September 1868

On September 28, 1868, in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, white Democrats attacked a Republican political meeting, launching a massacre that lasted several days. Estimates of Black deaths range from 150 to over 300, making it one of the deadliest massacres of the Reconstruction era. The violence was specifically designed to suppress Black voter turnout: in the subsequent November election, the parish reported zero Republican votes despite having thousands of registered Black voters. No perpetrators were prosecuted. The massacre was part of a coordinated Democratic strategy to 'redeem' Louisiana through terror.

On September 3, 1868, the Georgia state legislature voted to expel its 33 Black members on the grounds that the state constitution did not explicitly give Black men the right to hold office. The expulsions were followed immediately by Klan massacres at Camilla (September 19, 1868) where white mobs killed 9 and wounded 30 Black Republicans at a political rally. Congress re-seated the members in 1869.

On September 3, 1868, the Georgia state legislature voted to expel all 27 of its Black members, arguing that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed voting rights but not the right to hold office. The expulsion stripped Georgia's Black citizens of all representation. Congress responded by returning Georgia to military rule; when the state was readmitted in 1870 the expelled members were restored. The episode revealed how hostile state actors could hollow out constitutional protections through legali