In the broader context of racism in the United States , mass racial violence in the United States consists of ethnic conflicts and race riots , along with such events as:
81-470: The Thibodaux Massacre was an episode of white supremacist violence that occurred in Thibodaux, Louisiana on November 23, 1887. It followed a three-week strike during the critical harvest season in which an estimated 10,000 workers protested against the living and working conditions which existed on sugar cane plantations in four parishes: Lafourche , Terrebonne , St. Mary , and Assumption . The strike
162-461: A black-owned barroom and killed one black laborer and wounded another. Violence continued on November 23, 1887, when five town guards were ambushed and two wounded and local white paramilitary forces responded by attacking black workers and their families. Although the total number of casualties is unknown, the consensus is that at least 35 black people were killed during the next three days (some historians estimate that 50 black people were killed) and
243-576: A continuous wall that is 48 miles (77 km) long. The levee, largely funded by a local tax and occasional money from the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority , was built higher but narrower than recommended by the United States Army Corps of Engineers , which decertified them. The additional height proved its value when Hurricane Ida struck the area in 2021, and the floodwaters rose four feet (1.2 m) higher than
324-578: A department store, being arrested on May 31, 1921. On June 1, a confrontation between Black and White groups outside the courthouse led to a shootout which killed 10 Whites and 2 Blacks. The Black group then retreated back to the Greenwood District. Subsequently, a White mob attacked Black businesses, homes, and residents in the Greenwood District. The attack left over 35 city blocks burned, over 800 people injured, and between 100 and 300 people were killed. Over 6,000 Black residents were also arrested by
405-422: A millionaire planter, founded the statewide Louisiana Sugar Producers Association (LSPA), consisting of 200 of the largest planters in the state, and served as president. The powerful LSPA lobbied the federal government for sugar tariffs, funding to support levees to protect their lands, and research to increase crop yields. For the next decade these members also worked to gain control over their labor. They adopted
486-535: A number of riots occurred that were related to longstanding racial tensions between police and minority communities. The 1980 Miami riots were catalyzed by the killing of an African-American motorist by four white Miami-Dade Police officers. They were subsequently acquitted on charges of manslaughter and evidence tampering. Similarly, the six-day 1992 Los Angeles riots erupted after the acquittal of four white LAPD officers who had been filmed beating Rodney King , an African-American motorist. Khalil Gibran Muhammad ,
567-455: A sugar boiler riding on the bayou levee, was fired upon about a mile below Thibodaux. Shots were also reportedly fired at white workers on two plantations near Thibodaux. A New Orleans newspaper reported that "for three weeks past the negro women of the town have been making threats to the effect that if the white men resorted to arms they would burn the town and [end] the lives of the white women and children with their cane knives." Similarly, in
648-496: A uniform pay scale and withheld 80 percent of the wages until the end of the harvest season, in order to keep workers on the plantations through the end of the season. They ended the "job" system. The largest planters, who maintained stores, required workers to accept pay in scrip , redeemable only at their stores. The workers resisted, mounting some actions each year contesting some part of the LSPA's program. The state government supported
729-514: A war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert." California state forces, private militias, Federal reservations, and sections of the US Army all participated in the campaign that caused
810-520: Is Thibodaux . The parish was formed in 1807. It was originally the northern part of Lafourche Interior Parish, which consisted of the present parishes of Lafourche and Terrebonne . Lafourche Parish was named after the Bayou Lafourche . City buildings have been featured in television and movies, such as in Fletch Lives , due to its architecture and rich history. At the 2020 census , its population
891-642: Is water. To the south of the parish is the Gulf of Mexico . Lafourche, like most of the Gulf Coast, is experiencing land loss due to man-made changes to the path of the Mississippi River and development in the swamplands. The southern part of the parish was inundated during Hurricane Juan in 1985. After that, the South Lafourche levee district converted its disconnected patchwork of low hurricane levees into
SECTION 10
#1732858591234972-442: Is what the daily papers here say, but from an eye witness to the whole transaction we learn that no less than thirty-five "...fully thirty negroes have sacrificed their lives in the riot on Wednesday..." Negroes were killed outright. Lame men and blind women shot; children and hoary-headed grandsires ruthlessly swept down! The Negroes offered no resistance; they could not, as the killing was unexpected. Those of them not killed took to
