Colfax Riot Memorial for Whites Killed
Posted by: 
kwashnak
N 31° 31.165 W 092° 42.699
15R E 527377 N 3487204
Marker erected for the three whites killed in the Colfax Massacre (Colfax Riot depending on the era) for the cause of white supremacy. Located in the local cemetery.
Waymark Code: WM8XQB
Location: Louisiana, United States
Date Posted: 05/28/2010
Views: 11
To mark the 1873 race riot regarding Reconstruction government in Grant County where three white citizens and around 60 black citizens were killed. Citizens erected this monument in the local cemetery to commemorate the three white men killed.
"Erected to the memory of the heroes,
Stephen Decatur Parish, Jame West Hadnot, Sidney Harris,
who fell in the Colfax Riot fighting for white supremacy
April 13, 1873"
An excellent example, along with the "Colfax Riot" Historic Marker, of how history in the antebellum period was written on the landscape by one side of the conflict.
The event represented the nadir of relations between the Republican elected government, which represented and included many of the newly freed slaves as new voters, and the Democratic slate of local and state elected officials who represented the whites opposed to enfranchisement of the freed slaves. The resulting court case, charging a number of the white league members ended up in the Supreme Court, whose decision that charges could be brought upon the state but not individuals for violation of civil rights marked the beginning of the end of Reconstruction and the start of renewed white rule and Jim Crow laws in the south.
Civil Right Type: Race (includes U.S. Civil Rights movement)
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