RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA - Racial Violence After the Civil War 1865-1876 - A Visual Reading Guide - Equal Justice Initiative
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A Visual
Reading Guide
RECONSTRUCTION
IN AMERICA
Racial Violence
After the Civil War
1865-1876
1860 1865 1870 18751
How to use this Guide · Better understand the history of violent
resistance to Black equality in this country,
EJI’s Reconstruction in America report provides
· Reject the false myths of Black inferiority
context and analysis for a dark period in American
and dangerousness that were used to justify
history, one that has been erased from public
CONTENTS
that resistance, and
memory and that may be difficult to process.
This visual reading guide is designed to help
· Identify the ways that public and private
readers engage with the report. It aims to prompt
actors expressed their belief in white
meaningful reflection and discussion about the
supremacy and sought to embed that
missed opportunity of Reconstruction and how
ideology in local, state, and federal laws.
the violent rejection of Black equality set the
stage for generations of terror and inequality
In addition to this guide, on EJI’s website you
in the South and throughout the country.
can find a data visualization map showing the
spread of racial violence during Reconstruction
The guide is divided into seven sections, each
INTRODUCTION 2 including discussion questions, summaries of
and a video animation of the Reconstruction in
America report.
key information, and a timeline of events. While
reading, reflect on the discussion questions for
JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 4 that chapter of the report. After reading, use the Learn More
Emancipation and Citizenship information and timeline in this guide to review
what you have learned. Then, you should be The Reconstruction in America report is one
able to meaningfully discuss the guided reading in a series of EJI reports about the history
FREEDOM TO FEAR 8 questions, in conversation with others or through and legacies of racial injustice in the United
A Terrifying and Deadly Backlash self-reflection. States. If the discussions that emerge from this
guide leave you with more questions about
It is our hope that through conversations about this history and its legacies, please consider
DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION 12 racial terrorism, the complicity of public officials visiting eji.org/reports to read the other reports
and law enforcement, and the false myth of racial in the series.
VIOLENCE hierarchy, readers will:
Known and Unknown Horrors
THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 16
White people trafficked
RECONSTRUCTION’S END 20 first Africans to the
Americas through
the Transatlantic
Slave Trade
A TRUTH THAT NEEDS TELLING 24 1619
1590 1600 1610 1620INTRODUCTION 3
Guided Reading Questions:
Consider the following questions as you read the Introduction.
Come back to them after reading.
· What similarities do you notice between the desires of newly
emancipated people during Reconstruction and the desires of
Black Americans today? What similarities or differences do you
INTRODUCTION notice in the response to those desires in your local community,
your state, and the nation?
Definitions recreation that followed the Civil War.
During Reconstruction, the federal
Black disenfrachisement
During the 12-year period of Reconstruction, This is the practice of preventing Black
80% government provided oversight to enforce people from exercising their constitutional
at least 2,000 Black women, men, and children were The percentage of eligible Black voters
Black people’s new rights of freedom and right to vote. Throughout Reconstruction,
citizenship and to establish new state
victims of racial terror lynchings. who were registered to vote by 1868.
governments.
intimidation, violence, and lawlessness
were used to keep Black people from
Emancipation vs. equality voting, to murder Black elected officials,
United States Supreme Court
During Reconstruction, white people and to overthrow duly elected public
During Reconstruction, the Supreme officials who supported Black equality.
used violent resistance to ensure that
Court used its power to stop Congress
Our collective ignorance of what happened emancipation—the end of many Black
from protecting Black people’s rights. Racial hierarchy
people’s status as enslaved—did not
immediately after the Civil War has contributed to result in equality—equal access to the
By blocking Congress’ efforts, the Court This is a belief system that white people
allowed the same white Southerners who
misinformed stereotypes and misguided false rights of citizens.
had fought the Civil War to keep Black
are inherently superior to Black people
and all people of color. It is myth that
narratives about who is honorable and who is 1865-1876 people enslaved to maintain control of was created to justify the kidnap, human
state and local governments. trafficking, and enslavement of Africans.
not and has allowed bigotry and a legacy of racial This is the period of Reconstruction,
the period of legal, political, and social
injustice to persist.
1630 1640 1650 1660 1670 1680 1690 1700 1710JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 5
Guided Reading Questions:
Consider the following questions as you read the section Journey to Freedom.
Come back to them after reading.
JOURNEY · What did enslaved Black people hope a Union victory would
TO FREEDOM mean for their lives?
· After the Confederate surrender, a newspaper editorial wrote
Emancipation and Citizenship that, “Slavery is dead. The Negro is not; there is our misfortune.”
In what ways does this section help you understand why ending
enslavement did not end the devastating effects of racial
hierarchy for Black people?
“ Not a single Southern legislature believed free
Negro labor was possible without a system of
restrictions that took all its freedoms away; there Definitions them to be exploited economically through
violent means. In the United States, a child
Carolina seceded, its state legislators
wrote that a primary catalyst for their
was scarcely a white man in the South who did not Transatlantic Slave Trade born to an enslaved Black person was action was “[a]n increasing hostility on the
automatically declared to be enslaved. This part of the non-slaveholding States to the
honestly regard Emancipation as a crime, and its The Transatlantic Slave Trade was the
custom created a racial hierarchy that was institution of slavery.” The secession of
human trafficking of Africans from the
practical nullification as a duty. continent of Africa to North America,
hereditary and permanent. these 11 states began the Civil War.
South America, or Central America.
Domestic Slave Trade Emancipation Proclamation
—Sociologist W.E.B. DuBois Over 10 million African men, women,
and children were kidnapped and sold The Domestic Slave Trade emerged after Issued by President Abraham Lincoln
into captivity through this trade, and an the Transatlantic Slave Trade was legally in September 1862, the Emancipation
additional 2 million African men, women, banned in 1808 to meet the ongoing Proclamation declared the freedom of
and children died during the brutal demand for enslaved Black people. Millions Black people enslaved in the Confederacy.
voyage. This trade ended in 1808, but of Black people, including free Black people It did not free enslaved people in the
Many of the day’s most pressing questions asked: the enslavement of Black people in the who were illegally sold into captivity, were border states of Maryland, West Virginia,
what would happen to the entrenched institution United States did not end. It grew. trafficked through the Domestic Slave Trade. Kentucky, and Missouri and exempted
Tennessee and parts of Virginia and
of slavery? And what fate would befall the millions Chattel slavery Secession Louisiana. People across the country—
of Black people who had been enslaved at the A unique system of enslavement that Beginning with South Carolina, 11 Southern in the South and the North—protested
permanently took away legal rights and states left the United States because they the Order.
