Election Violence: 150 Black Voters Murdered in South Carolina

In the months before the November 1876 election, South Carolina rifle clubs and Red Shirts systematically terrorized Black Republican voters. An estimated 150 Black people were murdered. Armed men disrupted Republican meetings, rifle clubs paraded through Black neighborhoods, and Black voters were warned not to appear at polls. The terror succeeded: in Edgefield County, where Black voters were a majority, the Democratic candidate received more votes than the total registered electorate.