| Coushatta massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Reconstruction Era | |
| Location | Coushatta, Louisiana |
| Date | August 1874 |
| Target | Republicans and African Americans |
| Deaths | 6 Republicans and 5 to 20 freedmen |
| Perpetrators | White League |
| Motive | Enforce white supremacy |
The Coushatta massacre (1874) was an attack by members of the White League, a white supremacist paramilitary organization composed of white Southern Democrats, on Republican officeholders and freedmen in Coushatta, the parish seat of Red River Parish, Louisiana. They assassinated six white Republicans and five to 20 freedmen who were witnesses.[1][2]
The White League had organized to restore white supremacy by driving Republicans out of Louisiana, disrupting their political organizing, and intimidating or murdering freedmen.[3] Like the Red Shirts and other "White Line" organizations, they were described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party."
- ^ Danielle Alexander, "Forty Acres and a Mule: The Ruined Hope of Reconstruction", Humanities, January/February 2004, Vol.25/No.1. Her article says 20 freedmen were killed. Archived 2008-09-16 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 14 Apr 2008
- ^ Nicholas Lemann, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, New York, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006, p.76-77. His book says five freedmen were killed.
- ^ Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, New York: Perennial Classics, 2002, p.550