Category: White Terror
Historians Greg Downs and Kate Masur on How the Current Crisis Reflects Our Reconstruction Past
This has been a busy three weeks for historians being asked by news organizations for comparisons between the current political situation and the Reconstruction Era….
Heather Cox Richardson on the Republican Party in the Civil War & Reconstruction Era
Heather Cox Richardson did a gajillion-part series on the history of the Republican Party on Facebook Live over the summer. The first five hours cover…
Political Violence and the Suppression of the Black Vote in 1868
Over the last month I have been researching political violence during the lead-up to the Election of 1868. This is remembered today as the year…
Podcast on the 1898 White Supremacist Coup that Took Control of Wilmington, N.C.
In 1898 the Redshirts, a White Supremacist paramilitary organization operating in the Carolinas, staged a coup in which they took over North Carolina’s second largest…
The Plan to Suppress the Black Vote in South Carolina Revealed!: Election 1876
General Martin W. Gary was a Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War commanding cavalry. He had served in Hampton’s Legion and he had refused…
“A dead Radical is very harmless” How to Win the Election of 1876
The Election of 1876 is most well-known for what happened after the polls were closed. Fraudulent and delayed vote counts, rival state tallies of votes,…
When the White League Militia Took Over New Orleans in 1874 It Pledged to End the “Stupid Africanization” of Government
The White League was one of the largest and most dangerous of the Reconstruction Era militias. It embraced the worldview of the Ku Klux Klan,…
Washington Post on the Dangerous Life of a Black Politician in Reconstruction Georgia
The Washington Post has an interesting article on a Black politician who risked assassination to represent freedpeople in Georgia. Here are some excerpts from the…
In 1868 the Republican Campaign Song Promised That Grant Would “Make the Ku Klux Klan Shiver”
While modern political campaigns typically employ popular music at rallies as walk-on music for candidates, in the 19th Century most campaigns came armed with a…
How Terror Succeeded in Louisiana: Racial Violence and the Election of 1868 in One State
One of the few bright spots for Democrats in the 1868 Presidential Election was the State of Louisiana. 71% of votes tallied were for the…