In May of 1874 the Opelousas Courier newspaper fell under the control of the White League. The newspaper, whose first issues came out long before the Civil War, now devoted itself to spreading the gospel of White Supremacy. Except for the ads, nearly the entire paper was devoted to White League news, Racist philosophy, and calls to arms in defense of White ascendancy.
Opelousas is in St. Landry Parish in Louisiana. Beginning almost immediately after the end of the Civil War, the parish was the scene of racially inspired violence. Terrorist groups like the Knights of the White Camellia and the Ku Klux Klan organized there in the late 1860s. A massacre of African Americans terrified the freed people there in 1868.
Until this year, I was unaware that The Courier had relinquished editorial control to the White League. This shows the power of the League and it allows us to read about its self-fashioned public face without the filter of journalism. While I will come back to The Courier in the future to look at specific events, today I want to look at one issue of the paper.
The issue I picked was from July 11, 1874. According to the leading spokesman of the group, the League was founded on July 1. I have found mentions of the League several months earlier than July, and The Courier itself became the group’s mouthpiece in May, but the first week of July was considered seminal among White Leaguers.
Here is the notice in the July 11, 1874 issue announcing that the newspaper’s editorial content was under the control of the White League. This notice was placed in the first column of the paper every issue for months.
Also on the front page was a long poem, a parody of Hamlet’s soliloquy in the play Hamlet. Please note, there is extensive use of racist terms in this poem.
The paper published brief accounts of many meetings of the new White League from throughout the state. In this account of the June 28, 1874 of the meeting of the Lafayette White League the resolutions passed included the call for a White political party.
The Republican Party is commonly referred to as the “Negro Party” in the resolutions passed at the local meetings and conventions.
The final column I will post is the most mundane. It is merely notices of different parish White League meetings. Not much beyond a few sentences. What is notable is that there were many meetings going on across the state during just one week.
The July 4th issue of The Courier contained a notice that there would be a “public meeting of the white citizens” being held on July 4th.
White supremacists during reconstruction did not just operate in the shadows. They also used mass media to win converts to the cause of the restoration of white power over African Americans.
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Hi Patrick,
I just discovered your blog by reviewing many of the same primary sources. You’ve done an amazing job, there’s so much information here! I just wanted to point out one interesting bit from your last snippet from the Opelousas Courier. “The object of the White League was stated by M. J. Foster Esq. after which a club was organized…” The M.J. Foster Esq mentioned is late Senator Governor Murphy James Foster Sr. He got his start in politics by recruiting for the white league. He was a dedicated white supremacist that initially sought the mass disenfranchisement of black voters through an amendment to the constitution. When that failed, he called a constitutional convention to make the changes.
Thanks. I did not make that connection.
I am glad you are finding the blog here useful.