Leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy for coordinating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that killed 5 and injured 140 police officers. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio received 22 years, the longest January 6 sentence, despite not being in …
In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, President Trump began routinely describing immigration as an ‘invasion,’ bringing white nationalist conspiracy theory language into mainstream Republican politics. The ‘invasion’ rhetoric is closely linked to the Great Replacement …
Donald TrumpRepublican Partyracial-politicswhite-nationalismconspiracy-theoriesimmigrationrepublican-party+3 more
On November 22, 2000, a mob of Republican operatives and staffers violently disrupted the Miami-Dade County canvassing board’s recount of votes from the disputed 2000 presidential election, successfully forcing officials to shut down the recount early. Roger Stone, Richard Nixon’s …
On June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles moments after declaring victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. He died 26 hours later on June 6, 1968. Kennedy’s assassination, coming just two months after the …
Robert F. KennedySirhan SirhanFBILAPDpolitical-violenceassassinationdemocratic-erosion1968-election
Charles J. Guiteau shoots President James A. Garfield at 9:30 AM on July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., less than four months into Garfield’s presidency. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office-seeker who distributed copies of a speech …
James A. GarfieldCharles J. GuiteauChester A. ArthurJames Blainesystematic-corruptionpatronage-systempolitical-violenceinstitutional-capture
An estimated 150-300 Black citizens and two white citizens are killed during the Vicksburg massacre, a coordinated campaign of white supremacist violence that begins on December 7, 1874, and continues until around January 5, 1875, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The massacre follows the forced …
White LeaguePeter CrosbyAndrew J. GilmerUlysses S. Grantwhite-supremacyreconstruction-sabotagepolitical-violenceinstitutional-racismelite-impunity
The White League stages an armed insurrection against Louisiana’s Reconstruction government on September 14, 1874, in New Orleans. Five thousand White League members—Confederate veterans organized as “the military arm of the Democratic Party”—overwhelm 3,500 state police and …
White LeagueJames LongstreetWilliam Pitt KelloggUlysses S. GrantJohn McEnerywhite-supremacyreconstruction-sabotagepolitical-violenceinstitutional-captureelite-impunity
On August 30, 1874, the White League—a paramilitary organization of Confederate veterans described as “the military arm of the Democratic Party”—completes a weeklong campaign of terror in Red River Parish, Louisiana, by assassinating six white Republican officeholders and five to twenty …
White LeagueDick ColemanThomas FloydMarshall TwitchellLouisiana Board of Tradewhite-supremacyreconstruction-sabotagepolitical-violenceinstitutional-captureelite-impunity
Six Confederate veterans found the Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee—creating what historians characterize as America’s first terrorist organization. The founders—Calvin E. Jones, John B. Kennedy, Frank O. McCord, John C. Lester, Richard P. Reed, and James R. …
Nathan Bedford ForrestConfederate VeteransCalvin E. JonesJohn B. KennedyFrank O. McCord+3 moreracial-terrorismreconstruction-sabotagewhite-supremacypolitical-violenceinstitutional-capture
At approximately 10:20 p.m. on April 14, 1865, Confederate sympathizer and prominent actor John Wilkes Booth shoots President Abraham Lincoln in the back of the head at point-blank range while Lincoln watches a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln dies the following morning at a …
John Wilkes BoothAbraham LincolnLewis PowellGeorge AtzerodtDavid Herold+3 moreassassinationconspiracyconfederate-sympathizersterrorismpolitical-violence
John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, on October 16, 1859, seizing the facility with 21 followers in an attempt to spark a slave uprising by capturing weapons and distributing them to enslaved people in the region. The raid exposed how thoroughly the Slave Power had …
John BrownRobert E. LeeJames BuchananU.S. MarinesVirginia Militiaslave-powerinstitutional-capturepolitical-violencedemocratic-erosionfederal-military
On the night of May 24-25, 1856, radical abolitionist John Brown, five of his sons, and three other associates murder five pro-slavery men at three different cabins along Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas Territory. The victims—James P. Doyle and his sons William and Drury, William Sherman, and Allen …
John BrownPottawatomie RiflesPro-slavery settlersFree-State settlersbleeding-kansaspolitical-violenceslavery-conflictterritorial-violencepottawatomie-massacre
Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, enters the Senate chamber and beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts nearly to death with a metal-topped cane, striking him repeatedly on the head while Sumner attempts futilely to protect himself. The attack follows …
Preston BrooksCharles SumnerAndrew ButlerU.S. SenateU.S. House of Representativespolitical-violenceslave-powerinstitutional-corruptionbleeding-kansassenate-violence
Kansas Territory held its first territorial legislative election on March 30, 1855, which was stolen through systematic fraud and violence by approximately 5,000 “Border Ruffians” who invaded from western Missouri. Under the leadership of U.S. Senator David Rice Atchison and other …
David Rice AtchisonBorder RuffiansFranklin PierceKansas Territorial Governmentelectoral-fraudslave-powerinstitutional-capturepolitical-violencedemocratic-erosion
Vice President Aaron Burr shoots former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton in an illegal duel in Weehawken, New Jersey, culminating fifteen years of political rivalry and demonstrating how elite honor culture supersedes law and democratic accountability. The confrontation stems from …