A white militia was led against freedmen by Christopher Columbus Nash . The Thibodaux Massacre Left 60 African-Americans Dead and Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades. He is the founder and publisher of the Bayou Brief and a contributing writer for the Daily Beast. Simpson said he interviewed scores of peopleincluding former policemen, former state troopers and civilians. Wynne said he wasn't sure what to expect but he was prepared for a negative result. The camp, of course, is a ghost town. Dr. Bristol is a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and says it appears the violence started when a black soldier stepped in front of a car driven by a white woman. This much is known: The rioting started at around 8PM, after a white M.P. The U.S. Army was segregated in those days, so Black soldiers were stationed at Camp Claiborne while white soldiers were stationed at Camp Livingston and Camp Beauregard. "On weekends there would be upwards of 1,000 or more African-American citizens and soldiers walking on Lee Street enjoying the local businesses in a five-block area," Wynne said. At this point, the process gets much more complicated. He knows what human remains look like. PINEVILLE, La. Lee Street Riot: Experts look at rumored mass grave site at Holly Oak Cemetery in Pineville. Browse 254 alexandria louisiana photos and images available, or search for albany georgia or jonesboro arkansas to find more great photos and pictures. Three whites and an estimated 150 blacks died in the conflict. It did happen. When they did start reporting the next week, they could only give the information that the Army gave them.". "At the end of class, one of my students came up and asked if I ever heard of the fact that a number of soldiers were killed in a riot on Lee Street," he said. COLFAX RIOT. So, they could be looking for small targets at that point andit could become problematic. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. With the help of tens of thousands of black citizens who finally had the right to vote, Republicans handily won local and state elections that spring. And just as theyd been ordered to stay away from Glenmora, Black soldiers were told that Alexandria was also now off-limits.. Colfax is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. Simpson never heard of thisstory involvingLee Streetuntil he was teaching a session about Central Louisiana and World War II in the mid-1980s. Halloween is just around the corner, and if you're looking for some spooky fun then you've come to the right place. Different stories have been told about what initially sparkedthe incident on that Saturdaynight. The 1868 Louisiana Massacre that Reversed Reconstruction-Era Gains "Something that we should all be very proud of.". When he was interviewed for the video, he was attending a Memorial Day service held by the Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club to honor the soldiers killed in that incident. Reposted from The Gambit Weekly: The Lee Street Riot and the - CenLamar William Ward's white rival in Colfax, the Fusionist James W. Hadnot, had told one of his black laborers that he . The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community The places we choose to forget often contain stories we would rather not tell. Alexandria, LA 71301 (318) 483 . St. With Louisiana passing a new state constitution in April 1868 that included male enfranchisement and access to state schools regardless of color, Bentley had reason to feel optimistic about the states future. "And then I'm going to let the holidays pass," he said. January 10, 1942, in Alexandria, Louisiana. According to stories told about that night, afterward, a fight spilled over into the streets where the military police allegedly shot several hundred people including soldiers and civilians. Landry Parish illustrates the local shift of power after 1868, where an instance of conservative boss rule occurred and the parish Republican Party was unable to fully recover for the remainder of Reconstruction, writes historian Matthew Christensen. Memorial Day and the Lee Street Massacre - Medium This event on April 13, 1873 marked the end of carpetbag misrule in the South. On March 1941 it was activated at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana located in central Louisiana outside of the city of Alexandria. "I don't know how I got to safety after the riot," a black trainee at Camp Claiborne recalled. "It's a combination of two factors," he explained. The Town Talk reported that 30 gas bombs were used that night by the Alexandria Police Department to quell the disturbance among the reported 3,000 African-Americans present," he said. Itis now only a vacant lot. . One eyewitness later claimed that the MP panicked when the mob jostled him and he fired directly into the crowd. Copyright 2020 KALB. Nearly forgotten in Alexandria'shistory is a chapter known to only a few thathas