that lists 57 Black people confirmed to have been killed in the massacre and has artwork about the experience of Black people during Reconstruction.[61]

## See also

[edit]

* African Americans in Louisiana
* List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
* List of massacres in Louisiana
* Mass racial violence in the United States

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, p. 437
2. ^ Ulysses S. Grant, People and Events: "The Colfax Massacre", PBS Website Archived April 21, 2004, at the Wayback Machine, accessed April 6, 2008
3. ^ "In a small Louisiana town, two monuments to white supremacy stand on public ground". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
4. ^ a b Foner, Eric. (1989) Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877, New York: Perennial Library p. 550
5. ^ Lane 2008, p. b13
6. ^ a b William Briggs and Jon Krakauer (August 28, 2020). "The Massacre That Emboldened White Supremacists". The New York Times.
7. ^ Holt, Michael (2008). By One Vote. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas. pp. 195–196.195-196&rft.pub=University+Press+of+Kansas&rft.date=2008&rft.aulast=Holt&rft.aufirst=Michael&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Colfax+massacre" class="Z3988">
8. ^ Craven, Avery (1969). Reconstruction. Boston: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. pp. 186–187.186-187&rft.pub=Holt,+Rinehart,+and+Winston&rft.date=1969&rft.aulast=Craven&rft.aufirst=Avery&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Colfax+massacre" class="Z3988">
9. ^ Simkins, Francis; Roland, Charles (1947). A History of the South. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 262.
10. ^ Ezell, John (1975). The South Since 1865. New York: Macmillan Publishers. pp. 47–48.47-48&rft.pub=Macmillan+Publishers&rft.date=1975&rft.aulast=Ezell&rft.aufirst=John&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Colfax+massacre" class="Z3988">
11. ^ Randall, J. G.; Donald, David (1961). The Civil War and Reconstruction. Boston: D. C. Heath. pp. 633–634.633-634&rft.pub=D.+C.+Heath&rft.date=1961&rft.aulast=Randall&rft.aufirst=J.+G.&rft.au=Donald,+David&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Colfax+massacre" class="Z3988">
12. ^ "U.S. Senate: The Civil War: The Senate's Story". www.senate.gov. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
13. ^ a b Lane 2008
14. ^ Lane 2008, p. 25.
15. ^ Fellman, M. (2008). The Journal of American History, 95 (2), 550–551. doi:10.2307/25095698<
16. ^ Keith, LeeAnna (2008). The Colfax massacre : the untold story of Black power, White terror, and the death of Reconstruction. Oxford University Press. p. 60\. ISBN 978-0195310269.
17. ^ Lane 2008, p. 2.
18. ^ Keith, LeeAnn (2008). The Colfax massacre : the untold story of Black power, White terror, and the death of Reconstruction. Oxford University Press. p. 60\. ISBN 978-0195310269.
19. ^ Lane 2008, p. 28.
20. ^ Lane 2008, p. 41
21. ^ Lane 2008, pp. 41f
22. ^ Lane 2008, p. 1f
23. ^ "Our Documents – 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Voting Rights (1870)". www.ourdocuments.gov. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
24. ^ Lane 2008, p. 3f
25. ^ "U.S. Senate: The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871". www.senate.gov. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
26. ^ "The Ku Klux Klan and Violence at the Polls". Bill of Rights Institute. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
27. ^ Lane 2008, pp. 44–56.
28. ^ William Hesseltine, "Grant the Politician", 344
29. ^ Charles Lane, "The Green Bag", "Edward Henry Durell," 167–168
30. ^ Wert, Jeffry (1993). General James Longstreet. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 416.
31. ^ Lane 2008, p. 70
32. ^ James K. Hogue, "The Battle of Colfax: Paramilitarism and Counterrevolution in Louisiana", 2006, accessed August 15, 2008
33. ^ Keith, LeeAnna (2008). The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, & The Death of Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0195310269.
34. ^ Lane 2008, pp70-71
35. ^ Lane 2008, p. 154
36. ^ Lane 2008, p. 56
37. ^ Keith (2007), The Colfax Massacre, p. 117
38. ^ Lane 2008, p. 84
39. ^ Lane 2008, p. 91
40. ^ Lane 2008, p. 57
41. ^ Nicholas Lemann, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, paperback, 2007, p. 18
42. ^ Lemann (2007), Redemption, p. 18
43. ^ Lane 2008, p. 124
44. ^ Lane 2008, pp. 14, 20-21.
45. ^ "Military Report on Colfax Riot, 1875", Congressional Record], accessed April 6, 2008
46. ^ Lane 2008, p. 265
47. ^ Lane 2008, pp. 265–266
48. ^ Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism (1950). "Colfax Riot Historical Marker".
49. ^ Lane 2008, p. 22
50. ^ Lane 2008, pp. 209-10.
51. ^ Lemann, Nicholas. (2006) Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. p. 25
52. ^ a b c Velez, Denise Oliver (April 12, 2020). "The Easter massacre of 1873—and the subsequent Supreme Court decision that sabotaged Reconstruction". Daily Kos. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
53. ^ Rable, George C. (1984) But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press p. 132
54. ^ Eric Foner (2002), Reconstruction, p. 551
55. ^ a b c Rubin, Richard (July–August 2003). "The Colfax Riot". The Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
56. ^ Colfax Riot Memorial at Find a Grave
57. ^ a b Keith (2007), Colfax Massacre, p. 169
58. ^ a b "Colfax Riot". Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
59. ^ a b Lane, Charles (June 9, 2021). "Opinion: Not far from Tulsa, a quieter but consequential correction of the historical record". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
60. ^ Barber, Tom; Crawford, Jeff (July 6, 2021). "Removing the White Supremacy Marker at Colfax, Louisiana: A 2021 Success Story". The Journal of the Civil War Era. UNC Press. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
61. ^ a b "A deadly massacre of the post-slavery era finally gets a suitable memorial". Yahoo News. April 14, 2023.
62. ^ Keith 2007.
63. ^ Lane 2008.
64. ^ Lane 2008, pp. 242 et seq.
65. ^ Keith, LeeAnna. (April 17, 2008) "History is a Gift: The Colfax Massacre" Oxford University Press,; accessed August 13, 2008

