Inside the 1873 Colfax Massacre that saw up to 150 Black men Murdered by Klansmen and former Confederates

Inside the 1873 Colfax Massacre that saw up to 150 Black men Murdered by Klansmen and former Confederates

In 1873, the worst episode of racial violence since the Civil War exploded in Louisiana. After a group of Black militiamen trying to defend the results of Louisiana's 1872 gubernatorial election surrendered to angry KKK members and former Confederates surrounding the Colfax courthouse, the white mob shot and hanged as many as 150 of them in cold blood.⁠

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But many whites still blamed the Black victims for the Colfax Massacre. Some white witnesses even claimed that the bloodshed was the fault of a "mob of armed negroes who began to make open threats to the effect that they would kill all the white men and appropriate the women and girls to fiendish desires." And for generations, many Louisianans believed this racist lie. Now, some historians think that this horrific incident singlehandedly chilled the progress of Reconstruction, showing just how bloodthirsty its opponents could be in trying to hold onto authority — and proving that Black people in the American South still "stood at a fatal disadvantage."⁠

⁠The Colfax massacre, referred to sometimes 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 militia 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.

 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.

Historian Eric Foner described the massacre as the worst instance of racial violence during Reconstruction 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".

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.

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.

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