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Colfax Massacre

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On April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, a group of white men (including members of the White League and the Ku Klux Klan) clashed with members of Louisiana's almost all-black state militia at the local courthouse. The cause of the battle was ostensibly a contested local election, though racism and partisan politics were significant factors as well. The massacre would show that much work still needed to be done with Reconstruction, as well as eventually lead to a Supreme Court case, ''United States v. Cruikshank.

"The bloodiest single instance of racial carnage in the Reconstruction era, the Colfax massacre taught many lessons, including the lengths to which some opponents of Reconstruction would go to regain their accustomed authority. Among blacks, the incident was long remembered as proof that in any large confrontation, they stood at a fatal disadvantage. "The organization against them is too strong. ..." Louisiana black teacher and legislator John G. Lewis later remarked. "They attempted (armed self-defense) in Colfax. The result was that on Easter Sunday of 1873, when the sun went down that night, it went down on the corpses of two hundred and eighty negroes." (p. 437 Foner Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 and KKK Hearings, 46th Congress, 2d Session, Senate Report 693 and Joe G. Taylor, Louisiana Reconstructed, 1863-1877 (Baton Rouge, 1974), p. 268-70.)

Contents

Events Leading to the Massacre

The problems began in the November 1872 elections. Columbus C. Nash ran for parish sheriff as a Fusionist. Alphonse Cazabat, Nash's attorney, ran for local judge. James Hadnot, a Democrat and Knights of the White Camelia leader, ran for parish recorder. The Republican candidates were R.C. Register (an African-American) for sheriff and Daniel Shaw (a white man) for judge.

The election results were inconclusive and both sides claimed victory. During the last weeks of his term, Governor Warmoth commissioned the Fusionist candidates for all offices. In January 1873, Nash, Cazabat, and Hadnot entered the Colfax courthouse and took office. After the new Republican Governor Kellog took office, Fusionist officials sent two Republican attorneys to New Orleans to confirm Nash's, Cazabat's, and Hadnot's positions. At first Kellogg accepted the Fusionist candidates, but changed his mind suddenly and without explanation and put the Republicans Register and Shaw into office. Shortly thereafter, Register, Shaw, and William Ward (a leader of a local group of black carpetbaggers) led a group of blacks and climbed into an open window of the courthouse and began their occupancy.

Local whites responded immediately. They began mobilizing and spread rumors that local blacks had initiated a "reign of terror" and were roaming the countryside with the intent to "exterminate" all white people they found. A recent event was used to justify these rumors; on April 1st, a group of blacks sacked the home of attorney William Rutland (who was, in fact, one of the atttorneys sent to talk with Governor Kellogg). Nobody was hurt, but the body of Rutland's dead daughter (who had recently drowned) was dumped out of her casket. This event only gave more support to local whites who wanted to prove that blacks were dangerous.

However, the ones really in danger were blacks. During the first days of April, stories began to spread of the group of whites marching towards the Colfax courthouse and hassling blacks in the surrounding countryside. As these stories spread, black people left their homes and converged on the courthouse for safety. On April 5th, J.R. Payne, a special deputy from a nearby community, attempted to negotiate a peace with Ward and the others. However, word had reached Ward that a black farmer was shot dead while innocently mending his fence. Ward decided that negotiations would be impossible. He returned to the courthouse and prepared for the inevitable confrontation.

The Massacre

The fighting began shortly after noon on April 13th. The number of armed white men was over three hundred, and they were led by Nash. He began by ordering those in the courthouse to leave; that failed, so he gave the women and children camped outside of the courthouse thirty minutes to clear out. After they left, the shooting began. The fighting continued for several hours with few casualties. Nash eventually managed to maneuver a cannon behind the building, which put even more pressure on the defenders and caused some to panic. About sixty defenders ran into the nearby woods and river. Nash sent men after these fleeing blacks and most were killed on the spot. Later on, the besiegers convinced an elderly black captive to sneak into the courthouse and set it on fire. After this occurred, the defenders displayed white flags: one made from a shirt, the other from a page of a book. The shooting stopped.

Nash's group approached and called for the defenders to throw down their weapons and come outside. As the whites approached, though, two of them were shot down. It is not clear who shot them, though. White witnesses would claim, of course, that the black defenders did it. An autopsy revealed, however, that at least one of the men was shot by friendly fire (the bullet wound was in his back, meaning he would to have been running backwards towards the courthouse to be shot by any of the defenders).

Angered by these deaths, Nash's men slaughtered many of the defenders at the courthouse. Many of the murdered blacks were found to be unarmed. Some bodies were hidden or dumped into the Red River; many of the recovered bodies had been mutilated. About fifty blacks survived the afternoon's killing and were taken prisoner. The prisoners were told they were going to be taken to a local jail, but were executed later that night. Only one man, Benjamin Brimm, survived; he was shot in the head but somehow lived and managed to crawl away unnoticed. He would later serve as one of the government's chief witnesses against those who were indicted for the massacre.

The next day police and federal troops arrived from New Orleans. They calculated the death toll at 105, though an exact number will never be known because many of the bodies were buried or hidden. Many of the men responsible for the deaths fled or hid, and various government forces would spend weeks trying to round them up. In the end, only nine men were arrested, and they were charged with the murder of only one man. Among those arrested was William J. Cruikshank.

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