been passed down orally for many years. An estimated 62-153 Black militia men were murdered while surrendering to a mob of former Confederate soldiers and members of the Ku Klux Klan. Marker acknowledges tragic night in Alexandria's history Kathleen Blanco. Lee Street Massacre - YouTube The Colfax massacre, sometimes referred to as the Colfax riot, occurred on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, in Colfax, Louisiana, the parish seat of Grant Parish. The United States has done comparatively little until quite recently to memorialize its history of significant racial violence, Pfeifer said. For a few hours, the team walked through the cemetery with the ground penetrating radar, flaggingareas of interest to uncover answers to the mystery detailed in the letter. The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942). The Alexandria, Louisiana Lee Street Riot, it generated renewed (albeit temporary) local interest in the subject. A fracas broke out and a mob gathered. "The Black troops who were in town on liberty weekend, were not armed," he said. "I only know one thing and that is, whenever anybody says, 'Remember Pearl Harbor,' I will say, 'I will remember Lee Street.'". Because he had recently moved to Louisiana,he had not but the conversation spurred his interest in the subject. Harris, who taught history at Livingstone College in North Carolina, recalled the mans haunting words in an essay for the Negro History Bulletin; he titled the essay, facetiously, Southern Hospitality.. All we did, basically, in some ways, was take pictures of the ground - X-ray the ground - no intrusive, no digging or anything like that. "Our city in recent years has often been considered by many around the state as one of the most enlightened cities of our state," said Wynne. And he also knows when there is something unusual like what we would call a mass grave - like when bodies are extremely close together to the point of overlapping.". "And yet the testimony from the community - people who had been eyewitnesses and such - told an entirely different story - that there were a number of soldiers who were killed.". The plantation was so large, in fact, that from . But Democratic papersthe only remaining sources of news in the region, as all Republican presses had been burneddownplayed the horrific violence. For several hours, the experts took photos using the device, flagging any spots of interest for future reference. The editor escaped; and a hundred dead negroes, and perhaps a hundred more wounded and crippled, a dead white Radical, a dead Democrat, and three or four wounded Democrats are the upshot of the business., The groups managed to achieve their ultimate purpose, as was borne out by the results of the November presidential elections. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. Colfax Massacre descendants set out to correct historical account (Berry was introduced to the bar by another well-known legal giant, Camille Gravel, and today, the citys municipal court building is named in honor of both men). The bloodshed continued for two weeks, with African-American families killed in their homes, shot in public, and chased down by vigilante groups. Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. The Caucasian (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875 | Library of Congress The Colfax Massacre occurred on April 13, 1873. Colfax was the scene of the Colfax massacre on Easter, April 13, 1873. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Today819 Lee St. is just a vacant lot in downtown Alexandria, but back in 1942it was the site the former Ritz Theater, where the trouble began. What we know about the victims of the Uvalde school shooting It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. Streets, buildings, cemeteries, and the land itself are saturated with history and the . 160 Fox Fire Ln USD 27 Jun 04 75th Anniversary Celebration. COLFAX, La. The summer of 1868 was a tumultuous one. Downtown Alexandria homicide, Sunday, April 30. Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. Your Privacy Rights He was hit in the left hip but . It is believed many of the black soldiers targeted in the Lee St. violence were stationed at Camp Claiborne. Search Alexandria obituaries and condolences, hosted by Echovita.com. In the 1990s,William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College history professor, interviewed scores of peopleincluding former policemen, former state troopers and civilians and included their stories in his articleA Tale Untold? Removing the White Supremacy Marker at Colfax, Louisiana: A 2021 Lake Buhlow in Pineville features high-speed motorboat racing, and the Alexandria Riverfront Center hosts statewide conventions and galas. Alexandria has a rich and intriguing haunted history that dates to the first Native American settlers. "I hadn't heard about it before Mrs. Compton turned it over to us," said