FORGOTTEN HISTORY, part one

FORGOTTEN HISTORY, part one

As great nationalists, Americans have proclaimed in 1868 a day to commemorate those who have died in the nation’s wars. But when are we going to acknowledge and honor the African American victims who, since the end of the Civil War, have seen themselves struck off the schoolbooks? In this article I would like to briefly talk about the cruelest riots that have resulted in the death of an avalanche of African American civilians, and the destruction of their businesses and homes. 

New York 1863: the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 created a lot of disagreement between the cotton merchants and the city's workforce. As the conflict progressed, many politicians and news outlets warned workers, mostly of German and Irish descent, that emancipation would cause many of them to lose their jobs and be replaced by former black slaves from the south of the country. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Enrollment Act created discontent for two main reasons: the integration of African Americans as free men into society, and the exemption of black individuals from military service because they were not considered American citizens. On July 13th, a horde of workers, mostly Irish, stormed the military and government buildings and then unleashed their ire on the Colored Orphan Asylum, which housed 200 children, looting and setting fire to it. Whites in charge of the port areas railed at their African American colleagues, destroying the shops from which they were supplied and attacking the owners of the aforementioned. Furthermore, the alarming number of African American civilians beaten and lynched to death with unprecedented brutality on the city streets should be remembered. To calm the unrest, troops who had taken part in the battle of Gettysburg were sent reluctantly by the leaders of the time, and ended the attacks on July 16th. The result of this chaos was 3,000 black people left without a roof over their heads, and about 1,200 deaths (despite the official number released by the press being 119). 

New Orleans 1866: in a city where former White Confederates and former Union veterans now men freed from slavery lived together, there was great difficulty in accepting the integration of African Americans and guaranteeing them the right to vote. The Louisiana State Constitutional Congress of 1864 extended more rights to black people, but was unable to guarantee the extension of suffrage. Progressive republicans tended to abolish the Black Codes or Black Laws, a set of laws that regulated the African American population considered inferior to the white one, while conservative Democrats did not believe it was necessary to make changes to the constitution approved by citizens (who were only white being the only ones with the right to vote). On July 27th 1866, supporters of the convention proposed a march in support of the cause from the steps of the Mechanics Institute. When congressmen left the building they were greeted by African American citizens accompanied by a band. They were soon met by an armed group of former Confederates, who feared the breakdown of white supremacy and the economic rise of African American communities. The massacre was brutal and resulted in approximately 40, 50 black civilians killed and 150 wounded. 

Memphis 1866: following the civil war and the takeover of the city by Union forces, Memphis became a haven for refugees of color seeking protection from their masters. Tennessee was also regulated by the Black Codes and the impoverishment of the workforce in the fields following the liberation of blacks from slavery, prompted the white military, mostly Irish at the time, to take them into custody and force them to accept employment contracts on plantations. The black soldiers and the Freedmen's Bureau tried to warn their brothers by talking about the disadvantages and injustices to which those contracts subjected them. Tensions flared up when Memphis Central Police Command used Union soldiers to patrol the city. There were many racial disputes that broke out between the white police force and black soldiers, and the latter were arrested much more frequently and brutally threatened, unlike the white counterpart. Rumors circulated among the Irish military regarding the organization of a riot by the black population, following the facts described above. On the afternoon of April 30th a street fight broke out between three black soldiers and four Irish policemen, which led to the separation of the groups and the rapid spread of the news throughout the city. On May 1st 1866 a group of soldiers together with women and children gathered in a public area for an impromptu party. White policemen were sent to dismember the group, even though they were outside their jurisdiction, and the result was open fire against the partying group. Officer Stevens accidentally hit himself in the leg when he drew his gun, charging the black soldiers with blame for what happened. More armed police officers were sent to the scene resulting in the death of Officer Finn. The news was greeted with great anger by the white population, despite the deaths of far more black soldiers at the hands of Irish policemen. Failing to get the support of the military militia, in the evening of the same day, the whites gathered in a group and razed schools, churches and homes of the black population to the ground, killing civilians without distinction. The next day the attacks by whites resumed who continued to torture and destroy the black population and their possessions throughout the day. General Stoneman stated that the African American population did not respond with aggression, but that they struggled to survive the repeated attacks. It was Stoneman himself, after some hesitation, who stopped the violence by declaring martial law on the afternoon of May 3rd. The outcome was 46 dead blacks and 2 whites, 75 black people injured and 100 robbed, 5 women raped, 91 houses burned along with 4 churches and 12 schools. 

St Bernard Parish 1868: in October 1868, Louis Wilson, a free man and recognized as a citizen thanks to the 14th amendment, went to his home located in the parish of St Bernard on the outskirts of New Orleans. During the crossing along the Mississippi he was stopped by white men on horseback, who ordered him to dismount and then hit him in the face with the butt of the rifle. He was loaded into a van along with other black men captured before him, and taken to a makeshift prison camp. That same evening, Wilson and some prisoners were led out of their cells, lined up and battered by gunfire. All died except for Wilson who managed to drag himself to a nearby cane field. He hid for three days until he felt he was out of danger. In the following days, hordes of white men invaded the parish eliminating more than a hundred African American victims. 

