The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction

by LeeAnna Keith

On Easter Sunday, 1873, in the tiny hamlet of Colfax, Louisiana, more than 150 members of an all-black Republican militia, defending the town's courthouse, were slain by an armed force of rampaging white supremacists. The most deadly incident of racial violence of the Reconstruction era, the
Colfax Massacre unleashed a reign of terror that all but extinguished the campaign for racial equality.
LeeAnna Keith's The Colfax Massacre is the first full-length book to tell the history of this decisive event. Drawing on a huge body of documents, including eyewitness accounts of the massacre, as well as newly discovered evidence from the site itself, Keith explores the racial tensions that led to
the fateful encounter, during which surrendering blacks were mercilessly slaughtered, and the reverberations this message of terror sent throughout the South. Keith also recounts the heroic attempts by U.S. Attorney J.R. Beckwith to bring the killers to justice and the many legal issues raised by
the massacre. In 1875, disregarding the poignant testimony of 300 witnesses, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in U.S. v. Cruikshank to overturn a lower court conviction of eight conspirators. This decision virtually nullified the Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871--which had made
federal offenses of a variety of acts to intimidate voters and officeholders--and cleared the way for the Jim Crow era.
If there was a single historical moment that effectively killed Reconstruction and erased the gains blacks had made since the civil war, it was the day of the Colfax Massacre. LeeAnna Keith gives readers both a gripping narrative account of that portentous day and a nuanced historical analysis of
its far-reaching repercussions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, Race

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Rebekah Gyger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's attention to detail and understanding of the larger cultural and political picture surround the Colfax Massacre is astounding. Yet I found it difficult to follow at many points because how large the scope was, mentioning so many names and giving the history's of so many different people that I had a hard time keeping all the information straight in my head. While the information is important to the history as a whole, the Colfax Massacre does not come into the picture until well after the half-way mark, with most of the first half focused on the Calhoun family's history in the area.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing job of having a really powerful thesis without actually defending it until the last few pages with any zeal. A shocking event in US history with well-described effects, but still the author could have opened the book up with some sort of explanatory piece on the event and its effects before going into 100 pages of background that - in the end - is important, but feels aimless. Glad I read it, and the scholarship is excellent.

[Rhuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise but good accounting of the Reconstruction massacre at Colfax, Louisiana, and its repercussions. There is much backgrounding on Red River history, and of the Calhoun family, which may seem like padding but is necessary to those unfamiliar with the region or context. "I have never seen in my life a condition of society similar," a U. S. officer is quoted on p. 150, "a community not to be judged by any other." The Red River region was likely the most lawless spot in the US at the time, a "Wild West" and civil war combined. Louisiana did more than any other state to upend Reconstruction, Red River was its focal point, and this tragedy its ground zero.

While the White Plan in Mississippi was instrumental in the larger political overthrow of Republican state governments, the legal decisions in the Colfax case determined the impunity with which local reaction could undermine Federal enforcement. When the Supreme Court weighed in that it did not have jurisdiction to intervene unless the 13th and 14th Amendments had been broken beyond the most narrow interpretation, the floodgates of counter-Reconstruction swept the program aside. A business-as-usual mindset - as in postwar Germany - ensured that Washington would look the other way as "war criminals" segued back into power.

The impunity would last well into the 20th century. The white community at large, and its "natural" leaders, staked their identity on its bloody outcome; the stains were seen as honorable and patriotic as those of any other war. Locals may have inflated its importance, but it did play a role as prominent as the discreet silence now surrounding its legacy. She also describes the tragedy of William Calhoun, plantation scion who embraces the radical cause and a mixed marriage, only to succumb to the violence of the times and desert both.

Keith does an overall good job "reconstructing" the context of time and place, and outlining the dynamics of the massacre itself. One of the most prominent protagonists was, of course, William Ward, commander of the Grant Parish Militia, a "black militant" in today's terms. By stiffening the freedmen's backbone he helped outrage the violent-prone culture of Red River until the name became more than metaphor. This work forms part of the hidden history "they never taught you in school"; why civil rights was never enforced til a hundred years, not ten, after the civil war.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short, readable essay reveals many remarkable elements from the early days of voter suppression in Louisiana. In particular, the vigor of the multi-racial Republican coalition in the few years it thrived before being violently suppressed by the organized vitriol of white supremacy. However, the sad legacy of white supremacist voter suppression is amply explored, and the legacy of these voter suppression tactics, with its pernicious effects upon the entire American political scene is disturbingly adumbrated in the following passage (page 164):

White supremacists had grown tired of election season violence and manipulations. In particular, they shrank from the ongoing need to falsify election returns in a state where 44 percent of registered voters were black. "It is true that we win elections," an editor of the conservative New Orleans Times-Democrat wrote in the 1890s, "but at a heavy cost, and by the use of methods repugnant to our idea of political honesty and which must, in time, demoralize the people of Louisiana."

