Red Shirts

Wilmington Massacre and Coup: Armed White Supremacists Overthrow Elected Government, Murder Black Citizens

1898-11-10 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Armed white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina launched the only successful coup d’etat in American history, overthrowing the legally elected biracial government, murdering an estimated 60-300 Black citizens, and establishing one-party white Democratic rule that would persist for …

Alfred Moore Waddell Furnifold Simmons Red Shirts Wilmington Black Community Democratic Party voting-rights racial-violence election-violence coup white-supremacy +1 more

Hamburg Massacre: Red Shirts Murder Black Militia to Suppress Voting

1876-07-08 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Over 100 armed white men—members of paramilitary “rifle clubs” called the Red Shirts—attack approximately 30 Black National Guard servicemen at the Hamburg, South Carolina armory on July 8, 1876, killing seven men (six of them Black) in what becomes the first of a series of planned civil …

Red Shirts Benjamin Tillman Wade Hampton III Matthew Butler Black National Guard Militia racial-terrorism reconstruction-sabotage white-supremacy democratic-erosion elite-impunity