Colfax Massacre: 150 Black Americans Murdered to Overthrow Local Government

On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, a mob of approximately 300 armed white men—including members of the Ku Klux Klan and Knights of White Camellia—attacks the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, murdering an estimated 150 Black Americans in what becomes the deadliest single incident of racial violence during Reconstruction. The massacre follows a disputed 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election where both Republicans and Democrats declare their candidate the winner, leading to competing governments in Colfax. After weeks of occupation by a Black militia supporting the Republican government, the white supremacist force marches on the courthouse with a cannon.

The violence follows a chilling pattern. After exchanging fire, approximately 60 Black defenders surrender when white attackers aim a cannon at the building. What follows is systematic execution: in response to the accidental shooting of their leader by one of their own, the white supremacist force begins executing captured and wounded militia members. They form what becomes known as the “Dead Ring” and debate the fate of the Black men. The whites select four men—Allan Attaway, David Phillips, Hampton Stephens, and Albert Myniart—and murder them one at a time, going around the ring. The terrorists then spread out into town, indiscriminately murdering Black residents of Colfax. At least 60 and perhaps as many as 150 men are killed, with African Americans comprising all but three of the victims.

Federal troops arrive days later and arrest 97 white men, but the state makes no arrests. Several defendants are convicted under the Enforcement Acts, but the Supreme Court releases them in United States v. Cruikshank (1876), declaring the laws unconstitutional. No one is ever punished for the Colfax Massacre. The massacre elevates white supremacist organizations’ standing across the South and leads directly to the Cruikshank decision that cripples federal authority to protect Black civil rights. A monument erected at the Colfax Cemetery celebrates “Heroes… Who fell in the Colfax Riot fighting for White Supremacy”—standing until 2021. The massacre demonstrates that mass racial violence can overthrow democratically elected governments when federal protection is insufficient and state authorities are complicit—a pattern that will enable the complete destruction of Reconstruction.