1053-523: Is zoned to Lafourche Parish Public Schools . Residents of select portions of Lafourche Parish (particularly in parts of Grand Bois and Bourg) may attend schools in the Terrebonne Parish School District . The parish is in the service area of Fletcher Technical Community College . Additionally, a Delgado Community College document stated that Lafourche Parish was in the college's service area. D Company 2-156 Infantry Battalion of
1134-720: The Great Migration to the North and West Coast to escape the continuing violence and racial oppression. It was not until the mid-1960s that the civil rights movement achieved the passage of Congressional legislation to enforce civil and voting rights for African Americans and other minorities in the United States. In May 2017, descendants of both the African-American workers and Louisiana plantation owners commemorated those killed. The Louisiana 1887 Memorial Committee, in partnership with
1215-558: The National Weather Service recorded storm surge measurements of 10.1 ft. It was the strongest storm on record to make landfall in Lafourche Parish and at the time the 5th costliest hurricane in United States history. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the parish has a total area of 1,474 square miles (3,820 km ), of which 1,068 square miles (2,770 km ) is land and 406 square miles (1,050 km ) (28%)
1296-862: The Oklahoma National Guard , and taken to several internment centers. Though the Roosevelt administration, under tremendous pressure, produced anti-racist propaganda and helped push for African American employment in some cases, African Americans were still experiencing immense violence, particularly in the South. In March 1956, United States Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina created the Southern Manifesto , which promised to fight to keep Jim Crow alive by all legal means. This continuation of support for Jim Crow and segregation laws led to protests in which many African-Americans were violently injured out in
1377-517: The military to disperse protesters by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807 . Federal law enforcement agencies were eventually deployed to assist local authorities and protect public property in Washington, D.C. Lafourche Parish, Louisiana Lafourche Parish ( French : Paroisse de la Fourche ) is a parish located in the south of the U.S. state of Louisiana . The parish seat
1458-641: The California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 by Benjamin Madley among others. Madley's book caused California governor Jerry Brown to recognize the genocide. In a speech before representatives of Native American peoples in June, 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom apologized for the genocide. Newsom said, "That's what it was, a genocide. No other way to describe it. And that's the way it needs to be described in
1539-599: The Civil War. They required the labor of large numbers of enslaved African Americans. In the postbellum era, they constituted from 50 to 80 percent of the population in most of the sugar parishes. Particularly after Reconstruction, whites in the parish used violence and intimidation against the large population of freedmen to suppress Republican voting and re-establish white supremacy , but were less successful than in North Louisiana until after disenfranchisement of blacks at
1620-586: The Director of the Harlem-based Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has identified more than 100 instances of mass racial violence in the United States since 1935 and has noted that almost every instance was precipitated by a police incident. The Cincinnati riots of 2001 were caused by the killing of 19-year-old African-American Timothy Thomas by white police officer Stephen Roach, who
1701-538: The June assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles also led to nationwide rioting with similar mass deaths. During the same time period, and since then, numerous violent acts committed against African-American churches have been reported. Today racial violence has changed dramatically, because openly violent acts of racism are less prevalent, but acts of police brutality and the mass incarceration of racial minorities are continuing to be major issues within
SECTION 20
#17328585912341782-572: The Southside, where Irish Americans and Black residents were crowded into substandard housing and competed with each other for jobs at the stockyards. The Irish Americans had lived in the city for a longer period of time, and they also organized themselves around athletic and political clubs. Violence broke out across the city in late July. White mobs, many of which were organized around Irish athletic clubs, pulled Black people off trolley cars, attacked Black businesses, and beat victims. City officials closed
1863-573: The United States Racial and ethnic cleansing was committed on a large scale after the end of the American revolution during the early period of time in the history of the United States , particularly against American indians , who were forced off their lands and relocated to reservations . Along with them, Chinese Americans in the Pacific Northwest and African Americans throughout
