Qualla: Colfax Massacre https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:04 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Colfax Massacre https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre Colfax Massacre: Introduction https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre/ Photo credit DoesWhateverASpiderCant, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Klansman Dave Paul put it plainly: 'Boys, this is a struggle for White supremacy.' It was early April 1873 in Grant Parish, Louisiana, and Paul was speaking to a growing force of Confederate veterans and Ku Klux Klan members gathering near the town of Colfax. Inside the parish courthouse, Black freedmen and Republican officeholders had been camped for three weeks, having seized the building to defend what they believed was a legitimately elected government. Outside, former sheriff Christopher Columbus Nash -- a Confederate officer who had spent eighteen months as a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island, Ohio -- was assembling more than 300 armed White men, most on horseback, equipped with rifles and a four-pound cannon that could fire iron slugs. What unfolded on Easter Sunday, April 13, would become what historian Eric Foner called 'the worst instance of racial violence during Reconstruction.' The death toll was never precisely established. Estimates range from 62 to 153 Black men killed. Three White men died.

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/9vw5-colfax-massacre-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Colfax Massacre: Two Governors, One Parish https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre/ Photo credit Billy Hathorn, Public domain. The bloodshed at Colfax grew from a poisoned root: Louisiana's 1872 gubernatorial election produced two winners. A Fusionist coalition of Democrats and Liberal Republicans declared John McEnery governor, while a faction of the state returning board proclaimed Republican William P...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/9vw5-colfax-massacre-two-governors-one-parish.mp3 0:06 2 full Colfax Massacre: The Siege of the Courthouse https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre/ Photo credit Billy Hathorn, Public domain. Through late March and early April, Black freedmen dug trenches around the Colfax courthouse and drilled with whatever weapons they could find. Women and children joined the men for protection. The Republican officeholders slept inside. Tensions erupted in sporadic gunfire on Apr...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/9vw5-colfax-massacre-the-siege-of-the-courthouse.mp3 0:06 3 full Colfax Massacre: Easter Sunday at Noon https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre/ Photo credit Billy Hathorn, Public domain. Nash moved his forces toward the courthouse at midday on April 13. He ordered the defenders to leave. When they did not, he gave women and children thirty minutes to evacuate. Then the shooting began. For several hours, the two sides exchanged fire with few casualties. The turnin...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/9vw5-colfax-massacre-easter-sunday-at-noon.mp3 0:06 4 full Colfax Massacre: The Ruling That Killed Reconstruction https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre/ Photo credit Billy Hathorn, Public domain. When state militia colonels arrived days later, they found the smoking ruins of the courthouse and bodies shot in the back of the head. Federal troops searched for perpetrators, but many had fled to Texas. Federal prosecutors charged participants under the Enforcement Acts. Convi...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/9vw5-colfax-massacre-the-ruling-that-killed-reconstruction.mp3 0:06 5 full Colfax Massacre: Markers and Memory https://qualla.com/colfax-massacre/ Photo credit Billy Hathorn, Public domain. For decades, a state historical marker at Colfax described the events as a 'riot' and characterized the massacre as marking 'the end of carpetbagger misrule in the South.' The marker, erected in 1950, stood on public ground until it was removed in May 2021. A second monument near...

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]]> Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/v/w/5/colfax-massacre-wp/9vw5-colfax-massacre-markers-and-memory.mp3 0:06 6 full