How an 1876 massacre of Black men in South Carolina turned racial terror into political power

According to The Conversation, this Friday marks the hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Hamburg massacre, a July 1876 attack in Hamburg, South Carolina, where a white supremacist militia known as the Red Shirts killed at least four Black militiamen after a dispute over a Fourth of July parade. No one was ever convicted, and several of the attackers went on to hold high political office, including two who became U.S. senators. Historian Jacob Ware writes that the massacre helped end Reconstruction-era gains for Black Americans, with South Carolina later adopting a new constitution that stripped Black residents of the vote.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton