Attacking the Dream: 7 major race massacres in US history
2. Colfax – 1873
During Reconstruction, a group of armed white supremacists attacked a courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, that was being guarded by a mostly black militia as part of ongoing political strife.
The confrontation, which had been part of the fallout from a contentious gubernatorial election the year before, occurred on April 13, which happened to be Easter Sunday.
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Although the militia surrendered to the white mob after they aimed a cannon at the courthouse, the white men proceeded to open fire on the African American militiamen.
“By the time Louisiana state militia arrived on April 14, an estimated 150 people had been killed — an exact count was made difficult by the hiding of many of the bodies. Nearly all the dead were African American, while only three were white,” according to History.com.
“The Colfax Massacre is believed to be the deadliest single incident of racial violence of the Reconstruction period, though it was by no means the only one.”
