"Colfax Riot" (Easter Sunday April 13,1873)

In the wake of of a contested election for governor of Louisiana and local offices,and armed group

of whites,and a small cannon,overpowered freedmen and state militia (also black)trying to control the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax.White Republican officeholders were not attacked.Most of the freedmen were killed after they surrended,and nearly 50 were killed later that night after being held as prisoners for several hours.Estimations of the number of dead have varied.Two  U.S. Marshall's who visited the site on April 15 and buried dead reported 62 fatalities.A military report to Congress in 1875 identified 81 black men who had been killed by name,and also estimated that 15-20 bodies were thrown into the Red River  and  another 18 secretly buried-for a grand total of " at least 105.A state historical marker from 1950 noted fatalities as three whites and 150 blacks.Taking account available estimates,author Charles Lane has estimated a minimum death toll of 62 and maximum death toll of 81.The attack had the most fatalities of violent events following the disputed contest in 1872 between Republicans and Democrats for the Louisiana's governor's office in which both,candidates claimed victory (in fact in every election [in Louisiana]between 1868 and 1878 was marked by rampant violence and pervasive fraud.]Although the fusionist-dominated state "returning board,"which ruled on validity of votes,at first declared John McEnert and his Democratic slate the winners,the board, spilt.A pro-Kellogg faction declared  Republican William Pitt Kellogg the victor. Both men held inauguration parties.A Republican federal judge in New Orleans finally ruled the Republican-Majority legislature be seated.Federal prosecution and conviction of a few perpetrators at Colfax under the Enforcement Acts led to a key Supreme case,United States v.Cruiksahank (1876).The court ruled that protections of the Fourteenth Amendment did apply to the actions of state governments.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.In the late 20th and early 21st century,there has been increasing attention given to the events at Colfax and the Supreme Court Case,and their meaning in American History.In 1864 federals in Louisiana gave the vote to only a few blacks based  on Union Military service,payment of taxes and "unintellectual fitness."In March 1865 Unionist planter James Madison Wells became governor and at first opposed Negro suffrage.Attempts by ex-confederates (whites) instead.To accomplish this,he scheduled a convention for July 30,1866.It was postponed because of the New Orleans Massacre,which left thirty-eight dead,all but four of them African-Americans.When President Andrew Johnson blamed the massacre on Republican agitation, a popular national backlash against Andrew policies caused voters to elect a majority Republican Congress in 1866.The Civil Rights Act,passed on April 9,1866 over Andrew Johnson's veto,ended the Black Codes,which had limited the rights of freed slaves and other  African-Americans.On July 16,1866,Congress extended the life of the Freedman's Bureau over Andrew's veto.Beginning on March 2,1867 the Reconstruction Act,passed over Andrew's veto,required that African-Americans be allowed to vote and that reconstructed Southern states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.By April 1868,Congressional legislation resulted in a Republican state government for Louisiana.opposition in Louisiana to suffrage for African-Americans resulted in 1,081 political murders from April to November 1868.Almost all of the victims were African-Americans,and some of the whites who were killed were Republicans.In addition to the dead,other men were flogged or had their homes burned to discourage them from voting.President Johnson prevented the publican prevented governor of Louisiana from using either the state militia or U.S. forces to stop terrorist groups such as the Knights of the White Camellia from threatened African-Americans who tried to vote.William Smith Calhoun owned a 14,000-acre plantation in the area that later became Grant Parish.Although William was a former slave owner,he lived with a mixed race woman as his common-law wife and supported black equality.On election day of November 1868,he led a group of freedmen to vote.The ballot box was originally to be at a store own by John Hooe,who threatened to whip blacks who tried to vote.William arranged for the ballot box to be switched to a plantation store owned by a Republican instead.Republicans got 318 votes,with only 49,for the Democrats.A group of whites threw the ballot into the Red River,and Democrats arrested William for alleged election fraud.With the ballot box thrown out,Democrat Michael Ryan claimed a landslide victory.After black Republican election commissioner Hal Frazier was shot by whites,William drafted a bill which created a new parish out of part of Winn Parish and part of Rapides Parish.William hoped that he would have more political control over things that happened in the the new parish named after Grant.After Ulysses S.Grant became president in 1868,he lobbied for the Fifteenth Amendment (ratified February 3,1870),which guaranteed that African-Americans most of whom were newly freed slaves,would have an equal right to vote.The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and other supremacist groups continued violent attacks and killed scores of African-Americans in South Carolina,Georgia,Mississippi and elsewhere to discourage their voting in the 1870 elections.On May 31,1870 Congress passed an Enforcement Act based on the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.They followed this with the Ku Klux Klan Act,enacted April 20,1871.Grant use used this authority to suspend writ of habeas corpus and use the army to stop Klan violence.Governor Henry Clay Warmoth struggle to maintain political balance in Louisiana Among his appointments,he installed William Ward,an African-American union veteran,as commanding officer of Co 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.William 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 General Edward Lee's Surrender.About  1870 he came to Grant Parish where had a friend,and quickly became active among local African-Americans in the Republican Party.After his appointment to the militia,William Ward,recruited other freedmen,for his forces,several of whom had been veterans.  