1944-685: The United States (particularly in the American south ) were rounded up and expunged from towns under threat of mob rule, the white mobs frequently intended to harm their African American targets . Following California 's transition to statehood, the California state government , incited, aided and financed miners, settlers, ranchers and people's militias to enslave, kidnap, or murder a major proportion of California’s Indigenous people, who were sometimes contemptuously referred to as "Diggers", for their practice of digging up roots to eat. California governor Peter Hardeman Burnett predicted in 1851: "That
2025-615: The United States dropped from the 1880s to the 1920s, but there were still an average of about 30 lynchings per year during the 1920s. A study of 100 lynchings which was conducted from 1929 to 1940 revealed that at least one third of the victims were innocent of the crimes of which they were accused. Labor and immigrant conflicts were sources of tensions that served as catalysts for the East St. Louis riot of 1917. White rioters killed an between 39 and 150 Black residents of East St. Louis, after Black residents had killed two White policemen, mistaking
2106-449: The United States. The war on drugs has been noted as a direct cause of the dramatic increase in the number of incarcerations in the nation's prison system, which has risen from 300,000 in 1980 to more than 2,000,000 in 2000, though it does not account for the disproportionately high African American homicide and crime rates, which peaked before the War on Drugs began. During the 1980s and '90s
2187-764: The United States. The beating and rumored death of cab driver John Smith by police, sparked the 1967 Newark riots . This event became, per capita, one of the deadliest civil disturbances of the 1960s. The long and short term causes of the Newark riots are explored in depth in the documentary film Revolution '67 and many news reports of the times. The riots in Newark spread across the United States in most major cities and over 100 deaths were reported. Many inner city neighborhoods in these cities were destroyed. The April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee and
2268-595: The University of Louisiana Lafayette Public Archeology Lab, is attempting to verify a mass gravesite on private property, with plans for examination and proper burial in volunteered churchyards of any victims found. In May 2017, the Thibodaux City Council officially condemned the violence and acknowledged that the event occurred. The Lafourche Parish Council did likewise in November 2017. Mass racial violence in
2349-469: The activities of militias, and between 1854 and 1859 the state appropriated another $ 500,000, almost half of which was reimbursed by the federal government. Guenter Lewy , famous for the phrase "In the end, the sad fate of America's Indians represents not a crime but a tragedy, involving an irreconcilable collision of cultures and values" wrote that what happened in California may constitute genocide: "some of
2430-517: The black village of Pattersonville. The militia protected some 800 contract workers brought in to Terrebonne Parish, and helped capture and arrest 50 strikers, most for union activities. The strike collapsed there, and workers returned to the plantations. Many of the black workers in Lafourche Parish retreated after eviction to the crowded black residential section of Thibodaux, and the state militia withdrew. They left it up to local officials to manage from there. Newspapers reported that on November 1,
2511-641: The car which they were riding in for another car which was full of White occupants who previously drove through a Black neighborhood and randomly fired their guns into a crowd of Black people. Other White-on-Black race riots included the Atlanta riots (1906), the Omaha and Chicago riots (1919), some of a series of riots which occurred in the volatile post- World War I environment, and the Tulsa massacre (1921). The Chicago race riot of 1919 grew out of tensions which existed on
Thibodaux massacre - Misplaced Pages Continue
2592-413: The crop, when it had to be harvested and processed. The work stoppage threatened the entire sugar cane harvest for the year. The 1887 strike was the largest labor action in the industry, involving an estimated 10,000 workers, a tenth of whom were white. It was the first time a formal labor organization had led a strike in this region. The planters appealed to Louisiana Governor Samuel Douglas McEnery , who
2673-498: The days leading up to the climactic event in Thibodaux, it was reported that "[s]ome of the colored women made open threats against the people and the community, declaring that they would destroy any house in the town" and that "[n]ot a few of the negroes boasted that in case a fight was made they were fully prepared for it." One historian adds: As late as November 21 some still comported themselves with confidence, and perhaps bravado, on
2754-458: The deadliest incidents of labor suppression and racial terrorism. Lafourche Parish is part of the Houma -Thibodaux metropolitan statistical area . People of the state-recognized Native American Houma Tribe live in both Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes. South Louisiana became known as “Sugarland”, and Lafourche one of the sugar parishes, where sugar cane plantations were established before and after