## References

[edit]

* Foner, Eric (1988). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1st ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
* Goldman, Robert M. (2--1), Reconstruction & Black Suffrage: Losing the Vote in Reese & Cruikshank, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
* Hogue, James K., Uncivil War: Five New Orleans Street Battle and the Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
* Keith, Leeanna (2007). The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, & The Death of Reconstruction. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195393088.
* KKK Hearings, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Report 693.
* Lane, Charles (2008). The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 978-1429936781.
* Lemann, Nicholas. (2006) Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
* Rubin, Richard. (Jul/Aug 2003) "The Colfax Riot", The Atlantic.
* Taylor, Joe G. (1974) Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863–1877, Baton Rouge. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, pp. 268–270.

## External links

[edit]

* Ulysses S. Grant, People and Events: "The Colfax Massacre", 1997–2001 Archived April 21, 2004, at the Wayback Machine Public Broadcasting System
* State Highway Marker on Google Street View
* Colfax Memorial Organization

* v
* t
* e

Lynching in the United States

List of lynching victims in the United States

| Before 1900|

* Francis McIntosh (1836)
* Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1837)
* Josefa Segovia (1851)
* Pancho Daniel (1858)
* Joshua Boyd (1863)
* Henry Plummer (1864)
* Bill Sketoe (1864)
* Clubfoot George (1864)
* Steve Long, Ace and Con Moyer (1868)
* Wyatt Outlaw (1870)
* John W. Stephens (1870)
* Alexander Boyd (1870)
* Jim Williams (1871)
* David Jones (1872)
* Jo Reed (1875)
* Arthur St. Clair (1877)
* Michael Green (1878)
* Joseph Standing (1879)
* Big Nose George Parrott (1881)
* Charles Thurber (1882)
* John Wesley Heath (1884)
* Eliza Woods (1886)
* Samuel "Mingo Jack" Johnson (1886)
* Amos Miller (1888)
* Joseph Vermillion (1889)
* George Meadows (1889)
* Ellen Watson (1889)
* Brown Washington (1890)
* Jim Taylor (1891)
* Dick Lundy (1891)
* Joe Coe (1891)
* Robert Lewis (1892)
* Ephraim Grizzard (1892)
* Samuel J. Bush (1893)
* John Peterson (1893)
* Alfred Blount (1893)
* Henry Smith (1893)
* Richard Puryear (1894)
* Stephen Williams (1894)
* Amos Hicks (1894)
* Jacob Henson (1896)
* William Andrews (1897)
* Joseph H. McCoy (1897)
* John Anderson (1898)
* John Henry James (1898)
* F. W. Stewart (1898)
* Sam Hose (1899)
* Benjamin Thomas (1899)

