The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal
of Reconstruction
Charles Lane
African American History
266 pages
copyright: 2008
isbn: 0-8050-8342-1
Southern blacks viewed the three post–Civil War constitutional amendments as
guaranteeing them equal protection under the law. Yet postwar dreams of
equality would be dashed during Reconstruction. Much of that failure traces
back to the Colfax Massacre. During Reconstruction, white supremacist groups
such as the KKK used violence to prevent southern blacks from exercising their
legal rights, and elections were deeply influenced by the de facto
disenfranchisement of terrified blacks. After one disputed election, a group of
black Republicans peacefully occupied the courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana. A
white vigilante mob gathered, and on April 13, 1873, they attacked the
courthouse, setting it and gunning down those who fled. Blacks who surrendered
were executed, with the death toll reaching 60. The outraged U.S. attorney,
James Beckwith, sought to convict the killers but got no cooperation from
Colfax’s white community, and little help from blacks, who
feared further reprisals. Charles Lane expertly describes the legal
proceedings against nine whites, charged by Beckwith with federal crimes. In
the end, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Colfax killers were subject
only to state law: "the Supreme Court had decreed," summarizes Lane, "that the
Negroes must look to the states for protection." Predictably, the white
defendants were freed by state authorities, and southern states began to
restrict rather than protect civil rights. The federal government would not
interfere with Jim Crow for nearly a century.
------------------------------------
Have you told a friend today? http://bookcrossing.com/tellafriend
Archives and email list settings:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BookCrossing
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BookCrossing/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BookCrossing/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
