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Reconstruction Report RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA RECONSTRUCTION 122 Commerce Street Montgomery, Alabama 36104 334.269.1803 eji.org RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876 © 2020 by Equal Justice Initiative. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, modified, or distributed in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without express prior written permission of Equal Justice Initiative. RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865-1876 The Memorial at the EJI Legacy Pavilion in Montgomery, Alabama. (Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser) 5 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 6 THE DANGER OF FREEDOM 56 Political Violence 58 Economic Intimidation 63 JOURNEY TO FREEDOM 8 Enforcing the Racial Social Order 68 Emancipation and Citizenship Organized Terror and Community Massacres 73 Inequality After Enslavement 11 Accusations of Crime 76 Emancipation by Proclamation—Then by Law 14 Arbitrary and Random Violence 78 FREEDOM TO FEAR 22 RECONSTRUCTION’S END 82 A Terrifying and Deadly Backlash Reconstruction vs. Southern Redemption 84 Black Political Mobilization and White Backlash 28 Judicial and Political Abandonment 86 Fighting for Education 32 Redemption Wins 89 Resisting Economic Exploitation 34 A Vanishing Hope 93 DOCUMENTING RECONSTRUCTION 42 A TRUTH THAT NEEDS TELLING 96 VIOLENCE Known and Unknown Horrors Notes 106 Acknowledgments 119 34 Documented Mass Lynchings During the Reconstruction Era 48 Racial Terror and Reconstruction: A State Snapshot 52 7 INTRODUCTION Thousands more were assaulted, raped, or in- jured in racial terror attacks between 1865 and 1876. The rate of documented racial terror lynchings during Reconstruction is nearly three In 1865, after two and a half centuries of brutal white mobs and individuals who were shielded It was during Reconstruction that a times greater than during the era we reported enslavement, Black Americans had great hope from arrest and prosecution. White perpetra- century-long era of racial hierarchy, on in 2015. Dozens of mass lynchings took that emancipation would finally mean real free- tors of lawless, random violence against for- lynching, white supremacy, and big- place during Reconstruction in communities dom and opportunity. Most formerly enslaved merly enslaved people were almost never held across the country in which hundreds of Black people in the United States were remarkably accountable—instead, they frequently were cel- otry was established—an era from people were killed. willing to live peacefully with those who had ebrated. Emboldened Confederate veterans which this nation has yet to recover. held them in bondage despite the violence they and former enslavers organized a reign of terror Tragically, the rate of unknown lynchings of had suffered and the degradation they had en- that effectively nullified constitutional amend- Most Americans know very little about the Re- Black people during Reconstruction is also al- dured. ments designed to provide Black people equal construction era and its legacy. Historians have most certainly dramatically higher than the protection and the right to vote. frequently overlooked this critical 12-year pe- thousands of unknown lynchings that took Emancipated Black people put aside their en- riod that has had profound impact on life in the place between 1877 and 1950 for which no slavement and embraced education, hard work, In a series of devastating decisions, the United United States. Our collective ignorance of what documentation can be found. The retaliatory faith, and citizenship with extraordinary enthu- States Supreme Court blocked Congressional happened immediately after the Civil War has killings of Black people by white Southerners siasm and devotion. By 1868, over 80 percent efforts to protect formerly enslaved people. In contributed to misinformed stereotypes and immediately following the Civil War alone likely of Black men who were eligible to vote had reg- decision after decision, the Court ceded control misguided false narratives about who is honor- number in the thousands. istered, schools for Black children became a to the same white Southerners who used terror able and who is not and has allowed bigotry priority, and courageous Black leaders over- and violence to stop Black political participa- and a legacy of racial injustice to persist. EJI presents this report to provide context and came enormous obstacles to win elections to tion, upheld laws and practices codifying racial analysis of what happened during this tragic public office. hierarchy, and embraced a new constitutional In 2015, the Equal Justice Initiative issued a period of American history and to descibe its order defined by “states’ rights.” new report that detailed over 4,400 docu- implications for