![]() ![]() Simmering resentments between Southern Democrats, many of whom were former slave owners, and the Republican-dominated federal government exploded in the 1872 election for Louisiana’s governor. In Louisiana, the fight over the postwar government was particularly bloody, as PBS’ American Experience series explores. At the same time, insurgent white supremacist groups terrorized African Americans throughout the South. ![]() ![]() Bitter over the Confederacy’s loss, many white Southern Democrats tried their best to continue disenfranchising and restricting the rights of former slaves. Immediately after the end of the war, different factions began fighting over power. For many historians, one of the worst examples of this violence occurred 150 years ago: the Colfax Massacre of 1873. During that time, thousands of African Americans were killed by domestic terrorists like the Ku Klux Klan who tried to reinforce antebellum policies of white supremacy. The Reconstruction period that followed America's Civil War was one of the worst, most violent eras in American history. ![]()
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