Camilla 1868: following the expulsion of 33 African American members from the Georgia General Assembly, Philip Joiner took charge of several hundred free slaves, and some white supporters, who marched 25 miles from the city of Albany, Georgia, to to the city of Camilla, to take part in a political demonstration in the square of the courthouse. The sheriff and the local city commission of the white-majority county warned the protesters saying they were ready to push them back with violence, and urged them not to come armed. The participants refused to hand over their weapons, which according to the constitution they could possess by right, and were greeted by a group of local whites who, without hesitation, opened fire. Up to fifteen black people lost their lives and about forty were injured. In the following weeks, African American communities in the countryside faced intimidation and violence from whites, who were threatened with death if they went to the polls during the elections. 

Opelousas 1868: in 1868 some former African slaves of Opelousas prepared to join the Democratic group in Washington, Louisiana. They were pushed back by the whites, and the supremacists from the city of Opelousas went to Washington to forcibly drive them out. Following the events, Emerson Bentley, a white teacher, wrote an article on the violence of the supremacists of the Seymour Knights calling on black Democrats to remain loyal to the Republican party. Bentley was attacked and beaten to death by three white men during class, and fled to seek refuge in the north of the country. Rumors of Bentley's killing circulated, and some African-Americans from the surrounding areas grouped together to march to the county seat. They were welcomed by groups of armed whites who, due to legal restrictions on the possession of weapons to African Americans, found themselves in considerable military advantage. The whites imprisoned 29 black men who were executed except for two. Whites continued to attack St Landry Parish for weeks, killing African Americans on the streets. The estimate of the dead has been a subject of debate for centuries, but in 2012 the count was of around 200-250 civilians between September 28th and November 3rd. 

Colfax 1873: fearing that White Democrats might take over the local parish government, some African Americans formed trenches around the courthouse for three weeks. On March 28th, the white democratic forces organized themselves to take control of the courthouse, establishing the first day of April as the date of the attack. Fire was opened between the 2nd and the 5th of April, with no dramatic results given the imprecision of the shots fired, and a peace plea was reached between the two factions. That deal ended when a white man killed a black citizen, Jesse McKinney, described as a bypasser. Unrest in the community led African American women and children to join their men in search of protection. Despite threats from the white troops commanded by Nash, the black counterpart refused to leave the courthouse and was vilified by the anti-republican current and by Nash himself. Nash assembled a group of white paramilitary from the parishes of Catahoula, Rapides and Winn who reached the courthouse with guns and a cannon on April 13th. The white men were more than 300, on horseback and all armed with rifles. Nash ordered the black community to leave the courthouse, and gave the women and children thirty minutes to evacuate the area. Armed attacks followed their removal. While Nash and his allies set up the cannon behind the palace, at least sixty black men fled in fear into the local woods and threw themselves into the river. Nash commissioned men on horseback to follow them, and most of the black Republicans were killed. Nash ordered to set the roof on fire and, at that point, the African Americans declared surrender using makeshift white flags. The Nash-led group ordered the refugee republicans in the courthouse to lay down their weapons and what happens next is still uncertain. But it is certain that unarmed black men were killed, and those who fled also met the same end and many of the corpses were thrown into the Red River. About 50 blacks survived and were imprisoned only to be executed that same evening; only Levi Nelson escaped. It has never been possible to estimate the exact number of deaths, but the massacre was of unprecedented brutality. 81 African American dead were identified and estimated that between 15 and 20 bodies were thrown into the river, and at least another 18 buried secretly. 

Vicksburg 1874: during the Reconstruction, despite the hatred imparted by the Black Codes, there were numerous advances by African Americans towards political fairness. In the 1870s Peter Crosby, formerly a slave, was elected sheriff of the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was shortly after falsely accused of criminal conduct and removed from office by some white supremacists. In December 1874 some African American citizens decided to help Crosby regain his role as sheriff. Armed groups of white men violently attacked and killed the opposition, resulting in the arrival of federal troops in the city which put Crosby back in the office. The estimate of black people who lost their lives is between 75 and 300. In early 1875 a white man, J.P. Gilmer, was assigned as Deputy to Sheriff Crosby. Crosby's attempts to remove Gilmer from office resulted in a gunshot wound to the head at the hands of Gilmer. He was arrested for tentative murder, but the case was never brought to trial. Crosby did not fully recover from his injuries and was forced to terminate his service through a white citizen representative. 

