Colfax Massacre

Mr. Moore had known little about the April 13, 1873, Easter Sunday Colfax Massacre until he read a news report about the unveiling of a memorial to the victims of the massacre in Colfax, the Parish seat of Grant Parish and the location of the Grant Parish Courthouse.  After reading about the memorial, he felt compelled to drive the two and a half hours from Baton Rouge to see it for himself.  When he arrived in Colfax, he found the memorial placed in the Kansas City Southern Railroad right-of-way, which was about a half mile from the courthouse.   That made no sense to him as no bodies were buried at the memorial.   He decided to learn where the bodies were buried.
 

Background
 

After the 1872 elections 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.
 

From the time of the massacre until the present there has never been a grave marker at the site.   Over the years new courthouses were built and other construction projects were done over the bodies.  During these construction projects the bones of some of those buried in the trench were exposed.  One newspaper article reporting on the discovery of bones stated that a “grinning skull” with  a round bullet hole in its cranium was discovered.   Another article noted that the bones found were “just a negro’s bones.”  The last reported uncovering of bones was in 1965 when a new addition to the courthouse was built.   Those bones were collected and donated to LSU.  There is a concentrated effort currently underway to find these bones, but as yet LSU states that it cannot find them.
 

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.   The Grant Parish Police Jury, the governing body of the parish, when it was informed that the grave of one of the Whites was in disrepair, appropriated money to move the grave to the Colfax cemetery and place a picket fence around it.  When a memorial to the three deceased men who were “fighting for white supremacy” was placed in the cemetery, the Police Jury paid $300 out of the $720 cost.  In 2021 when a 1951 state historical marker, stating that “three white men and 150 negros were slain” in the “Colfax Riot” which marked the “end of carpetbag misrule in the South” was  removed because it was incorrect, the Police Jury issued a letter stating that it did not want any markers at the courthouse regarding the massacre.
 

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.  
 

Mr. Moore’s goal is to have the mass grave publicly acknowledged, preserved, properly maintained, and appropriately marked. It should no longer be treated as if it does not exist.  It is hoped that Grant Parish and surrounding churches will join together to sanctify and commemorate the grave site with representatives from the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana State Bar Association participating.  Finally, he will work to have special legislation passed which will create a commission to be responsible for the mass grave and those souls in it.  They deserve nothing less and a lot more.      
 

A documentary film is in production about the massacre which will be released in 2025. The film is a joint project between Louisiana Public Broadcasting and Riverside Productions of New York.  You can watch the trailer at https://vimeo.com/902400879?share=copy.  The password is Jesse McKinney, the first person killed in the massacre.   Make sure there is a space between Jesse and McKinney.

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