The Aftermath of the Colfax Massacre

Please join us on Sunday, September 28 as retired Louisiana attorney Charles "Chick" Moore shares the background of the Colfax Massacre and what happened afterward in an ongoing tale of restoring due historic and humane recognition. Mr. Moore has taken an extensive interest in the subject, as outlined on his website, and the audience is invited to take a deeper look with him into this chapter of our nation's past - and how it should be recognized today.

The Colfax Massacre (excerpt)

After the 1872 elections in Louisiana, pro-freedmen rights and anti-freedmen rights political parties both claimed they had won the state and parish offices. The anti-freedmen took control of the courthouse, but when they were not present the pro-freedmen party occupied the courthouse.  After the passage of time the anti-freedmen party decided to take control of the courthouse by force.  When a black man named Jesse McKinney was shot and killed by Whites at his home, the Blacks fled to the courthouse for protection.   A defensive trench was built.   On Easter Sunday the Whites attacked and with the use of a small cannon drove the defenders into the courthouse which was set on fire.  This forced the freedmen to surrender.  After the last riverboat passed Colfax that day the prisoners were executed and buried in the defensive trench they had dug the day before the battle.   Accounts of the number of Blacks killed range from about 60 to 150.   There were three White men who died as the consequence of the battle. 

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The mass grave has been ignored as if it was not there and has been treated with a callous attitude of indifference.  In comparison the graves of the slain Whites have been treated with great respect.

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As a trial attorney who tried cases across Louisiana, Mr. Moore is deeply concerned that the gruesome facts about the Grant Parish Courthouse make a mockery of the Louisiana judicial system.  No where else would litigants who, in order to enter the courthouse to seek justice under law, be required  to walk over the unmarked mass grave of  former slaves who, after they gave up their arms and surrendered, were executed and buried in a trench which they had dug in defense of the courthouse.   To permit this situation to exist for 151 years is hard evidence that there is little respect for due process of law or equal rights, particularly for a Black litigant.  

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About the presenter

After  practicing law as a trial lawyer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for 50 years Mr. Moore retired in 2022.  Rather than fading away, he is undertaking new non-profit projects with emphasis on journalism, the massacre of freed slaves on Easter Sunday 1873 at the Grant Parish, Louisiana, courthouse, and Eastport, Maine, a small coastal town where his mother was born.