war’s start? autonomy from the enslaved and allowed wanted to maintain slavery. When South
1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 17906 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 7
13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery,
15th Amendment
The 15th Amendment prohibits racial
People TIMELINE | 1619–1870 Red dates identify an
act of racial violence
except as punishment for a crime. It passed discrimination in voting, granting voting Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe
both houses of Congress by January rights to men of all races. It became part A white abolitionist who, like many white
1865, but could not become part of the of the Constitution in February 1870. people who supported a legal end to 1619 White people trafficked first Africans to MARCH 10, Confederate soldiers hanged Amy Spain,
Constitution until 75% of the states voted slavery, did not believe in racial equality and the Americas through the Transatlantic 1865 a Black woman, for helping the Union Army
for it, including the states in the South who 25% believed that Black people were naturally Slave Trade
were fighting a war to maintain slavery. It The percentage of delegates to state inferior to white people. In his efforts to draw APRIL 9, Confederate Army surrenders and the
was ratified in December 1865 after federal constitutional conventions in the former support for ending slavery, he argued that 1808 Transatlantic Slave Trade becomes illegal 1865 Civil War ends
laws required former Confederate states Confederate states who were Black men. without slavery Black people would die out. but Domestic Slave Trade remains lawful
to adopt the 13th Amendment in order to Eligible to participate in politics for the first and very profitable for white people DECEMBER 13th Amendment is added to the
officially rejoin the country. time in the country’s history, Black men Stephen A. Hale throughout the country 1865 Constitution
were the majority of delegates in South A proslavery public official in Alabama,
Civil Rights Act of 1866 Carolina, more than half in Louisiana, and
This federal law declared that Black more than a third in Florida.
Hale wrote to the governor in 1860 warning
about the dangers of equality for Black
1861 11 southern states secede from the Union
1866 President Andrew Johnson vetoes the Civil
and the Civil War begins Rights Act of 1866 and Congress overrides
Americans were citizens of the United people. He was concerned that white his veto to make the bill became federal law
States entitled to equal rights. President
Andrew Johnson vetoed it because he Events children would have to associate with Black
people “upon terms of political and social
SEPTEMBER President Lincoln issues the Emancipation
did not believe Black people should have 1862 Proclamation by executive order JULY 14th Amendment is added to the
Fort Pillow Massacre equality.” Hale went on to represent South
equal rights when “intelligent, worthy Carolina in the Confederate Congress. 1868 Constitution
Against the rules of war, Confederate
and patriotic” foreigners did not. In April
soldiers murdered 262 Black soldiers in 1864 262 Black Union soldiers murdered by
1866, Congress overrode a veto for the Horatio Seymour Confederate soldiers in the Fort Pillow FEBRUARY 15th Amendment is added to the
the Union Army who had surrendered.
first time in the nation’s history, and this
This was one of many acts by Confederate Elected governor or New York in the 1862 Massacre 1870 Constitution
bill became law. election cycle. Seymour ran for governor
soldiers to show their refusal to acknowl-
14th Amendment edge the humanity of Black people. as the pro-slavery “white man’s candidate” 1865 Local newspapers in Alabama continued
who was opposed to emancipation for to advertise sales of enslaved people and
The 14th Amendment declared that Amy Spain Hanged Black people. to publish ads for “runaways” in defiance
Black people are citizens of the United of the Emancipation Proclamation
In defiance of the Emancipation
States and established the civil rights of President Andrew Johnson Local newspapers in
Proclamation which had gone into effect Alabama continued to advertise
all citizens. President Andrew Johnson President Johnson was known to some
two years earlier, Confederate soldiers sales of enslaved people
opposed this amendment becoming as “a champion of the white South.”
hanged a young Black woman named and to publish ads for “runaways”
part of the Constitution, empowering He opposed the 13th Amendment,
Amy Spain on March 10, 1865 for in defiance of the
other elected officials to publicly oppose the 14th Amendment, and strict
“treason and conduct unbecoming a Emancipation Proclamation
it, too. 10 of the 11 former Confederate requirements for former Confederate
slave” because she aided Union troops. 1865
states rejected it. Congress had to impose states to re-enter the country.
military rule on the South and require Confederate Surrender Day
former Confederate states to ratify the Fort Pillow Massacre:
On April 9, 1865, the Confederate Army 262 Black Union
14th Amendment to get enough state
surrendered and the Civil War ended with soldiers murdered by
votes to add the 14th Amendment to
a Union victory on the battlefield. 14th
the Constitution. Confederate soldiers
Amendment
1864
JULY
1868
13th
Amendment
DECEMBER 15th
Transatlantic Slave 1865 Amendment
Trade becomes illegal Civil War begins
FEBRUARY
and Domestic Slave 1861
Confederate 1870
Trade emerges Army surrenders
1808 APRIL 9,
1865
1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880
Civil Rights Act
of 1866
The Emancipation Confederate
Proclamation issued soldiers hang 1866
SEPTEMBER Amy Spain
1862 MARCH 10,
1865FREEDOM TO FEAR 9
Guided Reading Questions:
Consider the following questions as you read the section Freedom to Fear.
Come back to them after reading.
FREEDOM · During Reconstruction, 2,000 Black men served in political office,
TO FEAR and white people murdered at least that many Black people in
racial terror lynchings. Why did white communities respond to a
period of heightened Black political participation with heightened
A Terrifying and Deadly Backlash violence against Black men, women, and children?
· After the Civil War, white Southerners could no longer extract
Black labor through enslavement and sought to "obtain their labor
“
by some other method." What methods were used to continue to
exploit Black labor after Emancipation?
The “wave of counter-revolutionary terror
that swept over large parts of the South between
1868 and 1871 lacks counterpart...”
—Historian Eric Foner
Definitions throughout the country. Whitecaps viewed
African Americans as economic competition
Howard University and Fisk
University
Organized aggression and demanded that Black people abandon Two of the nation’s first Black colleges
their land and give up their jobs. opened in the years after Emancipation.