|

1900–1940|

* Fred Rochelle (1901)
* Ballie Crutchfield (1901)
* George Ward (1901)
* Walker Davis (1903)
* J. D. Mayfield (1903)
* George White (1903)
* David Wyatt (1903)
* Marie Thompson (1904)
* Paul Reed and Will Cato (1904)
* Bunk Richardson (1906)
* Ed Johnson (1906)
* Slab Pitts (1906)
* William Burns (1907)
* Earnest Williams (1907)
* Jim Miller (1909)
* James Hodges (1909)
* Matthew Chase (1909)
* "Mose" Creole (1909)
* "Pie" Hill (1909)
* William "Froggie" James and Henry Salzner (1909)
* Grant Richardson (1910)
* King Johnson (1911)
* Name unknown (TX) (1911)
* Laura and L. D. Nelson (1911)
* Will Porter (1911)
* Zachariah Walker (1911)
* Mary Jackson (1912)
* Rob Edwards (1912)
* George Saunders (1912)
* Robert Perry (1913)
* ? Anderson (1913)
* Charles Fisher (1914)
* John Evans (1914)
* Leo Frank (1915)
* Name unknown (MS) (1915)
* Jesse Washington (1916)
* Anthony Crawford (1916)
* Jeff Brown (1916)
* Paulo Boleta (1916)
* Frank Little (1917)
* Charles Jones (1917)
* Ell Persons (1917)
* Robert Prager (1918)
* Mary Turner and her unborn baby (1918)
* Hazel "Hayes" Turner (1918)
* George Taylor (1918)
* Jim McIlherron (1918)
* Olli Kinkkonen (1918)
* Wallace Baynes (1919)
* Will Brown (1919)
* Wesley Everest (1919)
* John Hartfield (1919)
* Jay Lynch (1919)
* Berry Washington (1919)
* Willie Baird (1920)
* Roy Belton (1920)
* Dick Rowland (attempted) (1921)
* Henry Lowry (1921)
* James Harvey and Joe Jordan (1922)
* Joe Pullen (1923)
* Samuel Smith (1924)
* L. Q. Ivy (1925)
* Raymond Byrd (1926)
* James Clark (1926)
* Fred N. Selak (1926)
* Tom Payne (1927)
* John Carter (1927)
* Dan Anderson (1927)
* Will Sherod (1927)
* Bernice Raspberry (1927)
* Owen Flemming (1927)
* Joseph Upchurch (1927)
* Joe Smith (1927)
* Albert Williams (1927)
* Thomas Bradshaw (1927)
* Winston Pounds (1927)
* Thomas Williams (1927)
* Henry Choate (1927)
* Leonard Woods (1927)
* J. C. Collins (1928)
* George Hughes (1930)
* James Cameron (1930)
* Lynching of Raymond Gunn (1931)
* Matthew Williams (1931)
* Shedrick Thompson (1932)
* George Armwood (1933)
* Cordie Cheek (1933)
* Claude Neal (1934)
* Austin Callaway (1940)
* Elbert Williams (1940)