2835-415: The deaths of many California Indians with the state and federal governments paying millions of dollars to militias to murder Indians, while many starved on Federal Reservations because of their caloric distribution reducing from 480–910 to 160–390 and between 1,680 and 3,741 California Indians were killed by the U.S. Army themselves. Between 1850 and 1852 the state appropriated almost one million dollars for
2916-420: The deaths took place in what he defined as more than 370 massacres (defined as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise"). Professor Ed Castillo , of Sonoma State University , estimates that more were killed: "The handiwork of these well armed death squads combined with
2997-412: The ditch[,] you will find my rifle close by me.["] I was handed a pistol and a rifle then at the same time. I reach to pick Mr. Molaison up[.] [H]e said ["D]on't pull me[;] you hurt my leg.["] . . . I then took Mr. Molaison on my back into my house which is forty feet from the railroad. The guard was stationed on the right hand side of my fence. The shot that struck the fence was a heavily loaded gun. [From]
3078-405: The eyes and mouth.["] I then helped Mr. Gorman to home [and] had been gone but a short distance when I heard the second shot fired which I think came from ambush. This was followed by 5 or 6 shots which sounded like shots from a rifle. The 1st shot fired which hit Mr. Gorman sounded as a shot from a shot gun. Molaison was shot shortly after Gorman. According to another eyewitness, a white resident of
3159-461: The fatal violence of November 23, 1887 were Willis Wilson, Felix Pierre, Archy Jones, Frank Patterson, Grant Conrad, Marcellin Walton, Riley Anderson, and Mahala Washington. John G. Gorman, the first picket shot by the strikers, lost an eye from the lead slug that struck him on the side of the head and exited his mouth through the palate, shattering the bones along its path. The other picket, Henry Molaison,
3240-419: The federal government originally stationed troops in the South in order to protect these new freedoms, this time of progress was cut short. By 1877, the North had lost its political will in the South and while slavery was gone, Jim Crow laws erased most of the freedoms which were guaranteed by the 14th and 15th amendments. Through violent economic tactics and legal technicalities, were gradually removed from
3321-424: The field" and their workers died at a high rate during the era of slavery . Conditions were little improved after Reconstruction. A major issue arose in the early 1880s when plantation owners began cutting wages and forcing sugar workers to accept scrip for pay due to a declining international sugar market. These "pasteboard tickets" were redeemable only at company stores, which operated at high profit margins. As
Thibodaux massacre - Misplaced Pages Continue
3402-471: The grave," etc. Parish District Judge Taylor Beattie , who owned Orange Grove Plantation and was a member of the LPSA, announced formation of a "Peace and Order Committee" in Thibodaux. He declared martial law, and recruited 300 white men for his committee to serve as a paramilitary group. He ordered blacks within the city limits to show passes to enter or leave. Like many top-ranking white state officials, Beattie
3483-618: The highest of any parish in the state and nearly twice as high as some others among the six parishes with the highest totals. In general, most of the lynching and racial terrorism took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On August 29, 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in Port Fourchon at 16:55 UTC as a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. Additional reports surveyed by ships in Port Fourchon reported wind gusts up to 194 knots. In Golden Meadow, LA ,
3564-494: The history books." Riots which are defined by " race " have taken place between ethnic groups in the United States since at least the 18th century and they may have also occurred before it. During the early-to-mid- 19th centuries, violent rioting occurred between Protestant " Nativists " and recently arrived Irish Catholic immigrants. The San Francisco Vigilance Movements of 1851 and 1856 have been described as responses to rampant crime and government corruption. But, since
3645-672: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian immigrants were subjected to racial violence. In 1891, eleven Italians were lynched by a mob of thousands in New Orleans . In the 1890s, a total of twenty Italians were lynched in the South . As the American Civil War ended, antislavery political forces demanded rights for ex-slaves. This led to the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments, which theoretically granted African-American and other minority males equality and voting rights. Although
3726-544: The late 19th century, historians have noted that the vigilantes had a nativist bias; they systematically attacked Irish immigrants, and later, they attacked Mexicans and Chileans who came as miners during the California Gold Rush , as well as Chinese immigrants. During the early 20th century, whites committed acts of racial or ethnic violence against Filipinos , Japanese , and Armenians , all of whom had arrived in California during waves of immigration. During
3807-619: The massacres in California, where both the perpetrators and their supporters openly acknowledged a desire to destroy the Indians as an ethnic entity, might indeed be regarded under the terms of the convention as exhibiting genocidal intent ." By one estimate, at least 4,500 California Indians were killed between 1849 and 1870. Contemporary historian Benjamin Madley has documented the numbers of California Indians killed between 1846 and 1873; he estimates that during this period at least 9,400 to 16,000 California Indians were killed by non-Indians. Most of
