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The Colfax massacre, or ''Colfax riot'' as the events are termed on the 1950 state historic marker, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the seat of Grant Parish, during confrontation between opposing political forces of the Republicans and Democrats. In the wake of the contested 1872 election for governor of Louisiana and local offices, a group of white Democrats, armed with rifles and a small cannon, overpowered Republican freedmen and state militia (also black) trying to control the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax;〔Eric Foner, ''Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877'', p. 437〕〔(''Ulysses S. Grant'', People and Events: "The Colfax Massacre", PBS Website ), accessed Apr 6, 2008〕 white Republican officeholders were not attacked. Most of the freedmen were killed after they surrendered; nearly 50 were killed later that night after being held as prisoners for several hours. Estimates of the number of dead have varied, ranging from 62 to 153; three whites died but the number of black victims was difficult to determine because bodies had been thrown into the river or removed for burial. There were rumors of mass graves at the site. Historian Eric Foner described the massacre as the worst instance of racial violence during Reconstruction.〔 In Louisiana, it had the highest fatalities of any of the numerous violent events following the disputed gubernatorial contest in 1872 between Republicans and Democrats. Foner wrote, "...every election (Louisiana ) between 1868 and 1876 was marked by rampant violence and pervasive fraud."〔Eric Foner, ''Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877'', New York: Perennial Library, 1989, p. 550〕 Although the Fusionist-dominated state "returning board," which ruled on vote validity, initially declared John McEnery and his Democratic slate the winners, the board eventually split, with a faction declaring Republican William P. Kellogg the victor. A Republican federal judge in New Orleans ruled that the Republican-majority legislature be seated. Federal prosecution and conviction of a few perpetrators at Colfax under the Enforcement Acts was appealed to the Supreme Court. In a key case, the court ruled in ''United States v. Cruikshank'' (1876) that protections of the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply to the actions of individuals, but only to the actions of state governments. After this ruling, the federal government could no longer use the Enforcement Act of 1870 to prosecute actions by paramilitary groups such as the White League, which had chapters forming across Louisiana beginning in 1874. Intimidation and black voter suppression by such paramilitary groups were instrumental to the Democratic Party regaining political control in the state legislature by the late 1870s. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, historians have paid renewed attention to the events at Colfax and the resulting Supreme Court case, and their meaning in American history. ==State and national background== In 1864, after the Union Army occupied Louisiana, only a few blacks were allowed to vote in the state, based on Union military service, payment of taxes and "intellectual fitness." There was a large population of free people of color, especially in New Orleans, who were property owners and had participated in the state militia before the American Civil War. In March 1865, Unionist planter James Madison Wells became governor. He initially opposed Negro suffrage. As the ex-Confederate-dominated legislature passed Black Codes that restricted rights of freedmen, Wells began to lean toward allowing blacks to vote and temporarily disfranchising ex-Confederates. To accomplish this, he scheduled a convention for July 30, 1866. It was postponed because of the New Orleans Massacre that day, in which armed whites attacked blacks who had a parade in support of the convention. The attack resulted in 38 dead, 34 black and four white; and more than 40 wounded, most of them black. When President Andrew Johnson blamed the massacre on Republican agitation, a popular national backlash against Johnson's policies led to national voters electing a majority Republican Congress in 1866. It passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over Andrew Johnson's veto, and ended the Black Codes, which had limited the rights of freedmen and other blacks, including their choices on work and living locations. On July 16, 1866, Congress extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, also over Johnson's veto. On March 2, 1867, they passed the Reconstruction Act, over Johnson's veto, which required that blacks be given the franchise and that reconstructed Southern states ratify the Fourteenth Amendment before admission to the Union. By April 1868, a biracial coalition in Louisiana had elected a Republican-majority state legislature but violence increased before the fall election. Opposition among white Democrats to suffrage for blacks resulted in 1,081 political murders from April to November 1868. Almost all of the victims were black, and some of the whites who were killed were Republicans. Insurgents also attacked men physically or burned their homes to discourage them from voting. President Johnson prevented the Republican governor of Louisiana from using either the state militia or U.S. forces to suppress the insurgent groups, such as the Knights of the White Camelia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Colfax massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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