After 1940|

* Felix Hall (1941)
* Johannes Kunze (1943)
* Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943)
* Willie James Howard (1944)
* Recy Taylor (1944)
* John Cecil Jones (1946)
* Willie Earle (1947)
* Lamar Smith (1955)
* George W. Lee (1955)
* Emmett Till (1955)
* Judge Edward Aaron (1957)
* Willie Edwards (1957)
* Mack Charles Parker (1959)
* Louis Allen (1964)
* Lemuel Penn (1964)
* Frank Morris (1964)
* James Reeb (1965)
* Vernon Dahmer (1966)
* Wharlest Jackson (1967)
* Carol Jenkins (1968)
* Henry Marrow (1970)
* Marian Pyszko (1975)
* Betty Gardner (1978)
* Arthur McDuffie (1979)
* Michael Donald (1981)
* Yusef Hawkins (1989)
* James Byrd Jr. (1998)
* James Craig Anderson (2011)
* Ahmaud Arbery (2020)

Multiple victims

* Death of Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith) (1844)
* Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre (1858)
* Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX (1862)
* New York City draft riots (1863)
* Detroit race riot (1863)
* ? Lachenais and four others (1863)
* Fort Pillow, TN, massacre (1864)
* Plummer Gang (1864)
* Memphis massacre (1866)
* Gallatin County, KY, race riot (1866)
* New Orleans massacre of 1866
* Reno Brothers Gang (1868)
* Camilla, GA, massacre (1868)
* Steve Long and two half-brothers (1868)
* Pulaski, TN, riot (1868)
* Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman (1868)
* Opelousas, LA, massacre (1868)
* Bear River City riot (1868)
* Chinese massacre of 1871
* Meridian, MS, race riot (1871)
* Colfax, LA, massacre (1873)
* Election riot of 1874 (AL)
* Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya (1874)
* Benjamin and Mollie French (1876)
* Ellenton, SC, riot (1876)
* Hamburg, SC, massacre (1876)
* Thibodeax, LA, massacre (1878)
* Mart and Tom Horrell (1878)
* Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer (1879)
* Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken (1879)
* T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey (1880)
* New Orleans 1891 lynchings (1891)
* Ruggles Brothers (CA) (1892)
* Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN) (1892)
* Porter and Spencer (MS) (1897)
* Phoenix, SC, election riot (1898)
* Wilmington, NC, insurrection (1898)
* Julia and Frazier Baker (1898)
* Pana, IL, riot (1899)
* Watkinsville lynching (1905)
* 1906 Atlanta race massacre
* Kemper County, MS (1906)
* Walker family (1908)
* Springfield race riot of 1908
* Slocum, TX, massacre (1910)
* Laura and L.D. Nelson (1911)
* Harris County, GA, lynchings (1912)
* Newberry, FL, lynchings (1916)
* East St. Louis, IL, riots (1917)
* Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA (1918)
* Jenkins County, GA, riot (1919)
* Longview, TX, race riot (1919)
* Elaine, AR, race riot (1919)
* Omaha race riot of 1919
* Knoxville riot of 1919
* Red Summer (1919)
* Duluth, MN, lynchings (1920)
* Ocoee, FL, massacre (1920)
* Tulsa race massacre (1921)
* Perry, FL, race riot (1922)
* Rosewood, FL, massacre (1923)
* Jim and Mark Fox (1927)
* Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (1930)
* Tate County, MS (1932)
* Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes (1933)
* Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels (1937)
* Beaumont, TX, Race Riot (1943)
* O'Day Short, wife, and two children (1945)
* Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings (1946)
* Harry and Harriette Moore (1952)
* Anniston, AL (1961)
* Freedom Summer Murders (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner) (1964)
* Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore (1964)

| General|

* Lynching
* Indiana White Caps
* Jim Crow laws
* Ku Klux Klan
* Nadir of American race relations
* Red Shirts
* Jews

|

Anti-lynching movement|

* American anti-lynching activists
* American Crusade Against Lynching
* Jessie Daniel Ames
* Martin C. Ansorge
* Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching
* Flossie Bailey
* William O'Connell Bradley
* Ella Barksdale Brown
* Father Divine
* "Flag Salute"
* N.A.A.C.P.
* National Conference on Lynching
* Paul Robeson
* "Strange Fruit"
* Ida B. Wells

| Legislation|

* Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill
* Costigan-Wagner Bill
* Justice for Victims of Lynching Act
* Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act
* Emmett Till Antilynching Act

|

Defenders of lynching|

* Theodore G. Bilbo
* Cole L. Blease
* Julian S. Carr
* Sidney Johnston Catts
* Thomas Dixon Jr.
* Rebecca Latimer Felton
* John Temple Graves
* John Trotwood Moore
* John T. Morgan
* James Rolph
* Goodloe Sutton
* Benjamin Tillman
* James K. Vardaman
* Thomas E. Watson