Eufaula 1874: in 1874, the White League formed a group of white paramilitary who had become deeply rooted in the parish of Grant, and in the parishes adjacent to the Red River in southern Louisiana. The group was founded by the white military that had participated in the Colfax massacre in 1873. A group very similar to the White League were the Red Shirts which originated in Mississippi and then became active in North and South Carolina. Their targets were black Republicans who were barred from assembling, and African American civilians who were persecuted and intimidated into abstaining from voting. During the elections of November 3rd 1874 armed members of the White League invaded Eufaula and ambushed the African-American voters as they walked along Broad Street. About 40 black Republicans were killed, at least 70 injured and more than a thousand ousted from the polls. The White League moved to Spring Hill where they destroyed the ballot boxes, and killed the 16-year-old son of a white Republican judge. The White League refused to legitimize the votes of the Republicans, who represented mostly black voters, and declared the Democrats victorious despite losing by a few votes. Republican politicians were forced out of office and Democrats took control of every office in Barbour County in a coup d'état. 

Clinton 1875: with the opening of polling stations on November 2nd 1875 the Republican Party of Mississippi organized the first political rallies in Utica, Clinton, and Vernon in September. In the city of Clinton, entire African American families gathered at Moss Hill, site of an old plantation that was destroyed by Union troops in the Vicksburg campaign of 1863. Among the two thousand people of color, there were about seventy whites, eighteen of them armed and part of the Mississippi Democratic Party. Fisher, a former Unionist officer, invited the Democratic Party representative to take the podium first and, at the conclusion of his speech, Fisher was cruelly mocked by some members of Raymond's White Shirts. The Republican organizers demanded that a polite and peaceful tone be maintained, but the White Shirts lined up in formation brandishing their weapons, and attacked the participants. At least three whites and five blacks were killed. Following rumors of a plan by African Americans to launch an attack on the city, the mayor of Clinton called the White Shirts to help. Hundreds of them caught up with Clinton and shot any Afro-American in their path on sight. About fifty civilians died. 

Thibodaux 1887: in the early 1880s, following the decline of the sugar cane trade, workers saw pay replaced by tickets that could only be redeemed in company outlets which held high profit margins. Most of the workforce, illiterate and unable to leave the plantations, was subjected to a condition similar to slavery. In October 1877 Kenner, a millionaire, founded the Louisiana Sugar Producer Association (LSPA) and became its president. The association withheld 80% of employees' wages until the end of the harvest season, causing a three-week strike organized by the Knights of Labor. The demands of the workers included an increase in hourly wages and payment in cash and not in tickets. The LSPA ignored these urges and, in response, the workforce stopped the production process on the plantation threatening the outcome of a full year of harvest. Judge Taylor Beattie announced the formation of a "peace and order commission" in Thibodaux. He enlisted 300 white men to serve the commission, and ordered blacks stationed in outlying areas to show a pass to get in and out of the city. Bettie ordered the paramilitary to close the entrances to the city on November 22nd. Two of the pickets were wounded causing the attack by the commission and vigilantes at the expense of black workers and their families. The massacre lasted three days and the attacks were aimed at unarmed African Americans. The casualty estimate to date is at least 50 civilians. 

Wilmington 1898: during the last decade of the nineteenth century, more than 50% of Wilmington's population was made up of African Americans, many of them from the growing middle class. The social growth of the black community created racial tensions and disagreements. The collapse of Freedman's Bank led to the financial loss of many African American citizens, who began to distrust the banking system. As if that weren't enough, the annual interest rate on loans granted to African Americans was 15% versus 7.5% of that charged to whites and deferred payments were not granted to people of color. To avoid the sale of their businesses, blacks had to hand over ownership to creditors. They were also viewed with much resentment by the poor white population lacking the working skills of blacks, who were consequently less and less required to be part of the workforce. In the same years the political party of the Fusionists took charge of various social and economic reforms that would have favored the African American population, thus causing the discontent of some prominent figures (the Secret Nine) of Wilmington. The president of the Democratic party Simmons built a political campaign around the theme of white supremacy, allying himself with the Secret Nine. During the White Supremacist Convention on October 28th 1898, Waddell's speech inspired supremacist groups to the point that many of them, including the Red Shirts, violently terrorized African American civilians and their white supporters by destroying property, ambushing them at gunpoint, and kidnapping them from their homes to whip them at night. The intent was to frighten the Republicans into abstaining from voting. During the November 8th elections, many blacks and Republicans did not turn up for fear of further violence. Following the electoral fraud, the Secret Nine drafted a document calling for the removal of the right to vote for African Americans, which they named "the White Declaration of Independence". Alfred Waddell read the Declaration to the crowd sympathizing with the positions of the white supremacists. Waddell and supporters gave African American citizens 12 hours to comply with the new Declaration. The Citizens of Color Commission was called to a meeting at the courthouse with orders to ensure that African American citizens obey the new regulation. The men left the courthouse to go to the David Jacob’s barbershop and write a response to Waddell's ultimatum, which was duly received at Waddell's home but never read, for some mysterious reason, within the prescribed time limit. On November 10th, 500 armed white men stormed the press office of Manly, the African-American editor-in-chief of The Daily Record already on the run from Wilmington, other African-American-owned newspapers, property, businesses combined with the killing of African-American civilians. The massacre ended with the death of nearly 300 people of color and the exile of at least twenty of them.

Martina.