A tactic of lawless mass murder, often in
In his 1867 annual message to Congress, the dark of night, used by white people to
Equal Rights Leagues
resist Black equality. This tactic was used Violence against Black schools
President Andrew Johnson declared that Black often by the Ku Klux Klan. Organizations formed by Black people and educators
Americans had “less capacity for government throughout the South to protest discrimi- White communities targeted Black
Ku Klux Klan natory treatment and ensure that Black education for violent retaliation. In 1870,
than any other race of people,” that they would An arm of white supremacist organizing
people had access to their new legal and white mobs in Tuskegee, Alabama burned
political rights. In 1867, their efforts helped
“relapse into barbarism” if left to their own devices, that functions like a terrorist cell. The Ku
to register 80% of eligible Black voters in 10
almost every school there, and a white mob
Klux Klan was created to terrorize Black in Calhoun County, Alabama lynched four
and that giving them voting rights would result people through violence and murder
of the 11 former Confederate states. Black men and murdered a white
in “a tyranny such as this continent has never targeted at those who supported Black
2,000
man in response to the growth of a local
civil rights. It used the same tactics as Black school.
yet witnessed.” other white supremacist organizations, like The estimated number of Black men who
the Knights of the White Camelia and the served in elected office in the 12-year Black land ownership
Pale Faces. Members of this organization period of Reconstruction, including 16 For centuries, African American agricul-
were called Klansmen. White elected in the U.S Congress and 600 in state tural labor enriched white Southerners
officials and police officers were often legislatures. and the national economy. Black people
members of the Klan. hoped emancipation would come with land
5%
ownership. President Andrew Johnson
Whitecaps The percentage of enslaved people who rescinded orders from Union army officials
Mobs of poor, white farmers who led a learned to read and write by 1863 despite that had granted land to Black people.
white terrorist campaign that began in state laws that prohibited it and the violent Instead, the President ordered that land
Indiana before spreading to Missouri and retaliation of white people who discovered given to former Confederates.
their ability to read and write.10 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA FREEDOM TO FEAR 11
Sharecropping
A new labor system that replaced slavery
South Carolina. Because he organized a
coalition to protect Black people’s freedom, People TIMELINE | 1860–1875
as the primary source of agricultural Klansmen lynched him, attacked other York County KKK
labor and Black exploitation in the South. Black residents, and burned down Black
By 1871 nearly every white male resident
people’s homes. Members of the mob SUMMER Police and neighbors in Duplin County, FEBRUARY 25, Senator Hiram Revels takes office as
Formerly enslaved people performed the of York County, South Carolina was a
same farming labor as during slavery in were taken to trial, during which at least
Klansmen. That same year, there were 1865 North Carolina murder six Black men 1870 the first Black U.S. Congressman
exchange for housing, often on the same one person confessed to the murder. Still,
at least 11 murders and 600 whippings
plantation and working for the family that no one was found guilty for Mr. Williams’ DECEMBER 24, Ku Klux Klan formed in Pulaski, Tennessee AUGUST White men lynch Black state legislator
and assaults of Black residents. Federal
had previously legally owned them. murder.
law enforcement called the violence 1865 1870 Robert Burke
a “carnival of crime not paralleled in the JULY 30, New Orleans Massacre (at least 200 victims)
1% Black Political Organizers
Lynched
history of any civilized community.” The 1866 1871 Klansmen in York County, South Carolina
The percentage of the more than 3 million white people who committed the violence murder 11 and assault more than
African Americans in the South who owned William Glasgow was an African American were not held accountable by the local
SEPTEMBER 5, Klansmen in Warren, Kentucky lynch 600 African Americans
former Union soldier who pledged to vote criminal justice system.
land by 1870.
in favor of Black rights in the upcoming 1868 William Glasgow and another African
Convict leasing election. As a result, Klansmen in Warren, Hiram Revels American Union veteran 1874 Rep. Robert Smalls elected to the
Kentucky lynched him in his home and U.S. House of Representatives to represent
A new source of labor created through the Senator Hiram Revels, a formerly enslaved Beaufort, South Carolina
then went to a nearby house and lynched man, was elected to represent Mississippi
SEPTEMBER White mob kills 7 and injures 30 African
criminal law. Southern states made certain
behavior criminal only when done by
another Black Union veteran. A few months in 1870, making him the first African 1868 Americans in Camilla, GA massacre
later, white mobs lynched John Kemp, an American to serve in the U.S. Congress. He
NOVEMBER Armed white men in Eufaula, Alabama
African Americans. They used those laws
to imprison and re-enslave Black people
active political organizer, in St. Helena was often introduced to audiences as the OCTOBER White mob kills 14 Black people in 1874 attack Black voters on Election Day,
using a loophole in the 13th Amendment.
Parish, Louisiana and Samson Weaver, the
13-year-old son of a prominent African
“Fifteenth Amendment in flesh and blood.” 1868 New Orleans Massacre on Canal Street murdering at least 6 people
That Amendment allows involuntary
American in Columbia, Florida. Samson’s Robert Smalls
servitude for prisoners, enabling states NOVEMBER Police kill 3 and injure at least 20 at a
father, Prince Weaver, had to flee town for
to force incarcerated people to work for
his safety.
Representative Robert Smalls, a formerly 1868 Savannah, GA polling location on Election Day Police kill 3 and
private industries for no pay under brutal enslaved man and one of the first African injure at least 20 at a White men lynch
conditions. The system has been called American pilots in the U.S. Navy, served Savannah, GA polling Black state legislator
Robert Burke Murdered OCTOBER 29, Klansmen in Georgia brutally attack
“worse than slavery” by historians. in the U.S. House of Representative to Robert Burke
Mr. Burke was a state legislator in Sumter represent Beaufort, South Carolina. As 1869 Congressman Abram Colby location on Election Day
AUGUST 1870
NOVEMBER
County, Alabama. When he organized a
Events meeting of local African Americans, white
a Congressman, he fought against racial
segregation. 1870 Klansmen in Chattanooga, Tennessee brutally
1868
Klansmen in
Klansmen in
York County, SC
men shot and killed him near his home. whip elected official Andrew Flowers
New Orleans Massacre White mob kills
Georgia brutally murder 11 and
John W. Fields attack Congressman assault more
Local Black men marched in support of Camilla, Georgia Massacre Police and neighbors 14 Black people in
Abram Colby than 600 African
the new state constitution that would A formerly enslaved African American who in Duplin County, NC New Orleans Massacre
In September 1868, the sheriff of Camilla, remembered the many ways enslaved Black OCTOBER 29, Americans
recognize Black rights. In response, a murder six Black men on Canal Street
GA refused to protect two Black politicians, people used to learn to read and write. 1869 1871
mob of white police officers and white SUMMER 1865 OCTOBER 1868
Colonel Pearce and Captain Murphy, who By the Civil War, nearly every Southern
residents formed and murdered and were threatened with violence if they
wounded at least 200 Black people. state banned Black literacy and the
accepted an invitation to speak at a public Ku Klux Klan Klansmen in Warren, Klansmen in Armed white men
possession of learning materials as a means
event. Pearce and Murphy refused to be formed in Pulaski, Kentucky lynch William Chattanooga, TN in Eufaula, AL attack Black
Abram Colby Attacked of maintaining white racial dominance.
