HANDOUT 13.1{DOCUMENT}
LOUISIANA WHITE LEAGUE PLATFORM (1874)
The White League was a paramilitary group that was allied with the Democratic Party in the South. In 1874 and
1875, the White League was responsible for widespread violence against black and white Republicans in Louisiana
and Mississippi. The group’s platform from 1874 stated the following:
Disregarding all minor questions of principle or policy, and having solely in view the maintenance
of our hereditary civilization and Christianity menaced by a stupid Africanization, we appeal to
men of our race, of whatever language or nationality, to unite with us against that supreme danger.
A league of whites is the inevitable result of that formidable, oath-bound, and blindly obedient
league of the blacks, which, under the command of the most cunning and unscrupulous negroes in
the State, may at any moment plunge us into a war of races . . . It is with some hope that a timely
and proclaimed union of the whites as a race, and their efficient preparation for any emergency,
may arrest the threatened horrors of social war, and teach the blacks to beware of further insolence
and aggression, that we call upon the men of our race to leave in abeyance all lesser considerations;
to forget all differences of opinions and all race prejudices of the past, and with no object in view
but the common good of both races, to unite with us in an earnest effort to re-establish a white
man’s government in the city and the State.1
1 Quoted in Glenn M. Linden, Voices from the Reconstruction Years, 1865–1877 (Harcourt Brace/Cengage, 1998), 205.
219
HANDOUT 13.2{DOCUMENT}
DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM OF PIKE COUNTY,
ALABAMA (1874)
As the 1874 campaign for governor and state legislature began in Alabama, the Pike County Democratic Party’s
platform gave supporters this guidance for how to treat white Republicans:
[Nothing] is left to the white man’s party but social ostracism of all those who act, sympathize
or side with the negro party, or who support or advocate the odious, unjust, and unreasonable
measure known as the civil rights bill; and that from henceforth we will hold all such persons as
enemies of our race, and we will not in the future have intercourse with them in any of the social
relations of life.1
1 Quoted in Glenn M. Linden, Voices from the Reconstruction Years, 1865–1877 (Harcourt Brace/Cengage 1998), 201.
220
HANDOUT 13.3{DOCUMENT}
THE WHITE LINE INSTIGATES VIOLENCE (1874)
Louisiana freedman Henry Adams testified before Congress in 1874 about how members of the White Line
instigated confrontations with African Americans with the intention of committing murder. The following is an
excerpt from his testimony.
They raise a little disturbance with some of the colored people. They come to a place where there
is a kind of little gathering. One will take a drink—he won’t drink enough to get drunk—then
comes out and commences to meddle with one of the colored men. Maybe the colored man will
say something sort of rash like. If he does [the white] will haul out a revolver and strike him and
maybe, perhaps, shoot him. As soon as [the whites] hear that firing, many come with guns and
revolvers, and the first colored man they see, they beat him or shoot him. Then a passel of them will
commence firing on them colored men who haven’t got anything to fight with. Now if one of them
colored men will show fight, if he hurts one of them, his life ain’t no more than a chicken’s. He may
go home but he won’t stay for a passel will come after him that night . . .
Q: Why do not the colored people arm themselves? Cannot they get arms?
A: They can buy arms if they have the money till the riot come. If there is a riot started, [the whites]
go down by fifties and hundreds in a gang to watch us to see whether the colored men were going to
buy arms. At the time a riot is going on, the colored men cannot buy no ammunition.
If the colored men are attacked, they call it a riot, because they are killing the colored men. You
never hear of the colored man raising a riot, because he never gets the chance. If he shoots at a
white man they kill fifty colored men for the one white man that was shot.1
1 In Dorothy Sterling, ed., The Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans (Da Capo Press, 1994), 437–438.
221
HANDOUT 13.4{DOCUMENT}
WHITE LINE VIOLENCE SPREADS TO MISSISSIPPI (1875)
Eugene B. Welborne, a prosperous black farmer and state representative, explained in this way how a White Line
attack began in Clinton, Mississippi, in 1875:
They had a barbecue and there were speakers invited. It was a kind of joint discussion. Amos R.
Johnston [a Democrat] spoke first. After he got through Capt. H. T. Fisher, who was a Republican,
was called upon to speak. There were a couple of young fellows standing in front of me—Sivley
and Thompson. These gentlemen were a committee sent from Raymond. In the event that the
Republican speakers told anything that they thought was not so, they had a right to contradict
them. Captain Fisher had spoke two or three minutes when this Sivley says, “Come down out of
there, you God damned radical, you. We don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”
I spoke to Aleck Wilson who was one of our officers there to keep the peace. We had about thirty
men that we got the magistrate to deputize. I saw Wilson and said, “I want you to stand here and
prevent anything. I see a difficulty brewing.” Thompson had a bottle of whisky in his hand. He was
drinking, and every now and then they would holler, “Come down! Stop your damned lying there,
and come down.”
Wilson went up to Mr. Thompson and said, “Mr. Thompson, we listened very quietly to your
speaker and you must not go on in that way.” He told him he was an officer and that he would
have to arrest him if he did not stop. When Wilson said that, they all got right together around
Thompson. He said, “Get away from here.” Then Wilson attempted to arrest him and Thompson
pulled his pistol out and shot him down. When Wilson fell, every [white] man in the line pulled out
their pistols and began to fire on the crowd.
On Sunday—that was on Saturday—they just hunted the whole county clean out. Every man they
could see they were shooting at him just the same as birds. I mean colored men, of course. A good
many they killed and a good many got away. The men came into Jackson, two or three thousand of
them. They were running in all day Sunday, coming in as rapidly as they could. We could hear the
firing all the time.1
1 In Dorothy Sterling, ed., The Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans (Da Capo Press, 1994), 442–443.
222
HANDOUT 13.5{DOCUMENT}
SOUTH CAROLINA “RED SHIRTS” BATTLE PLAN (1876)
Democratic Party paramilitary groups also emerged in South Carolina during the 1876 state and national
campaigns. There, members of these groups called themselves the “Red Shirts.” Their official battle plan, which called
for Democratic clubs armed with rifles and pistols, stated in part:
Every Democrat must feel honor bound to control the vote of at least one Negro, by intimidation,
purchase, keeping him away.
We must attend every Radical meeting. Democrats must go in as large numbers as they can, and
well armed, behave at first with great courtesy and as soon as their speakers begin tell them that
they are liars and are only trying to mislead the ignorant Negroes.
In speeches to Negroes you must remember that they can only be influenced by their fears,
superstitions and cupidity. Treat them so as to show them you are the superior race and that their
natural position is that of subordination to the white man.
Never threaten a man individually. If he deserves to be threatened, the necessities of the times
require that he should die. A dead Radical is very harmless—a threatened Radical is often
troublesome, sometimes dangerous, and always vindictive.
Every club must be uniformed in a red shirt and they must be sure and wear it upon all public
meetings and particularly on the day of election.1
1 In Dorothy Sterling, ed., The Trouble They Seen: The Story of Reconstruction in the Words of African Americans (Da Capo Press, 1994), 465.
223