3888-406: The median income of a household in the parish was $ 51,339 according to the 2019 American Community Survey. In 2000, males had a median income of $ 34,600 versus $ 19,484 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $ 15,809. About 13.20% of families and 16.50% of the population were below the poverty line , including 21.90% of those under age 18 and 18.30% of those age 65 or over. The parish
3969-532: The murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd sparked racial unrest over systemic racism and police brutality against African Americans. Riots during the summer resulted in destruction of property, mass looting, monument removals , and incidences of violence by counter-protesters and police across the United States. The Trump administration condemned violence during the movement and responded by threatening to quell demonstrations, for which it drew criticism. In June, president Donald Trump threatened to use
4050-466: The neighborhood: [A]bout 5 o’clock I heard a shot fired. A moment after I heard two more fired one after the other. The moment I heard the two last shots I heard the guard cry out, that he was shot. I got out of my bed immediately[.] [T]hey ordered me out of my house to advance. I cried out ["]I am a friend advancing to assist.["] The guard Henry Molaison understood my voice, he said ["P]rotect me if you can.["] I said ["]I will[.] [The guard said] ["L]ook in
4131-426: The open at lunchroom counters, buses, polling places and local public areas. These protests did not eviscerate racism, but they prevented racism from being expressed out in the open and forced it to be expressed in more coded or metaphorical linguistic terms. By the 1960s, decades of racial, economic, and political forces, which generated inner city poverty, resulted in race riots within minority areas in cities across
SECTION 50
#17328585912344212-436: The organizing of sugar workers for decades, until the 1940s. According to historian John C. Rodrigue, "The defeated sugar workers returned to the plantations on their employers' terms." The harvesting and processing of sugar cane comprised a complex series of steps which needed to be closely coordinated by a large labor force which was pushed to work to the point of physical exhaustion. Sugar plantations were called "factories in
4293-411: The owners' terms. White Democrats, who dominated the state legislature, soon passed laws for disenfranchisement of blacks, racial segregation and other Jim Crow rules. There was no more effort to organize sugar workers until the 1940s. It was then initiated in the context of increased civil rights activism after World War II. In that same period, beginning during the war, many Louisiana blacks joined
4374-429: The pickets, John G. Gorman and Henry Molaison, seriously wounding both. An eyewitness, another guard, described the initial attack on Gorman: We were fired upon while seated at a camp fire except [for] Mr. Gorman[,] [who] was standing at [it]. This firing came from ambush in a corn field opposite. When the shot was fired Gorman threw up his right hand to his forehead, said ["B]oys, I am severely wounded. I am bleeding from
4455-429: The plantation kept the books, often illiterate workers were increasingly bound by debt and unable to get free. Required by law to pay off the debt, workers became essentially bound to the plantation in a state similar to slavery. Most of the cane workers were black, but there were also whites. The Knights of Labor used the scrip issue to organize workers, and thousands joined the group. In October 1877, Duncan F. Kenner ,
4536-613: The powerful planters, sending in state militia when the planters used convict lease labor from prisons to harvest and process the cane. In 1887 the Knights of Labor organized a major three-week sugar strike against cane plantations in Lafourche , Terrebonne , St. Mary , and Assumption parishes. Most plantations were idle. The strike was organized by the national Knights of Labor organization, who had established Local Assembly 8404 in Schriever
4617-408: The preceding year. In October labor representatives delivered demands to the LSPA that included an increase in wages to $ 1.25 a day, biweekly payments, and payment in currency instead of the "pasteboard tickets" , or scrip, redeemable only at company stores. As the LSPA ignored the demands, the Knights of Labor called the strike for November 1, timed to coincide with the critical "rolling period" of
4698-399: The recommended height – but one foot (30 cm) lower than the levee was built. In the northern part of the parish, the shorter, federally approved levees were overtopped and the communities were flooded. As of the 2020 United States census , there were 97,557 people, 36,759 households, and 25,224 families residing in the parish. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size
4779-546: The request of the planters, the state sent in militia against the workers to break the strike. In what was called the Thibodaux Massacre of November 22, 1887, local whites organized by leaders of the town killed up to 50 blacks who had taken refuge in the African-American quarters after a major Knights of Labor strike was called on sugar plantations. Hundreds more were wounded or missing, and presumed dead. The total deaths in this parish due to this racial terrorism were