Tennessee Glasgow and another brutally whip elected voters on Election Day,
intimidated and attended the public event. Some made it punishable by death.
Mr. Colby, a formerly enslaved A white mob attacked them in a massacre, DECEMBER 24, African American official Andrew Flowers murdering at least 6 people
African American, was a duly elected killing 7 Black people and wounding at Fort Pillow 1865 Union veteran 1870 NOVEMBER
Congressman. His election was due to the least 30 others. Massacre SEPTEMBER 5, 1874
votes of newly enfranchised Black men. 1864 New Orleans Massacre 1868
Because he was a Black elected official, Election Day in Savannah, GA (at least 200 victims) Senator Hiram Revels
the Ku Klux Klan brutally attacked and JULY 30, takes office as the
On election day in November 1868, Black White mob kills 7 and
whipped him for more than three hours. 1866 first Black U.S. Rep. Robert Smalls
men waiting in line to vote were accused of Amy Spain injures 30 African Americans
Congressman elected to the U.S.
blocking the door. Police responded, firing is hanged in Camilla, GA massacre
Andrew Flowers Whipped MARCH 10,
FEBRUARY 25, House of Representatives
into the crowd and killing Sam Parsons, SEPTEMBER
1870 to represent Beaufort, SC
Mr. Flowers was a Black man who defeated Peter Hopkins, and a third victim whose 1865 1868
1874
a white candidate to become the justice name is unknown.
of the peace in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Because he won, Klansmen whipped him Duplin County, North Carolina
and told him “they did not intend any Lynchings
nigger to hold office in the United States.” When six Black men tried to enforce their
1860 Emancipation 1865 Civil Rights 1870 1875
Proclamation issued Act
sharecropping agreement with the white 15th
James Williams Lynched SEPTEMBER 1866
land-owner, police officers joined armed 1862 Confederate Army Amendment
Mr. Williams was a formerly enslaved 13th 14th
white neighbors and murdered the six Civil War begins
surrenders FEBRUARY
Black man who lived in York County, Amendment Amendment
Black men. APRIL 9, 1870
1861 DECEMBER
1865 JULY 1868
1865DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION VIOLENCE 13
There is a lack of public
The Freedmen’s Bureau
memory about what is known
The Freedmen’s Bureau was a federal effort to
of Reconstruction-era violence provide formerly enslaved people with basic
and a lack of documentation
necessities and to ensure their rights. Though
understaffed and under constant political attack
that limits what can be known. by political opponents, local Bureau offices served
DOCUMENTING
as central community locations to report and
This erasure is possible because documents violence against Black people, to register
Black people to vote, to verify labor contracts
of white intimidation of Black
RECONSTRUCTION
between the formerly enslaved and their employers,
victims and witnesses; refusal to provide food and medical care, to establish schools,
and to perform marriages. White Southerners often
VIOLENCE of Southern newspapers to
document violence against
disregarded the authority of the Freedmen’s Bureau,
and this disregard made local Bureau offices targets
of racist violence. And in 1872, at the height of deadly
Black people; and failure today violence against Black people, Congress dismantled
Known and Unknown Horrors to make existing records readily
the Bureau. Today the Bureau’s records provide some
of the most detailed descriptions of Reconstruction.
available to the public.
“ Nor could any accurate body count or statistical
breakdown reveal the barbarity and depravity that
so frequently characterized the assaults made on
TIMELINE
freedmen in the [purported] name of restraining
their savagery and depravity...”
Racial Terror Michigan
MARCH
and Reconstruction
1863 Fort Pillow
Massacre
—Historian Leon F. Litwack 1864
State Snapshot
Wisconsin New York
1861 1863
During Reconstruction, there were
37 states. There was documented
racial terrorism against Black people
in at least 26 of them. This includes
all 11 of the former Confederate 1860
states, where the vast majority of Emancipation
Proclamation issued
African Americans lived. Civil War begins
SEPTEMBER
1862
186114 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION VIOLENCE 15
In 1862, New York voters elected Governor MAINE
Horatio Seymour, a strong supporter of
Southern slavery.167 A year later, a mob
of up to 3,000 people lynched a Black
man named Robert Mulliner in
Newburgh.168 Weeks later,
white mobs resentful
March 1863: White mobs in of the Union draft VT
Detroit waged violent attacks attacked and
on the Black community, killed dozens of
NH
MINNESOTA killing at least one Black people in
WISCONSIN Black man and leaving
UNITED
the New York City
1861: George Marshall Clark, hundreds of Black
OREGON a young Black man, was people homeless.163
Draft Riots.169 MA
lynched in Milwaukee after 1866: John Taylor NEW YORK
he and another Black man was lynched.164
CT RI
were accused of getting
STATES OF
into a drunken fight
with three white MICHIGAN DELAWARE
men who were PENNSYLVANIA NJ 1867: Black Union Army
also intoxicated. 1871: White mobs in Philadelphia veteran William “Obie”
terrorized Black communities Evans is lynched after being
accused of burning down a
AMERICA
on election day, killing at least
ILLINOIS three Black men.175 1874: white man’s barn. 153
February 1874: INDIANA
OHIO
IOWA Albert Brown was
Charles Wyatt 1871: George 1876: A mob of 50 lynched.176 MARYLAND
white men lynched a
NEBRASKA deemed “suspicious” Johnston, The site of violent and some-
for spending a $20 Squire Taylor, Black man identified only WEST times deadly racial terror during
by the name “Ulrey” in
NEVADA bill was arrested for and a man
Urbana, Champaign VIRGINIA Reconstruction. In Harford County
1865–1876
robbing and killing a identified by the a Black man named Isaac Moore
white woman. A lynch surname Davis County.172 1874: A mob
was lynched in 1868 and a
MISSOURI mob of over 400 were wrongly of 20 white men
Black man named Jim Quinn
abducted and
Many Black people white men seized accused of VIRGINIA was lynched in 1869.162
KANSAS were lynched in Charles Wyatt murder, and KENTUCKY lynched John
Missouri during the from jail, and lynched. 157
Racial violence in Taliaferro. 1869: a mob of white men
1869: Luke Barnes, James Ponder, and
CALIFORNIA Lee Watkins were arrested and accused of
Reconstruction era, hanged him at least 37 counties. abducted two Black men from jail
including George Bryan without Election day, 1870: one and hanged them without trial.181
killing a white man in Ellis County. Before
(Livingston County) in 1873; trial.156 white man and four Black people There are more than 120 incidents
they could be tried or defended, a white
mob seized the men from jail and hanged
Edmund Moore (Charleston were killed, 15 to 20 Black people NORTH of Reconstruction-era racial
County) in 1875; and Raphael were wounded. 160
violence in 40 Virginia counties.