Clifton Jackson of the Buffalo Motorcycle Club in a 2016 Town Talk article. The Alexandria police department was the first to arrive. Lamar is a graduate of Rice University in Houston and the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It was an ugly time. "They fought back with - whatever - bricks, rocks, bottles. Photo: Flickr. "The overgrown back part of the cemetery and to the back left dates after 1945. By 5 June, six more warships had entered Alexandria harbour . A police office stands watch behind police tape near strewn softballs on a field in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, June 14, 2017, after a multiple shooting involving House Majority Whip Steve Scalise . Event starts on Friday, 17 November 2023 and happening at 160 Fox Fire Ln, Alexandria, LA. Touch for map. The central part of the state was the site of Louisiana maneuvers, the largest ever training exercise for the U.S. military. And others who were wounded hid under houses where they died. The straightforward message represented a menacing threat to Bentley, who was teaching African-American children in Louisiana at the time. The History Behind Alexandra Hospital Massacre - ExplorerSG Today, most of those soldiers and most of the civilians who witnessed the pandemonium are dead; records are missing or were destroyed. (WVUE) - At a time when close to a half million troopers were training for World War II, a Louisiana town was ground zero for a riot, or massacre, that highlights the racial tensions of the 1940s. The Colfax Massacre has been known as the "Colfax Race Riot" or the "Easter Sunday Massacre.". They wrote letters and sent appeals to the War Department and Henry Stimson who was the Secretary of War for an independent investigation to be conducted but were largely ignored. Albert H. Leonard, a Shreveport Times editor, power broker, and prominent White Leaguer, began calling on his fellow paramilitaries that summer of 1874 to murder Republican political leaders and instill fear . But, this appears to be a positive one that could help solve the mystery posed in the anonymous letter. Sure enough, they used Bentleys account, in which he wrote the men had been intimidating the Republicans, to instigate a wave of violence on September 28, 1868. Colfax, founded in 1869 as the seat of Grant Parish, began life at the site of one of Louisiana's largest cotton plantations. Many historians, such as James G. Hollandsworth, George C. Rable, and Gilles Vandal have examined the causes and events of the New Orleans Massacre, but few scholars have attempted to uncover how large-scale political Back on January 10, 1942, a riot occurred on Lee Street in Alexandria, where hundreds of soldiers may have died. Erected on June 14, 1951, the sign's bold white letters announced that a civil disturbance claimed the lives of "three white men and 150 negroes." The Read More Read More It was Saturday, January 10, 1942, a little over a month after Pearl . ", "Alexandria and its people have changed drastically over 80 years," said Wynne. (February 26, 2021) The City of Alexandria announced creation of a historical marker that will be erected at 819 Lee Street, the site of the Lee Street Riot of 1942. . It's possible, but it's definitely going to be an uphill battle between the legal action as well as the monetary costs.". While there is now no question whatsoever that black soldiers from Camp Claiborne were among the primary victims of what was quickly dubbed the Lee Street Riot, Col. Ralph Holiday, a commander at the camp, had initially claimed that none of our boys participated in the unfortunate outbreak. It was a part of a pattern of denials, obfuscation, and brazen lies that would be repeated countless times by the militarys brass, one that the pliant and obsequious local paper, the Alexandria Daily Town Talk, was more than willing to report as fact. Im hoping and praying that we can find out the truth to this great American mystery.. 27th May 2023 Events in Alexandria, Louisiana Click Here to report it. Those who oversaw the election felt fully convinced that no man on that day could have voted any other than the democratic ticket and not been killed inside of 24 hours thereafter.. St Landry's Black Codes of 1865 and the Opelousas Massacre Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. The Civil War altered Rapides Parish forever. Deadly violence is especially common in the metro area. The anonymous letter was sent to William M. Simpson, former Louisiana College history professor and author ofA Tale Untold? Some people took refuge at St. James Catholic Church,Jackson recalled Compton told him. On 15 February 1942, the British surrendered Singapore to the Japanese.15 Those who survived the massacre became prisoners of war (POWs) of the Japanese and had to endure three and a half years of captivity. Twenty-five years after his article was published, Simpson said he and the community can take satisfaction that the tale of the violent incident that occurred on Lee Street in 1942is no longer a tale untold. The White League's Violent Insurrection in Louisiana Was Almost a A century before it hosted the Louisiana Maneuvers, 69% of the population of Rapides Parish were enslaved African Americans. "So the press had very little information. is in Alexandria, Louisiana, in Rapides Parish. The Colfax Massacre (1873) - BlackPast.org Location. This was the clearest opportunity yet to take him down. : "About 7 o'clock, a disorderly Black soldier was arrested by two white MPs - attempted arrest. There probably are relatives still around of the men who were killed. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area (population 153,922) which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes. The soldiers were all unarmed; the military police and state troopers, however, had an arsenal at their disposal. Only slightly better known is the 1873 Colfax massacre in which an estimated 60 to 150 people were killeda massacre largely following the pattern set by Opelousas. In 1887, African-American cane workers in Louisiana attempted to . ", "From my understanding, what we're looking for are the areas of the cemetery that have not been 'used'," explained Holt. "Aside from the civilians and soldiers enjoying that night, were dozens of military police from the local camps, both Black and white, with the white MPs being the only ones fully armed to handle any trouble caused by the soldiers on Lee," he said. Historians are searching for a long-buried secret. The victims of the Texas school shooting in Uvalde - Los Angeles Times The shiny new black marble monument dedicated to the victims of the Colfax Massacre sits next to the railroad tracks on Eighth Street, not far from where the atrocity took place on April 13, 1873. The Alexandria, Louisiana, Lee Street Riot (January 10, 1942). With echoes of the bondage Read MoreThe Thibodaux Massacre (November 23, 1887) The Thibodaux Massacre took place in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. PINEVILLE, La. (There were subsequent reports the soldier had been accused of assaulting a White woman, though those reports seem to be based on pure speculation. Copyright 2020 WVUE. He referred to the excavation of bodiesfrom the 1921 Tulsa, Okla., massacre that were recently exhumed from a mass grave at Oaklawn Cemetery. He hopes that schools will have field trips to the site and have someone such as one of the members of the Buffalo Soldierstalk to students about about what happened. Compton would lay a wreath at the site each year in remembrance of those who were killed that night. Marker is on Lee Street north of 9th Street, on the right when traveling north. The U.S. Army was segregated in those days. Camp Claiborne was situated in Rapides Parish about 18 miles south of Alexandria, off the intersection of US Highway 165 and present day La Highway 112, just north of the town of Forest Hill. He also assisted in the research for the markers text. As one scholar noted, Blacks lived so far away from the main facilities it seemed to have no physical connection at all with the camp itself. The quick and easy way to find all the exciting Halloween attractions in the Louisiana area for 2023! Colorado governor signs gun control bills after nightclub massacre The late Etta Compton, whose husband owned a business on Lee Street, kept the history of this 1942 incidentalive by telling others about it. The Louisiana History Museum is not just dedicated to Alexandria but to all of Louisiana's history. Louisiana Haunted Houses - Your Guide to Halloween in Louisiana D.S. The contradiction between the official report and oral history is what kept Simpson interested. Compton told Jacksonthat the state police were on rooftops and allegedly shot down on people. Louisiana unveils new monument to Colfax race massacre | News | nola.com Mystery of the 364th. During its first two years, the Bayou Brief has become more than a Louisiana news outlet; it is also an online community, which is even more critical as a global pandemic forces us to find new ways to come together. So she called the local police officer over who of course immediately started to arrest him and other soldiers that had come out with him that night, came around and this became a police riot because one among the things they reported where police were doing things like just shooting into black barbershops. The 9News Investigators have learned the man accused of gruesomely killing a woman and streaming the violent encounter on Facebook Live was released from prison just weeks before the attack. | READ MORE, Lorraine Boissoneault is a contributing writer to SmithsonianMag.com covering history and archaeology. A University of Southern Mississippi (USM) professor has joined in an effort to resolve questions about the potential existence of a mass grave of African-Americans killed in a 