Memory|

* America's Black Holocaust Museum
* Civil Rights Memorial
* The Legacy Museum
* National Memorial for Peace and Justice
* National Museum of African American History and Culture
* Southern Poverty Law Center

Related articles|

* James Allen (collector)
* "And you are lynching Negroes"
* Attack on John Shillady
* Battle of Liberty Place
* The Birth of a Nation
* The Clansman
* Deaths in police custody
* Fury (1936 film)
* Hang 'Em High
* Lynching postcard
* Mississippi Burning
* Mississippi Cold Case
* Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson (1965)
* The Ox-Bow Incident
* Parade (musical)
* Reconstruction era
* Red Summer
* Scottsboro Boys
* Silent Parade
* Stone Mountain
* Summer in Mississippi
* Sundown town (list)
* They Won't Forget
* "The United States of Lyncherdom" (Twain)
* United States v. Shipp
* Vendetta (1999 film)
* Wilmington insurrection of 1898

Categories|

* Lynching in the United States
* Lynching deaths in the United States

* v
* t
* e

Armed conflicts involving the Armed Forces of the United States

Listed chronologically

Domestic|

* Shays' Rebellion
* Whiskey Rebellion
* Fries's Rebellion
* 1811 German Coast uprising
* Turner's Rebellion
* Dorr Rebellion
* Bleeding Kansas
* Utah War
* Harpers Ferry raid
* American Civil War
* New York City draft riots
* American Indian Wars
* Colfax Riot
* Brooks–Baxter War
* Battle of Liberty Place
* Vicksburg riot
* Range War
* Hamburg riot
* Great Railroad Strike of 1877
* Lincoln County War
* Rock Springs Riot
* Johnson County War
* Coal Creek War
* Homestead strike
* Pullman Strike
* Colorado Coalfield War
* Red Summer
* Battle of Blair Mountain
* Tulsa riot
* Bonus Army
* Puerto Rican revolts
* Ole Miss riot of 1962
* 1960s ghetto rebellions
* 1969 Greensboro uprising
* Kent State shootings
* Wounded Knee Occupation
* 1992 Los Angeles riots
* 2020 racial unrest
* 2021 U.S. Capitol attack

Foreign|

* American Revolutionary War
* American–Algerian War (1785–1795)
* Quasi-War
* First Barbary War
* War of 1812
* Second Barbary War
* First Sumatran expedition
* Second Sumatran expedition
* Ivory Coast expedition
* Mexican–American War
* First Fiji expedition
* Second Opium War
* Second Fiji expedition
* Formosa Expedition
* Korean Expedition
* Spanish–American War
* Philippine–American War
* Boxer Rebellion
* Banana Wars
* Border War
* World War I
* Russian Civil War
* World War II
* Korean War
* Bay of Pigs Invasion
* Vietnam War
* Dominican Civil War
* Invasion of Grenada
* Lebanese Civil War
* Invasion of Panama
* Gulf War
* Somali Civil War
* Intervention in Haiti
* Bosnian War
* Kosovo War
* War in Afghanistan
* Iraq War
* War in North-West Pakistan
* First Libyan Civil War
* War against the Islamic State
* Iraq
* Syria
* Cameroon
* Libya
* Yemeni civil war

Related|

* Conflicts in the U.S.
* Wars involving the U.S.
* Timeline of U.S. military operations
* Length of U.S. participation in major wars
* Territorial evolution
* Military history
* History of the Central Intelligence Agency
* Casualties of war
* Peace movement
* List of anti-war organizations
* Conscientious objector
* Cold War
* War on terror
* War crimes

* v
* t
* e

Reconstruction era

Participants|

Federal government

* Presidents
* Abraham Lincoln
* Andrew Johnson
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Rutherford B. Hayes

* Congress
* 38
* 39
* 40
* 41
* 42
* 43
* 44
* 45
* Radical Republicans
* Moderate Republicans
* Conservative Republicans
* African-American senators
* African-American representatives
* Reconstruction Amendments
* United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction
* United States House Select Committee on Reconstruction

