The April 13, 1873 Colfax Massacre in Louisiana took the lives of between 60 and 150 African Americans. The Massacre was the most costly of a series of armed action by the White League and other white supremacist groups in 1872 and 1873 to deprive Blacks of political participation. Like the Battle of Liberty Place, the Colfax Massacre was celebrated by the whites-Only Louisiana governments of the late-19th and early-20th Century. Below is the historical marker in Colfax that told the story of the mass killing:
That official marker was on site from 1951 until 2021.
The new monument is seven feet tall and includes the names of the known victims of the slaughter. 57 names of those killed are listed, although historians believe that others were also murdered but because their bodies were thrown into the nearby Red River they are unknown. Men known to have been wounded are also listed. The photo below from the Colfax Memorial Organization shows Avery Hamilton and Charles Dean Woods flanking the new monument. The two men led the effort to construct the Colfax Massacre Memorial. Avery Hamilton is a descendent of the first man murdered during the massacre and he was the first to start the project.
Woods said he got involved because he wanted his Black granddaughter to learn about her history. He told reporters; “We can’t just sit back and talk about things; we have to act and move the needle forward on justice for all people, regardless of race or ethnicity or national origin. And these are things that I want people who hear about this story to recognize and to examine in their own lives and their own hearts.”
When people ask me what the Colfax Riot was really over, I direct them to the old monument in a local cemetery honoring the two white men killed in the Massacre. It says it was “ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE HEROES…WHO FELL IN THE COLFAX RIOT FIGHTING FOR WHITE SUPREMACY.” While some contemporary Lost Cause ideologues claim that white violence during Reconstruction was a response to corruption, at the time it occured the former Confederates who engaged in the violent terrorism were explicit that their main goal was to end Black participation in our democracy.
The new monument was dedicated last week before a large crowd on the 150th Anniversary of the Colfax Massacre.