them.159
Williams (Platte County) in TENNESSEE CAROLINA
1876.166 At least 200 incidents of racial The Ku Klux Klan and other white
terrorism took place in Tennessee, mobs exacted assaults and murder at the
ARKANSAS including a massacre in 1866 and slightest allegation during this era. 1869:
After a disagreement between a mass lynching in 1869. SOUTH A young Black man named Wright Woods
former Confederate soldiers was accused of expressing interest in a young
GEORGIA CAROLINA white woman, four white men abducted Mr.
and emancipated Black ALABAMA Georgia was the
South Carolina people living in a refugee Woods from work. After nearly a week a neighbor
Nearly 200 site of extensive found vultures surrounding his hanging corpse.170
camp, 24 Black men,
Abbeville County: New Orleans women, and children
Reconstruction-era racial violence during
victims of Alabama Reconstruction More
77 acts of racial violence Massacre were found dead,
racial violence have Racial violence by the Klan and other white mobs grew
hanging from than 300 acts of murder
against Black people on Canal Street so widespread and deadly during Reconstruction that it
Tennessee trees.151
been documented by and other attacks,
Klansmen TEXAS EJI. Perpetrators and including the November attracted federal investigation, led to passage of the 1871
Memphis Massacre within seven months OCTOBER MISSISSIPPI supporters were never 1868 massacre of Perry Ku Klux Klan Act, and caused President Grant to declare
in Georgia brutally Lynchings and other violence documented in Texas during martial law later that year.178 Freedmen’s Bureau records
1866 1868 1868 the Reconstruction era span more than 45 counties and
prosecuted. Some Jeffreys, his wife, and
attack Abram Colby went on to hold four sons. 155 document 77 acts of racial violence against Black people
include a deadly massacre in the Brazos County community within seven months in 1868—that amounts to a whipping,
elected office.150
Police and OCTOBER 29, of Millican in 1868. That July, after a local Black preacher rape, shooting, or lynching once every three days.
neighbors in Duplin 1869 White men lynch began organizing Millican’s Black community to defend itself
Arkansas Klansmen in Warren, KY Georgia Black state legislator against the growing threat of Klan violence, Klansmen fired on
Many Black men killed in Reconstruction violence
County, NC murder a group of Black people investigating a rumored lynching. LOUISIANA
MARCH lynch William Glasgow NOVEMBER Robert Burke Klansmen in Over the next two days, hundreds of white men from neighboring
were targeted for exercising their political rights.
six Black men During Reconstruction, In Columbia County in 1869, a politically active
1866 and another African 1868 Virginia AUGUST 1870 York County, SC
towns terrorized the local Black community and dozens more
Black people in Mississippi Black man named Lisher Johnson was abducted
SUMMER 1865 Black victims were killed. Scholars today estimate
by a white mob and never seen again. The next
American Union veteran 1869 Kentucky murder 11 and assault 150 Black people were killed but the exact were the targets of repeated
Michigan death toll remains unknown. 180 massacres, including in FLORIDA year in the same county, another Black man
SEPTEMBER 5, 1868 1870 Klansmen in more than 600 Repeated massacres occured in places like Colfax, Vicksburg in December 1874, named Robert Jones was shot and killed
1866 Delaware Opelousas, New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish, Orleans where white mobs attacked in his home after a white man threatened
Florida North Chattanooga, TN African Americans
1867 Illinois Parish, and West Feliciana Parish. Hundreds of Black people and killed at least 50 Black him for voting for pro-Reconstruction
Amy Spain 1869 Carolina brutally whip 1871 Missouri were killed and countless more traumatized in order to suppress citizens who had organized to candidates.154
Texas 1874
is hanged 1873 Black voting rights. EJI has documented more than 1,000 lynchings protest the removal of their elected
161
Massacrein the 1869 Andrew Flowers West and other incidents of racial violence in Louisiana during the 12-year Black sheriff, Mr. Peter Crosby.165
MARCH 10, Wisconsin Reconstruction period; this exceeds the number of racial terror lynchings
Brazos County 1870 At least Virginia
1865 1866 Pennsylvania documented in the state during the 80-year period that followed
Florida 2,000
community of Millican Kansas 1874 1876 Reconstruction.
New Orleans 1870 Pennsylvania Black victims
JULY 1868 1869
Massacre (at least 1871 Ohio
Tennessee 1865–1876 Mississippi Missouri
200 victims) Indiana 1875 1876 Missouri
MAY 1, 1865 Maryland Maryland Tennessee DECEMBER
JULY 30, 1866 1871 1876
1868 1869 1869 1874
1865 13th 1870 Senator Hiram
1875 1880
Civil 14th Rep. Robert Smalls
Amendment Revels takes office Armed white men
Rights Act Amendment Police kill 3 and elected to the U.S. At least
DECEMBER FEBRUARY 25, in Eufaula, AL attack
Confederate 1866 JULY 1868 injure at least 20 House of Representatives Black voters on 4,400
1865 15th 1870
Army surrenders Ku Klux Klan Camilla, GA at a Savannah, GA to represent Black victims
Amendment Election Day, murdering
formed in Pulaski, TN massacre polling location Beaufort, SC 1877–1950
APRIL 9, at least 6 people
1865 DECEMBER 24, SEPTEMBER on Election Day FEBRUARY 1870 1874 NOVEMBER 1874
1865 1868 NOVEMBER 1868THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 17
Guided Reading Questions:
Consider the following questions as you read the section The Danger of Freedom.
Come back to them after reading.
THE DANGER OF · What actions by white community members, public officials, and
journalists created the false stereotype of innate Black criminality
FREEDOM and a presumption of Black guilt?
· What was the goal of the domestic terrorism that Black men,
women, and children experienced during Reconstruction?