1940s riot in Alexandria, Louisiana by arranging a roundtable panel focused on the issue in the upcoming 38th annual Gulf South Historical Association meeting being held in that city this weekend. In erecting the marker, Wynne said the citizens of Alexandria are committing to becoming better people and telling"our children and our children's children of this tragedy., "It has been a long road to get to this point," said Wynne. "Others say a massacre occurred in a matter that reportedly lasted between 2 and 6 hours. Cookie Policy Expert researchers and historians spent Tuesday at Holly Oak Cemetery in Pineville, searching for a rumored mass gravesite. "The . Surface changes, soil changes and big tree roots, which look like an interred body, are also organic and surrounded by soil can provide challenges for the radar when used in a cemetery. The untold story of the slaying of a Southern town's ex-slaves and a white lawyer's historic battle to bring the perpretators to justice Following the Civil War, Colfax, Louisiana, was a town, like many, where African Americans and whites mingled uneasily. She is also the author of The Last Voyageurs: Retracing La Salle's Journey Across America. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. 1845-1918. "Local Black citizens, the local chapter of the NAACP, and others, they were convinced from the get-go that more happened than what the Army was saying," he said. Simpson spent several years interviewing witnesses and researching the event, widely believed to be the most significant race riot during WWII, and when he published his findings in 1994 in an essay titled A Tale Untold? "They said they were shipping the soldiers out so fast they were shipping them in rough boxes," said Jacob Crittle in a 2018 Town Talk video. "And subsequently, other significant, different places where the bodies might have been disposed of," said Simpson. The number of soldiersand possibly civilianskilled is unknown. 1 day on Zillow. "And whether it's one body, 20 bodiesor many more, we want to find where they are and finally bring resolution to the families who lost their sons in this tragic massacre.". The Caucasian of Alexandria, Louisiana, was founded in April 1874, one year after the infamous Colfax Massacre (or Colfax Riot) in neighboring Grant Parish, a political conflict that resulted in the death of as many as 150 African Americans.Bearing the motto "Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again," the Caucasian reported on the prosecution of the massacre's white participants . Over the summer, armed white men harassed black families, shot at them outside of Opelousas (the largest city in St. Landry Parish), and killed men, women and children with impunity. There were several reasons the federal government selected Central Louisiana as the staging grounds for the largest-ever military exercise in the nations history: The regions mild climate meant training could be year-round; the area had been used before, during WWI, and it helped that the newly-established Kisatchie National Forest meant the federal government already owned a ton of land. . Today, outside of Central Louisiana, what transpired that night in Alexandria, in a part of town that was called Little Harlem, has been either completely forgotten or entirely misremembered. Lee Street would never again be the same kind of bustling commercial corridor it had been. 3517 Obituaries. Heplans to carefully diagram where every unmarked grave is located. He never heard of the Lee Street Riot until Compton told him about it. There were, in fact, a number of soldiers killed on that violent night in Alexandria. Alexandria was burned to the ground by the Union, and emancipation upturned the regions economy, which had been largely dependent on slave labor and the slave trade. While the federal government prepared young men to fight across both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, for many Black soldiers, hell began as soon as they wandered off-base. By the 14th of February, the 550-bed hospital had close to 900 patients. . The Alexandria Massacre of 11 June 1882 and the British - JSTOR About 60 armed MPs showed up along with city police and state troopers, said Simpson. 254 Alexandria Louisiana Premium High Res Photos - Getty Images the company that made the rifle used in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, . "But much more work on race relations still lies ahead. Cenla Historian Michael Wynne tells KALB he and many others believe a number of African American soldiers were killed that night and buried in a mass grave thats now home to Holly Oak Cemetery. There is one bit of folklore that continues to persist: the story of what a small group of Black soldiers had attempted to do once they returned to base. Alexandria, LA (04/10/2023) The Alexandria Police Department (APD) is investigating a traffic collision that occurred last night involving an off-road.