The ruthless slaughter was the bloodiest single-day death toll of the
Reconstruction era.

'Long Overdue': Black men killed in infamous Colfax
Massacre commemorated on new monument

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Esther Schrader     Read the full piece here

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Friend,

In a bold swap engineered by a Black man and a white man working
together, reckoning has come at last to Colfax, Louisiana.

It was 150 years ago in the rural parish seat that scores of Black
citizens trying to protect their right to vote were shot, stabbed,
brutally beaten and, in at least one case, burned to death by white
supremacists in what has become known as the Colfax Massacre
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.

The ruthless slaughter on April 13, 1873, was the bloodiest single-day
death toll of the Reconstruction era and may have forever changed the
course of the nation. When attempts by federal authorities to
prosecute the murderers failed, prospects that newly emancipated
people would achieve the full rights of citizenship in the U.S. were
diminished for generations.

This month the Rev. Avery Hamilton, whose
great-great-great-grandfather was the first Black man murdered in the
rampage, and Dean Woods, whose great-grandfather was part of the
paramilitary force that left the courthouse grounds soaked in blood,
dispelled the ghosts of their family histories to achieve some measure
of justice for the victims of the Easter Sunday massacre. They
presided over the unveiling of a monument
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to the victims.

The memorial, which the two men conceived and shepherded, is their
answer to a racist, blatantly dishonest historical marker the state of
Louisiana put up in 1951. That marker glorified the murderous rampage
as "the end of carpetbag misrule in the South." Thanks to
the efforts of Woods, following years of attempts by Hamilton, it was
yanked out two years ago

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Read More

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Sincerely,

Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The SPLC is a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond,
working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
all people.

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