Indeed, the demoralization and endemic corruption of the political process in Louisiana and across all the deep-south states of the old Confederacy has long infected the politics of the nation as a whole. This demoralization will only be successfully addressed as a nation when we are able to eliminate it in the remaining strongholds of white supremacy. Secure voting rights for African Americans in every state will usher in an era when Americans can count on the popular will becoming the dominant influence in politics nation-wide.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violence, as famous military theorist Carl von Clausewitz said, is a “…true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, carried on with other means.” Through this perspective, we see a struggle to achieve political dominance that culminates with the Colfax Massacre. The deliberate use of violence leading up to the battle aimed to compel and intimidate to grab political power away from the radical white Republicans and their African American supporters. This political discourse by other means shifted power back towards white Southerners and prompted former slaves to take up arms to protect their right to vote. The split vote in the 1872 election stymied the political process leading to the standoff at the courthouse. It was, however, the subsequent trials and Supreme Court decision in the U.S. vs. Cruikshank, not the massacre, which allowed for the re-establishment of white dominance. Reconstruction ended with the Supreme Court decision. Southern whites were then able to rewrite the narrative casting African Americans as the aggressors in the conflict. Not until the aftermath of World War II were African Americans viewed as victims in this struggle. In this view, white supremists used the violence at Colfax for political purposes is what to restore of white power in the South resulting in the broader racial stratification in the United States.

Overall, the book reminded me of Clausewitz in its prose. The thesis was difficult to discern making it a slog for such a short book. Overall, this was a piece of American history that I was completely unfamiliar with.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those like myself who were largely educated outside of the USA and whose knowledge of post civil war events is largely confined to the fictions of Hollywood any book like this which puts into a broad historical context the start of the oppressions that American blacks struggles against for over a century is a revelation. I will admit that it is not gracefully written and is a struggle at times but the story it has to tell is to important not to ignore deficiencies in style.

[Missy · Rating 2 out of 5]

hard to read - as in, the author kept jumping back and forth in the narrative and people weren't introduced very well, so it was hard to keep track of who was who.

the story is vitally important, i just wish there was a better written account of it.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very hard read but also worth it!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic telling of the Colfax Massacre and the events that lead to its occurrence. Keith's greatest ability is as a storyteller, weaving fact with seamless and engaging material. The book begins with Meredith Calhoun's slave driving, his son's retribution through abolition and suffrage, and the white supremacists and Democrats hell bent on using violence, coercion, and deception wrangle control of Louisiana's state government. The culmination at Colfax was once heralded as the end of Reconstruction but now stands as further rebellion against a Union (even after the Civil War) working toward progress within a region tormented and emboldened by frustrating tradition and racism.

[Sandra D · Rating 3 out of 5]

The print was tiny, the writing somewhat dry, and the events described were at times complex and difficult to follow, but this story of a violent collision of race and politics seems especially timely during this election season -- when fear, anger, and heightened emotions sometimes threaten to spill beyond the edge of reason.

[Remington Krueger · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a disgusting topic. It's tough to accept the events depicted in the book could have ever been considered ok. The book's constant use of changing persons made it tough to follow (keep track of who was who) throughout the mid portion of the work ~pp.50-110~. However, the scholarship is excellent and the book as a whole presents a great account of the event.

[Emmie Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening historical account

Well researched documentation of a historical event. It describes an ugly part of United States history, that many have tried to deny or rewrite. Facts and truth need to be faced to truly heal and become the nation the majority of its citizens want.

[Mark Cheathem]

Could have used more analysis, but a good narrative treatment of the Colfax Massacre.

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book about tragic event during Reconstruction, good read for history student or fan.

[Elizabeth Albrecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it incredibly strange that this story was told through the lens of one of the white people that played a minor part in this massacre. Interesting overall, boring and drawn out at times.

[Erin Mcnaughton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening!