Carrollton Massacre: 20 Black People Killed in Mississippi Courthouse

On March 17, 1886, in Carrollton, Mississippi, white gunmen opened fire without warning on a crowded courthouse where a Black man named Ed Brown was appearing for a hearing, killing approximately 20 Black people and wounding many others. The victims were bystanders and witnesses who had nothing to do with the case. The massacre was entirely unprovoked and was described in contemporary newspaper accounts as a predetermined ambush. No one was prosecuted. The Carrollton massacre illustrated the total impunity with which white men could massacre Black people in post-Reconstruction Mississippi.