Colfax Massacre: Up to 150 Black Men Killed — Deadliest Post-Civil War Massacre

On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Grant Parish, Louisiana, a white paramilitary force of 150 men armed with a cannon attacked a group of Black men defending the courthouse against a Democratic attempt to seize local government. After the Black defenders surrendered, the attackers executed 50–100 prisoners in cold blood. Total Black deaths ranged from 60 to over 150. Three white men died. It remains the deadliest racial massacre in post-Civil War American history. Federal prosecutions under the Enforcement Acts led to convictions, but the Supreme Court's ruling in US v. Cruikshank (1876) overturned them, holding that the 14th Amendment did not authorize federal prosecution of private citizens — ending federal protection of Black Americans from mob violence.