Editing Colfax, Louisiana (section)

==History==

Colfax is most known for a [[Reconstruction Era]] massacre known as the [[Colfax massacre]] which took place [[Easter]], April 13, 1873, to quell black voting. One hundred-fifty [[African Americans]] and three whites were killed in one of the most egregious acts of terrorism during Reconstruction.<ref>"Colfax Riot", historical marker, [[Grant Parish, Louisiana|Grant Parish]] Courthouse, Colfax, Louisiana</ref> A white [[militia]] was led against [[freedmen]] by [[Christopher Columbus Nash]], who claimed to have been elected sheriff on a Fusionist/[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] slate. Freedmen were defending [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] officials at the county courthouse and had gathered there as tensions rose in a post-election dispute. A contemporary report by the U.S. military documented the three white fatalities and 105 black victims by name, with 15-20 unidentified blacks found in the [[Red River of the South|Red River]].<ref>[http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/state/history/military/uncat/colfaxr.txt "Military Report on Colfax Riot, 1875", from the ''Congressional Record''], accessed April 6, 2008</ref><ref>Lane, Charles, ''The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction'', 2008</ref> The disproportionate number of deaths between whites and blacks, and documented accounts that at least 50 black prisoners were executed while unarmed and under control of the white militia, 20th-century historians redefined the "riot" as a "massacre". The event is significant because blacks, who comprised the majority in the parish, organized to defend themselves and their political rights and were mass murdered.

The riot arose from the disputed [[governor of Louisiana|gubernatorial]] election of 1872, finally determined in the favor of the Republican [[William Pitt Kellogg]] by the federal government. Both the Fusion-Democrats and the Republicans held inaugurations and certified their own slates of local officers. Following the events of 1873, in 1874 Nash gathered many of the same men to establish the [[White League]], a white supremacist [[paramilitary]] organization that operated on behalf of Democrats and eventually had chapters in many areas of Louisiana.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.lahistory.org/site31.php| title=Nash, Christopher Columbus| work=A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography| publisher=Louisiana Historical Association| access-date=December 16, 2010| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512114056/http://www.lahistory.org/site31.php| archive-date=May 12, 2015}}</ref> It worked to intimidate and attack black voters, to run Republicans out of office, and to suppress black voting.

On April 13, 1921, the white citizens of Colfax unveiled a {{convert|12|ft|adj=on}} marble [[obelisk]] that read, "In Loving Remembrance, Erected to the Memory of the Heroes, Stephen Decatur Parish, James West Hadnot, Sidney Harris. Who fell in the Colfax Riot, fighting for White Supremacy, April 13, 1873."<ref>Keith, LeeAnna. The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2009.</ref>

In 1950 the state commerce department erected a historical marker identifying the site of the "Colfax Riot"; it says that the militia's victory "marked the end of [[carpetbagger|carpetbag]] misrule in the South." Because of similar [[insurgent]] paramilitary violence in other areas of the state, especially during campaigns and elections, federal troops remained in Louisiana until 1877, when they were removed on orders of U.S. President [[Rutherford B. Hayes]].<ref>Rodriguez, J. P. (Ed.). (2007). Slavery in the United States [2 volumes]: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO.</ref>

In 2007, the Red River Heritage Association was founded to collect and interpret the history of Reconstruction, especially in the Red River area and Louisiana. The association is raising funds to restore a bank in Colfax near the former courthouse site to use as a museum, archives and interpretive center.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}