28 Sept 1868 Jahr - Opelousas massacre

Beschreibung:

Beginning with the execution of 27 black prisoners, whites conducted widespread attacks of African Americans in the vicinity, and are believed to have killed up to 200-300. At the time, whites referred to events as the Opelousas Riot, as if caused by an outbreak of violence by blacks.

Prior to the elections in the fall of 1868, some African Americans from Opelousas attempted to join a Democratic Party political group organized in the neighboring, larger town of Washington. Whites rejected them, and Democrats in Opelousas, mainly members of the Seymour Knights, the local unit of the white supremacist organization Knights of the White Camellia, visited Washington to violently drive the blacks out of the party.

In response, Emerson Bentley, an 18-year-old Ohio-born white school teacher and editor of The Landry Progress, a Republican newspaper in Opelousas, wrote an article that described the attack by the Seymour Knights against the black Democrats. He suggested that such events should persuade blacks to remain loyal to the Republican Party. Bentley was known as an advocate of education for the children of freedmen and of Creole people of color (who had been free before the war). He also helped adult men of color of both groups to register to vote. Shortly after the article appeared, Bentley was assaulted at his class by three white men and severely beaten. Afterward, Bentley quickly fled town and ran for his life to reach the North.

Due to Bentley's sudden disappearance, reports circulated that the teacher had been killed because of his article. Several local armed African Americans banded together to retaliate and marched toward the county seat of Opelousas. Some left the march when they learned that Bentley had not been murdered. The armed blacks were met by armed whites determined to defend their town, many of whom had been rallied by The Knights of the White Camellia. Due to local laws restricting gun ownership by blacks, the white Democrats had the overwhelming advantage in weapons, as well as in numbers. Shooting broke out on both sides, and the whites captured twenty-nine black prisoners. On September 29, all of the captured prisoners were taken from the prison and executed, with the exception of two men. The dead included twelve Black Republican leaders.

After that, whites continued attacks on blacks in St. Landry Parish for weeks, killing them on the street or country roads. Historians have disputed the total death toll of the massacre, and accounts at the time were a subject of controversy.

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