* Federal judiciary
* Taney Court
* Chase Court
* Waite Court

* Federal bureaucracy
* Edwin Stanton
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Justice Department

|

State governments

* Southern United States
* Confederate States of America

Others|

* African Americans
* Free people of color
* Freedman
* Politicians
* Carpetbaggers
* Ku Klux Klan
* Scalawag
* Redeemers
* White League
* Red Shirts
* Democratic Party
* Bourbon Democrat
* Horatio Seymour
* Samuel J. Tilden
* Republican Party
* Stalwarts
* Charles Sumner
* Thaddeus Stevens
* Lyman Trumbull
* Benjamin Wade
* John Bingham
* James Mitchell Ashley
* Freedman's Savings Bank
* Women during the Reconstruction era

Elections|

Presidential

* 1864
* DNC
* National Union Convention
* Radical Democracy Party

* 1868
* DNC
* RNC

* 1872
* DNC
* RNC
* Liberal Republican Party
* Straight-Out Democratic Party
* Victoria Woodhull

* 1876
* DNC
* RNC
* Greenback Convention
* Prohibition Convention
* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877

|

U.S. Senate|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

U.S. House|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

Gubernatorial|

* 1863
* Alabama
* California
* Connecticut
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Minnesota
* New Hampshire
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin
* West Virginia

* 1864
* Connecticut
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Hampshire
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1865
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1866
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* North Carolina
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Texas
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1867
* California
* Connecticut
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1868
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* New Jersey
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1869
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1870
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* Oregon
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1871
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* Rhode Island
* Wisconsin

* 1872
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1873
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Texas
* Virginia
* Wisconsin

* 1874
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Kansas
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Jersey
* Nevada
* Oregon
* South Carolina
* Vermont

* 1875
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Ohio
* Wisconsin

* 1876
* Alabama
* Colorado
* Connecticut April
* Connecticut November
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

U.S. elections|

* 1864
* 1866
* 1868
* 1870
* 1872
* 1874
* 1876

Key events|

| Prelude|

* American Indian Wars
* Slavery in the United States
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
* The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838)
* Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839)
* Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
* National Women's Rights Convention (1850)
* American Civil War
* Confiscation Act of 1861
* Confiscation Act of 1862
* District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862)
* Militia Act of 1862

|

1863|

* Emancipation Proclamation
* General Order No. 143
* Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction
* Ten percent plan
* National Bank Act
* Women's Loyal National League
* New York City draft riots
* 1863 State of the Union Address

1864|

* Wade–Davis Bill
* 1864 elections
* 1864 State of the Union Address

1865|

* 13th Amendment
* Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
* Address
* Black Codes
* Special Field Orders No. 15
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Freedmen's Bureau bills
* Confederates surrender at Appomattox
* Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
* Shaw University
* New Departure
* 1865 State of the Union Address
* Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

1866|

* Civil Rights Act of 1866
* Memphis massacre of 1866
* New Orleans Massacre of 1866
* Swing Around the Circle
* Southern Homestead Act of 1866
* Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866
* Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866
* Tennessee readmitted to Union
* Petition for Universal Freedom
* National Labor Union
* Ex parte Garland
* Ex parte Milligan
* Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866

* 1866 elections

1867|

* Tenure of Office Act
* Command of Army Act
* Indian Peace Commission
* Knights of the White Camelia
* Pulaski riot
* Reconstruction Acts
* Reconstruction military districts
* Constitutional conventions of 1867
* Habeas Corpus Act of 1867
* Peonage Act of 1867
* First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* 1867 State of the Union Address

1868|

* 14th Amendment
* Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
* Timeline
* Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment managers investigation
* Articles of impeachment
* Arkansas readmitted to Union
* Florida readmitted to Union
* North Carolina readmitted to Union
* South Carolina readmitted to Union
* Louisiana readmitted to Union
* Alabama readmitted to Union
* Opelousas massacre
* Fourth Reconstruction Act
* Georgia v. Stanton
* 1868 elections
* 1868 State of the Union Address

