Editing Clinton, Mississippi (section)

=== Clinton Riot ===
{{see also|Mass racial violence in the United States#Post–Civil War and Reconstruction period (1865–1877)}}
In September 1875 during the election campaign, a Republican political rally was held in downtown Clinton, where 3,000 people were gathered expecting Governor [[Adelbert Ames]] and other prominent speakers. White insurgents disrupted the rally, attacking blacks in what was called the "[[Clinton Riot]]." It resulted in the deaths of several white men and an estimated 50 blacks later that night and over the next few days. More armed whites arrived by train and attacked blacks.<ref name="dunbar" /> Among the black victims were schoolteachers, church leaders, and local Republican organizers.<ref name="foner">[[Eric Foner]], ''Reconstruction, 1865–1877'', 1988, paperback: Perennial Press, 1989, p. 560</ref>

Whites had been attacking black and white Republicans in every election cycle, and that year the paramilitary [[Red Shirts (Southern United States)|Red Shirts]] arose in the state as a force to intimidate blacks and suppress black voting.<ref name="foner" /> The governor appealed to the federal government for protection and the U.S. government sent more troops. But election-related violence continued through the fall and, together with fraud at the polls, resulted in white Democrats regaining control of the state legislature and, in 1876, the governor's seat. This political shift signaled the end of the Reconstruction era, confirmed when the federal government withdrew remaining troops in 1877.