4860-731: The same day the Knights of Labor called the strike, strikers concealed in a cane field fired upon white replacement workers at the Lacassagne plantation in Tigerville (present-day Gibson) in Terrebonne Parish, wounding four workers. Over the next three weeks leading up to the massacre, strikers allegedly used threats and gunshots from ambush to intimidate replacement workers. A number were wounded in attacks upon sugar houses, one losing an eye, and one man reportedly died from his wounds. According to newspaper accounts, around November 13, Theodule Baille,
4941-466: The sidewalks. Mary Pugh, widow of Richard Pugh, owner of Live Oak Plantation in Lafourche Parish, reported "meeting negro men singly or two or three together with guns on their shoulders going down town & negro women on each side telling them to 'fight - yes - fight we'll be there.'" After the event, one Thibodaux newspaper repeated the claim that prior to November 23, "[t]he negroes were in motion [and] [t]heir women boasted that they were ready to fire
SECTION 60
#17328585912345022-866: The sound of the gun the sound was that of a shot gun. I am a [ sic ] old hunter and consider myself an expert and can distinguish the sound of a gun. . . . In my portion of the town the negroes seemed bo[a]stful and threatening before the shooting of the guards. After the two white pickets were shot and wounded, a local volunteer company, the Clay Knobloch Guards, went to the scene and claimed to also have been fired upon from ambush. They reportedly returned fire and fatally shot six blacks and wounded four others, and captured several loaded shotguns. The company and other white vigilantes immediately started to round up and kill black workers and family members. They targeted known and suspected Knights of Labor organizers. The victims were killed in town and where they tried to hide in
5103-566: The street car system, but the rioting continued. A total of 23 Black people and 15 White people were killed. The 1921 Tulsa race massacre took place in Greenwood , which was a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, home to around 10,000 Black residents and frequently called America's Black Wall Street. The race riot was precipitated by 19-year-old Dick Rowland , a shoeshine accused of attacking 17-year-old White elevator operator Sarah Page at
5184-473: The surroundings woods and swamps. Some bodies were reportedly left in shallow graves or the swamps. On November 26, 1887, the bodies of three blacks were found in a thicket on the Allen Rienzi plantation. It was believed they had been wounded on Wednesday and had taken refuge where they were later found dead. A New Orleans black newspaper, The Daily Pelican , described the scene: 'Six killed and five wounded'
5265-415: The three-day attacks by the paramilitary, saying that in addition, numerous Knights of Labor organizers disappeared over the next year. But he cites no authority as reference for the figure of 50. He also makes the unsupported claim (discredited by all contemporary accounts, including those cited herein) that "the Thibodaux paramilitaries launched a preemptive dawn attack on November 23." The known victims of
5346-474: The top news story of 2014 was police killings of unarmed Black people, including Brown, as well as the investigations and the protests afterward. During the 2017 Unite the Right rally , an attendee drove his car into a crowd of people protesting the rally, killing 32-year-old Heather D. Heyer and injuring 19 others, and was indicted on federal hate crime charges. In 2020, the police killing of Breonna Taylor and
5427-420: The total tally of killed, wounded, and missing was rumored to number in the hundreds, which makes it one of the most violent labor disputes in U.S. history. Reportedly, the victims included elders, women and children. All of the people who were killed were African American. The massacre, and the passage of discriminatory state legislation by white Democrats, including the disenfranchisement of most blacks , ended
5508-460: The town." The white editor of the Lafourche Star newspaper (who participated in the killings) also offered this attempt at justification for the severity of the vigilante committee's response: The loud-mouthed "wenches" must bear in mind that though they have a tongue, they are not priviledged [ sic ] to make use of such threats as "burning the town," ["]slaughtering the whites from the cradle to
5589-463: The turn of the century. From 1877 through the early 20th century, there were 52 lynchings of African Americans in Lafourche Parish. Most of the deaths were due to white suppression of labor unrest in 1887; blacks were skilled sugar workers and had begun to organize for better wages and conditions. Some 10,000 workers had struck in Lafourche and three other parishes during the critical harvest period. At
5670-427: The two black men were shot on November 21, plainly stated on November 24 that the shooting of the two pickets was perpetrated by "colored people who were out on the strike." Based on hearsay estimates, he stated that the number of dead amounted to 25. The Daily Pelican account quoted above is apparently one source for the casualty figure of 35. According to historian Rebecca Jarvis Scott, "No credible official count of