For all that we can never know about the countless
undocumented acts of violence and unknown Definitions preferably by burning. This book espoused
widely held beliefs about the necessity of
included beating a Black man named
Wesley Givens and threatening to lynch him
victims, the narratives we do know illustrate the Economic exploitation lynching to maintaining white supremacy. if he did not leave town within eight days.
suffering and survival of a people who had already After Emancipation, there was white
Election Day in Philadelphia
endured so much.
resistance to the rights of Black people to
choose where to live and when and where
Events Despite violent threats from white police
to work. This resistance was often violent. Guilford Coleman Lynched officers and mobs in the days before
“
King Davis, a formerly enslaved man was the election, many Black men exercised
Mr. Coleman was a Black delegate to the their constitutional right to vote anyway.
killed for trying to leave the land where
Alabama state convention. Because he On Election Day, a white man murdered
he had been enslaved. Stephen Bryant, a
was a political leader advocating for Black
[There exists] a desire to preserve slavery in its formerly enslaved man, was handcuffed
rights, he was beaten and dumped into
Octavius Catto, an African American
and beaten by a white farmer for leaving the activist and Union veteran, who was on
original form as much and as long as possible... plantation without the farmer’s permission.
a well. his way home after voting. The killer was
later acquitted by an all-white jury. At least
The [white] people...still indulged in a lingering Jack Dupree Lynched
Racial social boundaries two other Black men Isaac Chase and
hope that slavery might yet be preserved….A large After the Civil War, white people used
Mr. Dupree was the well-respected Black Jacob Gordon, were killed in acts of voter
president of a local political club in suppression.
proportion of the many acts of violence committed violence to maintain the social etiquette of Monroe County, Mississippi. Because of
slavery. Black people could be attacked or
is undoubtedly attributable to this motive. killed for violating any social rule as defined
his political involvement, 60 Klansmen Ed and Jinny Scott Attacked
beat him, slit his throat, and cut out his
by any white person at any time. This A white man hit Jinny Scott in anger that
intestines before throwing his body into
—Carl Shurz in a report to the U.S. Congress included not stepping off the sidewalk for a she, her husband, and the Black couple
a creek.
white person or arguing with a white person. they were with did not step off the sidewalk
for two white men. Her husband, Ed Scott,
Joe Cody Attacked
Massacres came to her defense. In response, a white
Mr. Cody was an African American mob seized and tortured him. It is unclear
White resentment to Black equality often resident of Warren County, Georgia. if Jinny Scott ever saw her husband again.
erupted into lawless bloodbaths that left During the 1868 election, white residents
many Black people dead and injured demanded that he vote for the pro-white Sexual Assault of Rhoda Ann
and destroyed Black property. This mass supremacy candidate. Because Mr. Cody Childs
violence was treated with impunity and refused, a white mob kidnapped and
intentionally mislabeled as riots even Eight white planters came to Mrs. Childs
whipped him and pulled out his hair.
though mutual combat was rare. home looking for her husband. Finding her
alone, they kidnapped, beat, and sexually
Racial terror in Lewisburg,
The Truth About Lynching and Tennessee
assaulted her. The mob then returned to
the Negro in the South her home and attacked her daughters.
In January 1868, a mob of 25 white
A book published in 1919 advocating men terrorized the Black community to
for the periodic lynching of Black men, intimidate Black voters. This terrorism18 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 19
TIMELINE | 1860–1875
Sexual Violence Against Black Women Anti-Black sentiment outside the South
In addition to the shared threat of lynching for all Black People in the North worried that Emancipation would MARCH White men in Unionville, South Carolina 1868 White mobs in Abbeville attack and injure
people, Black women were more likely to suffer sexual bring a wave of Black people to their states. Iowa, Illinois, 1865 lynch Saxe Joiner African Americans to intimidate them from voting
violence as a form of racial dominance. Southern state and Oregon took steps to outlaw Black migration into the
legislatures passed laws that treated sexual assault of Black state. Black people in the North endured random acts of 1866 200 white men in New York City lynch a JANUARY White men in Lewisburg, Tennessee violently
women differently than that of white women, and law violence, including more than 100 murders by white mobs in
Black teenager named John Taylor 1868 terrorize the local Black community
enforcement would refuse to carry out arrest warrants for New York City in July 1863; a presumption of guilt when a MAY FEBRUARY
White mob seizes Tom Conyers on his way Motivated by President Andrew Johnson’s
white men accused of raping Black women. crime was discovered; and retaliation against Black men for 1866 to court and hangs him 1868 opposition to rights for Black people, the
exercising their constitutional right to vote. House of Representatives issues articles of
MAY 1-3, White mob kills at least 46 African Americans impeachment against him
Opelousas, Louisiana
1866 in Memphis Massacre
There were hundreds of racial terror lynchings in Louisiana Memphis Massacre FALL White men massacre over 200 in Opelousas,
during Reconstruction. The deadliest took place in Over three days in May 1866, white mobs beat, robbed, SEPTEMBER 8 white men sexually assault Rhoda Ann Childs 1868 Louisiana to suppress Black voters
Opelousas as a form of voter suppression leading up to the tortured, shot, raped, and killed Black men, women, and 1866
1868 election. White mobs murdered more than 200 Black children at random. Black homes, churches, and schools 1867 White lynch mob in Georgetown, Colorado 1869 White mob in Orange County, North Carolina
hangs Edward Bainbridge hangs Cyrus Guy
people and several white people who were sympathetic to were burned down. Local police officers joined the
Black rights. The mob also destroyed the printing presses of violence as “murderers, incendiaries, and robbers...they SEPTEMBER Armed white men in Robinson Spring, Florida
SEPTEMBER A white man assaults John Henry Hill because
the one local newspaper that was pro-Reconstruction, and even protected the rest of the mob in their acts of violence.” 1867 Mr. Hill insisted on being paid for his work 1869 attack Black people having a picnic
killed the white male editor of the paper. No white people were ever held accountable.