1869|

* National Woman Suffrage Association
* American Woman Suffrage Association
* Alabama Claims
* Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo
* Board of Indian Commissioners
* Public Credit Act of 1869
* Black Friday (1869)
* Ex parte McCardle
* First transcontinental railroad
* 1869 State of the Union Address

1870|

* 15th Amendment
* Enforcement Act of 1870
* Justice Department
* Naturalization Act of 1870
* Kirk–Holden war
* Shoffner Act
* 1870 elections
* 1870 State of the Union Address

1871|

* Ku Klux Klan hearings
* Second Enforcement Act
* Ku Klux Klan Act
* Alcorn State University
* Meridian race riot of 1871
* Treaty of Washington
* New York custom house ring
* Civil service commission
* United States expedition to Korea
* 1871 State of the Union Address

1872|

* General Mining Act of 1872
* Crédit Mobilier scandal
* Modoc War
* Star Route scandal
* Salary Grab Act
* Amnesty Act
* 1872 elections
* 1872 State of the Union Address

1873|

* Panic of 1873
* Colfax massacre
* Timber Culture Act
* Slaughter-House Cases
* Virginius Affair
* Coinage Act of 1873
* Long Depression
* Comstock laws
* 1873 State of the Union Address

1874|

* Brooks–Baxter War
* Battle of Liberty Place
* Coushatta massacre
* Red River War
* Timber Culture Act
* White League
* Election Massacre of 1874
* Vicksburg massacre
* Black Hills Gold Rush
* Sanborn incident
* Anti-Moiety Acts
* 1874 elections
* 1874 State of the Union Address

1875|

* United States v. Cruikshank
* Civil Rights Act of 1875
* Red Shirts
* Mississippi Plan
* Clifton Riot of 1875
* Yazoo City Riot of 1875
* Specie Payment Resumption Act
* Whiskey Ring
* Wheeler Compromise
* Delano affair
* Pratt & Boyd
* 1875 State of the Union Address

1876|

* Hamburg massacre
* South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876
* Ellenton massacre
* Great Sioux War of 1876
* Battle of the Little Bighorn
* United States v. Reese
* Trader post scandal
* Centennial Exposition
* Cattellism
* Safe burglary conspiracy
* 1876 elections
* 1876 State of the Union Address

1877|

* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877
* Nez Perce War
* Desert Land Act
* Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Aftermath|

* Posse Comitatus Act (1878)
* Civil Rights Cases (1883)
* United States v. Harris (1883)
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Williams v. Mississippi (1898)
* Wilmington insurrection of 1898
* Giles v. Harris (1903)
* Disenfranchisement

Aspects|

| Historiography|

* Bibliography of the Reconstruction era
* James Shepherd Pike
* The Prostrate State (1874)
* James Bryce
* The American Commonwealth (1888)
* Claude G. Bowers
* The Tragic Era (1929)
* Columbia University
* John Burgess
* Walter Lynwood Fleming
* Dunning School
* William Archibald Dunning
* Charles A. Beard
* Howard K. Beale
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
* C. Vann Woodward
* Joel Williamson
* William R. Brock
* The American Crisis (1963)
* John Hope Franklin
* From Slavery to Freedom (1947)
* After Slavery (1965)
* Leon Litwack
* Been in the Storm So Long (1979)
* Eric Foner
* Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988)
* Kenneth M. Stampp
* Steven Hahn
* A Nation Under Our Feet (2003)
* The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)

|

Memory|

* Winslow Homer
* A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876)
* Thomas Dixon Jr.
* The Leopard's Spots (1902)
* The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905)
* D. W. Griffith
* The Birth of a Nation (1915)
* United Daughters of the Confederacy
* Gone with the Wind (1939)
* David W. Blight
* Race and Reunion (2001)

Legacy|

* Women's suffrage in the United States
* Labor history of the United States
* Gilded Age
* Jim Crow era
* Civil rights movement
* American frontier

Other topics|

* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Forty acres and a mule
* Habeas corpus
* History of the United States (1865–1917)
* Paramilitary
* Race (human categorization)
* Reconstruction Treaties
* Suffrage
* Technological and industrial history of the United States
* White supremacy
* Whitecapping

* Category

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