the issues we face today. We The new era of Reconstruction offered great mented racial terror lynchings of Black people believe our nation has failed to adequately ad- promise and could have radically changed the Within a decade after the Civil War, Congress in America between 1877 and 1950. dress or acknowledge our history of racial in- history of this country. However, it quickly be- began to abandon the promise of assistance to justice and that we must commit to a new era came clear that emancipation in the United millions of formerly enslaved Black people. Vio- of truth-telling followed by meaningful efforts States did not mean equality for Black people. lence, mass lynchings, and lawlessness en- to repair and remedy the continuing legacy of The commitment to abolish chattel slavery was abled white Southerners to create a regime of racial oppression. We hope this report sparks not accompanied by a commitment to equal white supremacy and Black disenfranchise- much needed conversation and encourages rights or equal protection for African Ameri- ment alongside a new economic order that communities to join us in the important task of cans and the hope of Reconstruction quickly continued to exploit Black labor. White officials We now report that during the 12- advancing truth and justice. became a nightmare of unparalleled violence in the North and West similarly rejected racial year period of Reconstruction at and oppression. equality, codified racial discrimination, and oc- casionally embraced the same tactics of violent least 2,000 Black women, men, and Bryan Stevenson, Director Between 1865 and 1876, thousands of Black racial control seen in the South. children were victims of racial ter- women, men, and children were killed, at- ror lynchings. tacked, sexually assaulted, and terrorized by 9 I don’t believe in the colored race being slaves ‘cause of their color, but the war didn’t make time much better for a long ” time. Some of them had a worse time. —Ms. Liney Chambers, formerly enslaved in Tennessee2 uring the Transatlantic Slave Trade, an estimated 10.7 million African men, JOURNEY TO women, and children were kidnapped and sold into captivity in North America, D 3 South America, or Central America. An estimated two million more people died during the brutal voy- FREEDOM 4 age across the Atlantic Ocean. Though enslave- ment existed in other parts of the world, the unique Emancipation and Citizenship system that developed in the United States be- came a racialized caste system rooted in a false but violent and persistent idea of racial difference.5 Chattel slavery in this country permanently de- prived the enslaved of any legal rights or autonomy Just before the war, a white preacher, he and permitted their violent economic exploitation. “ come to us slaves and says: “Do you want to keep your homes where you get all to eat, Enslavement in the English colonies persisted after and raise your children, or do you want to be the Revolutionary War and the creation of the free to roam around without a home, like the United States. Indeed, as the United States laid the wild animals? If you want to keep your foundation for its experiment in freedom and homes you better pray for the South to win. democracy, it also oversaw and benefitted from the All that wants to pray for the South to win, kidnapping, human trafficking, lifelong bondage, raise your hand.” We all raised our hands and complete dehumanization of African people—a ‘cause we was scared not to, but we sho’ system of enslavement repeatedly enforced by the didn’t want the South to win. nation’s courts, political institutions, core docu- ments, and most revered founders. —Mr. William M. Adams, formerly enslaved in Texas1 10 11 In 1808, Congress banned the international slave trade and halted the trafficking of African Union and Confederate States, 1861-1865 FREEDOM TO JOURNEY people to the country6 but did nothing to end enslavement within the nation’s borders. This I resulted in a large unmet demand for enslaved n 1860, just a year before the start Black people, especially in territories like Mis- of the Civil War, enslavement was sissippi and Alabama that were gaining state- an entrenched and growing system, hood and attracting white settlers with far from dying out or fading on its agricultural ambition. own. The Domestic Slave Trade emerged to fill the RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA RECONSTRUCTION void. The potential profit to be made from sell- ing Black people already enslaved in the coun- Over four million Black people were enslaved in try skyrocketed. Though less well known than the United States—more than at any point in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the domestic the nation’s history9—and unprecedented num- sale of enslaved Black people from the Upper bers of Black people
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