1868 Joe Cody lynched in Warren County, GA 1870 Guilford Coleman lynched in Alabama
for voting for political leadership
200 white men White mobs in White men lynch
in New York City lynch Abbeville attack White men in Lewisburg, Over 200 1871
Black state legislator
Jack Dupree lynched in Monroe County,
Mississippi for political activity
Sexual Assault of Harriet Simril Robinson Spring, Florida a Black teenager and injure TN violently terrorize local massacred in Robert Burke
named John Taylor African Americans Black community Opelousas, LA to AUGUST 1870
Three white men in Columbia, South Armed white men opened fire on a group of
Carolina raped Harriet Simril because 26 Black men, women, and children who were 1866 8 white men 1868 JANUARY 1868 suppress Black voters
FALL 1868
1871 3 white men sexually assault Harriet Simril
her husband did not vote for white having a picnic. A man and a 2-year-old child sexually assault Klansmen attack
supremacist candidates. were killed. Rhoda Ann Childs Police kill 3 and Congressman OCTOBER 10, White mobs in Philadelphia murder Octavius
Joe Cody
Six Black men SEPTEMBER lynched
injure at least 20
(Savannah, GA)
Abram Colby (Georgia) 1871 Catto, Isaac Chase, and Jacob Gordon for
Retaliation against Daniel Blue
People
murdered 1866 in Warren OCTOBER 29, voting in the mayoral election
(Duplin County, NC) NOVEMBER Armed white men 1869
Daniel Blue testified against Klansmen County, GA
attack Black people
SUMMER White mob seizes 1868
in North Carolina. In retaliation, a mob of John Taliaferro 1868 having a picnic AUGUST 29, White men in Tennessee set Dan Calhoun on
1865
1873
Klansmen murdered his pregnant wife and Tom Conyers and hangs him
Mr. Taliaferro was a white man who particip- (Robinson Spring, FA) Guilford fire while he is sleeping near a railroad station
their five children. MAY 1866 New Orleans
ated in mass violence against African White lynch SEPTEMBER Coleman lynched
Massacre on Canal Street
Americans in Noxubee County, Mississippi. mob in 1869 in Alabama SUMMER
Trenton, Tennessee Mass White men White mob OCTOBER 1868 Large crowd in Hancock County, Indiana
Lynching
He later testified before Congress about the in Unionville, SC
Georgetown, CO
kills at least 46 African hangs Edward
1870 1875 gathers to witness public spectacle lynching
violence, saying that the goal was to terrorize lynch Saxe Joiner Americans in Memphis Bainbridge of William Kemmer
White men abducted 16 Black men from Black people into fleeing the land they were William Glasgow Klansmen in York County,
MARCH Massacre Jack Dupree
jail and riddled their bodies with bullets. Six 1867 and another African SC murder 11 and Large crowd in
working and re-entering exploitative work 1865 MAY 1-3, 1866 Klansmen lynched (Monroe
of the Black men were left on the side of American assault more than 600 White men in Hancock County, IN gathers
conditions under white planters. A white man brutally whip County, MS)
the road, and the other ten were drowned Union veteran African Americans Tennessee set to witness public spectacle
assaults Andrew Flowers
Fort Pillow lynched 1870 3 white men 1871 Dan Calhoun on fire lynching of William Kemmer
in a nearby river. The local newspaper New Orleans (Chattanooga, TN)
John Henry Hill
Massacre Massacre SEPTEMBER 5, sexually assault while he is sleeping SUMMER 1875
defended the mob, saying that if allowed to SEPTEMBER 1870
1864 JULY 30, 1866 1868 Harriet Simril AUGUST 29, 1873
live, the Black men would have committed 1867
1870
violence.
Prince Edward County, Virginia
Four Black women were singing in their 1860 Emancipation 1865 13th Civil
H. of R. issues articles
of impeachment against
1870 White mobs 1875
home when a white man demanded they Proclamation issued Amendment Rights Act Cyrus Guy
Senator Hiram in Philadelphia Armed white men
Amy Spain Pres. Andrew Johnson Rep. Robert Smalls
stop singing. The women refused, and SEPTEMBER DECEMBER 1866 is hanged
Revels takes office murder Octavius attack Black voters,
is hanged FEBRUARY 1868 elected to the
the man entered the house and severely 1862 1865 Ku Klux Klan 1869
MARCH 10, 15th FEBRUARY 25, Catto, Isaac Chase, U.S. House of
murdering at least
beat them. Civil War begins formed in Pulaski, TN Camilla, GA and Jacob Gordon 6 people (Eufaula, AL)
1865 Confederate Amendment 1870 Representatives to
1861 Army surrenders DECEMBER 24, 14th Amendment massacre OCTOBER 10, NOVEMBER
FEBRUARY represent Beaufort, SC
APRIL 9, 1865 1865 JULY 1868 SEPTEMBER 1871 1874
1870 1874
1868RECONSTRUCTION’S END 21
Guided Reading Questions:
Consider the following questions as you read the section Reconstruction's End.
Come back to them after reading.
Many slavery abolitionists believed in ending enslavement but were
RECONSTRUCTION’S not committed to racial equality.
END · What consequences did this have for formerly enslaved people?
· What should federal, state, and local governments have provided
to Black Americans to end the racial hierarchy created by
enslavement? What remedies would have repaired the harm
“
white supremacy inflicted upon Black people?
The whole South—every state in the South—had
got us into the hands of the very men that held us
as slaves.
—Henry Adams, formerly enslaved man in Louisiana
Definitions Amnesty Act of 1872
After the Civil War, federal law prevented
yielded 13 volumes of first-hand testimony
of brutal violence. This violence was often
Union League former Confederate troops and supporters targeted at Black political, social, and
“
from voting or holding public office. The community leaders.
A Black-led organization founded in 1863
to support African American participation in Amnesty Act removed those restrictions
Alabama Election of 1874
politics, education, and social efforts. The for most former Confederates.
Through violence, threats, terror, and fraud
The white men of the South need now have no Union League met secretly due to threats by
the Ku Klux Klan. 12 against Black voters, the white supremacist
further fear that the [federal powers] will ever The number of large scale massacres in ticket won the election of 1874 in Alabama.
again give themselves over to the vain imagination Southern Redemption the South during the period of Southern This ended Reconstruction in the state, and
Redemption from 1872 to 1876 that EJI former Confederate leaders took power in
A political movement to restore white
of the political equality of man. supremacy as the foundation of life in has documented. the legislative and executive branches.
the South. Many white businessmen and
11 Colfax Massacre
—John W. Burgess, a Southern Redeemer wealthy planters were advocates of this
movement. These Redeemers intimidated Between 1885 and 1908, all 11 former On Easter Sunday 1873, Black people
Black voters and disrupted elections; dis- Confederate states rewrote their state protested fraudulent election results. In
rupted pro-civil rights political gatherings; constitutions to restrict Black voting response, 300 white people attacked
and supported racial violence by groups rights. It was part of an effort to legalize them. At least 150 African Americans
like the Ku Klux Klan. During this movement, white supremacy. As John B. Knox of were killed, including approximately 50
violence against Black people intensified. Alabama said, “if we would have white who surrendered, were taken prisoner,
supremacy, we must establish it by law— and later executed by the white militia.