In Louisiana, Republican governor Henry Clay Warmoth defeated the Liberal Republican ( a group that opposed Reconstruction )in 1872. Henry previously supported a constitutional amendment that allowed former Confederates to vote again. A "Fusionist" coalition of Liberal Republican and Democrats nominated ex-Confederate battalion commander John McEnery to succeed him as governor.In return,Democrats,were to send Henry to Washington as a U.S. Senator.Opposing John was Republican William Pitt Kellogg,one of Louisiana's U.S. Senators.Voting on November 4, 1872 resulted in dual governments, as A "fusionist"-dominated returning board declared John the winner while a faction of the board proclaimed William the winner.Both administrations held inaugural ceremonies and certified their lists of local candidates.It took some time for a Republican federal judge in New Orleans to order that William and the Republican and the Republican-majority legislature were to be seated were to be seated,and for grant  to authorize U.S. army troops to protect William government.John faction tried to seize the state arsenal  at Jackson Square,William had the state militia seize dozens of leaders of John faction and control  New-Orleans.Unrest  was so marked that John organized his own paramilitary group.In March he took control of the state house and police stations in New-Orleans,where the state government was then located,in what was known as the battle of Jackson Square.His forces retreated before the arrival of Federal troops.Henry  subsequently impeached by the state legislature in a bribery scandal stemming from his actions in the 1872 election.Henry  appointed  democrats as parish registrars who ensured the voter rolls included as many whites and as few freedmen as possible.A number of registrars changed the registrations site without notifying African-Americans..They also required African-Americans to prove,they were over 21,while knowing that former slaves did not have birth certificates.In Grant Parish one Plantation owner threatened expel African-American Republicans voters from homes they rented on his land.Fusionists also tampered with ballot boxes on election day.One was found with a hole in it,apparently used for stuffing the ballot  box. Asa result,Grant Parish Fusionists claimed a landslide victory,even though African-Americans outnumbered whites by 776-630.Henry issued commissions to Fusionists Alphonse Cazabat and Christopher Columbus Nash elected parish judge and sheriff, respectively.Like many white men in the South,Christopher  was 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).Alphonse and Christopher took their oath of office in the Colfax courthouse on January 2,1873 they then dispatched to Governor McEnery in New Orleans.William Pitt Kellogg countered by issuing commissions to the Republican slate for Grant Parish on January 17 &18.By then Christopher and Aplphonse controlled the courthouse.Republican Robert C.Register insisted that he,not Alphonse Cazabat,was the parish judge,and that Republican Daniel Wesley Shaw,Not Christopher Nash,was to be the sheriff.On the night of March 25,the Republican seize the courthouse and took their oaths of office.They sent their oaths to the Kellogg administration in New Orleans.Grant Parish was one of of a number of new parishes created by the Republican government in an effort to build local support in the state.Both the land and its people were originally tied to the Calhoun family,whose plantation had covered more than the borders ofthe new parish.The freedmen had been slaves on the plantation.The parish also took in less-developed hill country.The total population had a narrow majority of 2400 freedmen,whose mostly voted Republican,and 2200 whites,mostly Democrats.Statewide political tensions were reflected in the rumors going around each community,often about fears of attacks or outrages,which added to local tensions.With support from the federal government,Republican William Kellogg was certified and assumed control as Louisiana governor.In late March,Republicans Robert and Daniel occupied their offices in the Colfax courthouse.Fearful that the Democrats might try to take over the local parish government,freedmen in Colfax started to create trenches around the courthouse and drilled to keep alert.They held the town for three weeks.On March 28,Christopher, Alphonse,Hadnot and other white Fusionists called for armed whites to retake the courthouse on April 1Republicans Robert, Daniel,Flowers and others countered by calling for their own posse of armed African-Americans to defend the courthouse.Black Republicans Lewis Meekins and state militia Captain William Ward, an African-American Union veteran,raided the homes of leaders Judge William R.Ruthland,Bill Cruikshank and Jim Hadnot.Gunfire erupted between whites and African-Americans on April 2 and again on April 5,the gunshots were too inaccurate to do any harm.The two sides arranged for peace negotiations.Peace ended when a white supremacists shot and killed an African-American man named Jesse Mckinney.Another armed conflict on April 6 ended with whites'fleeing from armed African-Americans.With all the unrest,African-American women and children joined the men at the court house for protection.William Ward,the the commanding officer of Company A,6th infantry Regiment,Louisiana State Militia,headquartered in Grant Parish,had also been elected state representative from the parish on the Republican ticket.He wrote to Governor Kellogg seeking U.S. troops for reinforcement and gave the letter to William for delivery.The latter took the steamboat Labelle down to Red River but was captured by Paul Hooe,Jim Hadnot and Cruikshank.They ordered William to tell African-Americans to leave the courthouse.The African-Americans defenders refused but were threatened by armed whites commanded by Christopher.To recruit armed whites for his paramilitary group,Christopher had contributed to lurid rumors that African-Americans were preparing to kill the white men and take the white women as their own.On April 8 the anti Republican Daily Picayune reported the following:"THE RIOT IN GRANT PARISH.FEARFUL ATROCITIES BY THE NEGROES.NO RESPECT SHOWN TO THE DEAD."Christopher got reinforcement from groups