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The Day Freedom Died

the Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction
nftaussig
Jul 15, 2012nftaussig rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Charles Lane's well-researched account demonstrates how the Colfax massacre and the resulting Supreme Court case U. S. vs. Cruikshank led to the end of Reconstruction and, with it, civil rights protections for blacks in the South. Lane begins by describing in chilling detail the massacre of more than 60 blacks at the courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana on 13 April 1873 (Easter Sunday) by white supremacists bent on retaking power in Grant Parish. He then reviews the political, racial, and legal environment during Reconstruction that led to the conflict, focusing in particular on white supremacist violence in Grant Parish that went unpunished before the massacre. After Lane describes these conditions, he relates the attempt by James Roswell Beckwith, the United States Attorney in New Orleans, to prosecute the perpetrators and why it led to the Cruikshank decision. Lane illustrates how the Cruikshank decision (which never mentioned the more than 60 blacks killed in the massacre) deprived blacks of protection from racially motivated violence and, consequently, resulted in the gradual erosion of their civil rights. LeeAnna Keith's book, the Colfax Massacre, complements this book by delving into the personal dynamics in Grant Parish that played a role in the massacre, but Lane's account gives the reader a better sense of why this event had such dreadful implications for the civil rights of blacks in the South.