The Colfax Massacre

LeeAnna Keith talked about her book The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction, published by Oxford University Press, USA. In her book Ms. Keith documents the Colfax Massacre of April 13, 1873, in which 150 members of the all-black Republican militia were killed by a mob of white supremacists in Colfax, Louisiana. Ms. Keith recounts the subsequent Supreme Court case, United States v. Cruikshank, that overturned the conviction of eight of the conspirators and according to the author discounted the Ku Klux Klan Enforcement Acts that made it a federal offense to intimidate voters and officeholders. Ms. Keith contends that the Colfax Massacre and its fallout brought an end to Reconstruction and the beginning of the Jim Crow era. She responded to questions from members of the audience.

This event of the Georgia Center for the Book was hosted by the Carter Library in Atlanta. close