Ku Klux Klan Act not by force or fraud.” A judge ruled that the federal law used
This law allowed the federal government to to prosecute members of the mob was
unconstitutional because federal law
prosecute civil rights violations as federal
crimes and allowed individuals who had Events could not protect Black people from the
violence of private individuals.
their rights violated to sue in federal court. 1871-1872 Congressional
It was one of few meaningful forms of legal investigation Compromise of 1877
protection for the formerly enslaved. The
In a 10-month long investigation, Congress- There was a dispute over which party’s
Supreme Court later declared this law
men traveled through the South collecting candidate won the necessary number
unconstitutional.
information about racial violence. This22 RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA 23
of Electoral College votes in the 1876
presidential election. A bipartisan
Confederate States of America. In an
earlier case, he had voted that Black
Confederate General James L.
Kemper TIMELINE | 1860–1877
commission decided that Rutherford people could not be American citizens. In 1874, General James L. Kemper
B. Hayes would become president in became the Governor of Virginia. As
exchange for ending Reconstruction Confederate Colonel James 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act passed to enforce Black rights;
Governor, he declared that “the political
and returning Southern political power Milton Smith later struck down by Supreme Court
equality of the races is settled, and the
to the Southern Redeemers. Because of the Amnesty Act, James social equality of the races is a settled
Milton Smith was no longer prohibited impossibility.” 1872 Supreme court decides Slaughterhouse Cases,
People from holding public office. In 1872, he
became the Governor of Georgia and
striking down federal laws to protect Black people
John Archibald Campbell rolled back the progress that Black
A former Supreme Court Justice who Georgians had won under Reconstruction 1872 Amnesty Act allows former Confederates to
vote and hold political office
retired from the Court to help run the administrations.
APRIL 13, White mob in Louisiana murders at least
1873 150 African Americans in Colfax Massacre
JANUARY Reconstruction ends with the legal and
Slaughterhouse Cases 1877 military abandonment of African Americans
in the South
In 1872, the United State Supreme Court ruled on a series of cases about the
14th Amendment. These cases were brought by Redeemers who wanted to
Ku Klux Klan Act
limit federal protections for Black people. Former Supreme Court Justice John
passed to enforce Black rights;
Archibald Campbell represented the Redeemers. In its decision, the Court held later struck down by
White mob in Louisiana
that the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship, civil rights, and due Supreme Court
murders at least
process, only applied to a short list of rights. Because that list did not include 1871
White men in 150 African Americans
many of the rights being denied to Black people in the South, this decision Lewisburg, TN violently Supreme Court in Colfax Massacre
White mobs in
struck down federal laws designed to protect the formerly enslaved. The 200 white men terrorize local White men lynch decides Slaughterhouse APRIL 13,
Abbeville attack
in New York City lynch Black community Over 200 Black state legislator Cases, striking down 1873
Ku Klux Klan Act was one of these laws. This was the 13th Court decision in and injure
a Black teenager JANUARY 1868 massacred in Robert Burke federal laws to protect
seven years that eliminated federal protections for Black people. African Americans
named John Taylor Opelousas, LA to Black people
1868 AUGUST 1870
1866 suppress Black voters 1872 Reconstruction
8 white men
FALL 1868 ends with the legal
sexually assault Amnesty Act allows
United States v. Cruikshank Rhoda Ann Childs Police kill 3 and
Klansmen attack and military
Congressman former Confederates
Joe Cody abandonment of
In 1870 and 1871, Congress passed a series of Enforcement Acts to respond to the Six Black men SEPTEMBER injure at least 20 Abram Colby (Georgia) to vote and hold
lynched African Americans
murdered 1866 (Savannah, GA) OCTOBER 29, political office
racial terror faced by Black people. White Southerners challenged these laws in Warren
Armed white men
in the South
(Duplin County, NC) NOVEMBER 1869 1872
as unconstitutional. They wanted courts to rule that the 14th Amendment only County, GA JANUARY 1877
1868 attack Black people
SUMMER White mob seizes 1868
protected people from state action and that it could not be used to address the having a picnic
1865 Tom Conyers and hangs him
(Robinson Spring, FA) Guilford
violent behavior of private persons. On March 27, 1876, the United States Supreme MAY 1866
White lynch
New Orleans Coleman lynched
SEPTEMBER Klansmen in
Court agreed with them, severely limiting the power of the 14th Amendment. Massacre on Canal Street in Alabama
mob in 1869
White men White mob OCTOBER 1868 York County, SC
In doing so, the Court upheld a lower court decision that the white mob who Georgetown, CO 1870
in Unionville, SC kills at least 46 African hangs Edward murder 11 and assault
murdered 150 Black people in the Colfax Massacre could not be prosecuted lynch Saxe Joiner more than 600 Large crowd in
Americans in Memphis Bainbridge
MARCH William Glasgow African Americans Hancock County, IN gathers
under federal law. After this ruling, the Department of Justice dropped 179 Massacre
1867 Jack Dupree
1865 and another African Klansmen lynched (Monroe to witness public spectacle
MAY 1-3, 1866 1871 White men in
prosecutions of violence against African Americans in Mississippi alone. American lynching of William Kemmer
A white man brutally whip County, MS) Tennessee set
Union veteran Andrew Flowers 3 white men SUMMER 1875
assaults 1870 Dan Calhoun on fire
Fort Pillow New Orleans lynched (Chattanooga, TN) sexually assault
John Henry Hill while he is sleeping
Massacre Massacre SEPTEMBER 5, Harriet Simril
SEPTEMBER 1870 AUGUST 29,
1864 JULY 30, 1866 1868 1870
1867 1873
1860 Emancipation 1865 13th Civil
H. of R. issues articles
of impeachment against
1870 White mobs 1875
Proclamation issued Amendment Rights Act Cyrus Guy
Senator Hiram in Philadelphia Armed white men
Amy Spain Pres. Andrew Johnson Rep. Robert Smalls
SEPTEMBER DECEMBER 1866 is hanged
Revels takes office murder Octavius attack Black voters,
is hanged FEBRUARY 1868 elected to the
1862 1865 Ku Klux Klan 1869
MARCH 10, 15th FEBRUARY 25, Catto, Isaac Chase, U.S. House of
murdering at least
Civil War begins formed in Pulaski, TN Camilla, GA and Jacob Gordon 6 people (Eufaula, AL)
1865 Confederate Amendment 1870 Representatives to
1861 Army surrenders DECEMBER 24, 14th Amendment massacre OCTOBER 10, NOVEMBER
FEBRUARY represent Beaufort, SC
APRIL 9, 1865 1865 JULY 1868 SEPTEMBER 1871 1874
1870 1874
1868You can also read