5751-507: The victims of the Thibodaux massacre was ever made; bodies continued to turn up in shallow graves outside of town for weeks to come." Eric Arnesen wrote that local white residents privately admitted more than 50 workers were murdered in Thibodaux, but the total was uncertain. Along the Bayou Lafourche, black oral history has told of hundreds of casualties, including wounded and missing. Modern author James Keith Hogue attributes 50 deaths to
5832-550: The voting process . Lynching is defined as “a form of violence in which a mob, under the pretext of administering justice without a trial, executes a presumed offender, often after inflicting torture and corporal mutilation on him or her.” It was a particularly ritualistic form of murder , and it frequently involved the majority of the members of the local White community. Lynchings were sometimes announced in advance and they were frequently turned into spectacle lynchings which audiences could witness. The number of lynchings in
5913-604: The widespread random killing of Indians by individual miners resulted in the death of 100,000 Indians in the first two years of the gold rush." Numerous books have been written on the subject of the California Indian genocide, such as Genocide and Vendetta: The Round Valley Wars in Northern California by Lynwood Carranco and Estle Beard, Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846–1873 by Brendan C. Lindsay, and An American Genocide: The United States and
5994-457: The woods, a majority of them finding refuge in this city. In the same account, that newspaper claimed that the two pickets were shot by other white guards from Shreveport, to create a pretext to initiate the wholesale slaughter of the black strikers. But the Shreveport state militia company reportedly left Thibodaux two days earlier. Henry Franklin, the owner of the nearby coffee house and bar where
6075-508: Was 3.04. In 2000, there were 89,794 people living in the parish. The racial makeup of Lafourche was 82.85% White , 12.61% Black or African American, 2.30% American Indian and Alaska Native , 0.67% Asian , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 0.58% from other races, and 0.97% from two or more races ; 1.43% of the population were Hispanic or Latino American of any race. Among the population, 19.12% reported speaking French or Cajun French at home, while 1.51% spoke Spanish . Up from $ 34,910 in 2000,
6156-475: Was 97,557. Long a center of sugar cane plantations and sugar production, in November 1887 the parish was the site of the Thibodaux Massacre . After state militia were used to suppress a massive Knights of Labor strike involving 10,000 workers in four parishes, many African Americans retreated to Thibodaux. Local paramilitary forces attacked the men and their families, killing an estimated 50 persons. Hundreds more were missing, wounded, and presumed dead in one of
6237-523: Was also a planter. McEnery, declaring, "God Almighty has himself drawn the color line," called out ten infantry companies and an artillery company of the state militia, sending the latter to Thibodaux, the parish seat and "heart of the strike." They were to protect strikebreakers and suppress strikers; they evicted workers from plantation housing. The militia suppressed strikers in St. Mary Parish , resulting in "as many as twenty people" killed or wounded on November 5 in
6318-581: Was an ex-Confederate and former slaveholder. He was a former member of the Knights of the White Camelia , a group that had worked to suppress and intimidate black voters during Reconstruction. On Monday, November 21, two black men had been shot—a man named Watson died, and a second man, Morris Page, was wounded. Judge Beattie ordered the paramilitary to close the entrances to the city on the morning of November 22 and stand guard. Someone fired from ambush on two of
6399-559: Was subsequently acquitted on charges of negligent homicide. The 2014 Ferguson unrest occurred against a backdrop of racial tension between police and the Black community of Ferguson, Missouri in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown ; similar incidents elsewhere such as the killing of Trayvon Martin sparked smaller and isolated protests. According to the Associated Press ' annual poll of United States news directors and editors,
6480-539: Was the largest strike in the history of the industry and it was also the first strike to be conducted and coordinated by a formal labor organization, the Knights of Labor . At planters' requests, the state sent the militia to protect strikebreakers from ambush attacks by strikers, and work resumed on some plantations. Black workers and their families were evicted from plantations in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes and retreated to Thibodaux . Tensions erupted into violence on November 21, 1887 when an unknown white man entered
6561-406: Was unable to walk without assistance a month after his wounding. The severity of their injuries was attributed to the fact that the lead slugs that struck them were roughly "chopped from a bar of lead," and thereby presumably intended to cause massive injuries on impact. After the massacre, labor organizing among sugar workers essentially was suspended, with plantation workers returning to work under
#233766