such as the KKK.His group got a four-pound cannon that could fire iron slugs.As the Klansman Dave Paul,"Boys,this is a struggle for white supremacy.Suffering from tuberculosis and rheumatism,militia captain Ward took a steamboat downriver to New Orleans on April 11.He planned to seek armed for Colfax directly from William.He was there for the following events.Alphonse had directed Christopher as sheriff to put down what he called a riot.Christopher gathered an armed white paramilitary group veteran officers from Rapides,Winn, & Catahoula parishes.He did not move his forces toward the courthouse until noon on Easter Sunday,April 13.Christopher led more than 300 armed white men, most on horseback and armed with rifles.Christopher reportedly ordered the defenders of the courthouse to leave.When that failed,he gave women and children camped outside thirty minutes to clear out.After they left,the shooting began.The fighting continued for several hours with few causalities.When Christopher paramilitary maneuvered that 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.Christopher sent men on horseback after the fleeing African-American Republicans,and his paramilitary group killed most of them on the spot.Later,Christopher besiegers directed an African-American captive to set the courthouse roof on fire.The defenders then displayed white flags for surrenders:one made from shirt,the other from a page of a book.The shooting stopped.Christopher group approached and called for those surrendering to throw down their weapons and come outside.What happended next is in dispute.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 James was shot from behind by an overexcited member of his own force."He died later after being taken downstream by a passing steamboat.In the aftermather of James shooting,the white paramilitary group reacted with mass killing of the defenders.More than 40 times as many African-Americans died as did whites.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 in the Red River.About 50 About African-Americans survived the afternoon and were taken parishioner.Later that night that night they   captors.Only one man of 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.Governor Kellogg sent state militia colonels Theodore Deklyne and William Wright to Colfax with warrants to arrest 50 white .and to install a new,compromise slate of parish officers.Theodore and William 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.One body was charred, anther's another's head was beaten beyond recognition,and another had a slashed throat.Surviving African-Americans told William and Theodore that African-Americans 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 African-Americans refused to leave,the courthouse was burned,and the African-Americans defenders were shot down.While the whites accused African-Americans of violating a flag of truce and rioting, African-Americans 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.On April 14 some 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,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 African-Americans who had died,plus noted they had recovered 15-20 unidentified African-Americans from the river.They also noted the savage nature of many of the killings, suggesting, an out-of-control situation.The exact number was never established.
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 African-Americans in Louisiana,the incident was long remembered as proof in any large confrontation,they stood at a fatal disadvantage."The organization against them is too strong...."Louisiana African-American 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.James Roswell Beckwith,the US Attorney based in New-Orleans sent an urgent telegram about the about the massacre to the US Attorney General. The massacre in Colfax gained headlines of national newspaper from Boston to Chicago.Various governor forces spent weeks trying to round up members of the white paramilitaries,and a total of  97 men were indicted.In the end,James charged nine men and brought them to trial for violations of the US Enforcement Act of 1870.It had been designed to provide Federal protection for civil rights of freedmen under the 14th Amendment against actions by terrorists groups such as the KKK.The men were charged with one murder,and charges related to conspiracy against the rights of the freedmen.There were two succeeding trials in 1874;in the first,one one man was acquitted,while a mistrial declared in the cases of the other eight.In the next trial,three men were found guilty of conspiracy against the freedmen's right of assembly and 15 other charges.Justice Joseph Bradley,an associate justice of the US Supreme Court happened to attend the trial,and after the verdict was in, he ruled that the Enforcement Act unconstitutional and ordered that all the men be set free.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 apply to actions committed by individuals or private conspiracies.This meant that the Federal government could prosecute 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 freedmen.The publicity about the Colfax Massacre and subsequent Supreme Court ruling encouraged the growth of white paramilitary organizations.In May 1874,Cristopher formed the first chapter of the White League from his paramilitary group,and chapters soon sprang up in other areas of Louisiana,as well as the southern parts of nearby states.Unlike KKK nightriders,they operated openly and often curried publicity.One historian described them as "the military arm of the Democratic Party.Other paramilitary groups such as the Red Shirts also arose,especialy in South Carolina and Mississippi, which also African-American majorities of population.There was little recourses for African-Americans citizens in the South.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.In August 1874,for instance,the White League threw out Republican officeholders in Coushatta,Red River Parish,assassinating the six whites before they managed to leave,and killing five to 15 freedmen as witnesses.Four of the white men killed were related to the state representative from the area.Such violence served to intimidate voters and officeholders;it was one of the methods White Democrats used to gain control in the 1876 elections and ultimately to dismantle Reconstruction in Louisiana.