New Orleans Massacre of 1866

"New Orleans massacre" redirects here. For the arson attack on a gay nightclub in 1973, see UpStairs Lounge arson attack.
New Orleans massacre of 1866
Part of the Reconstruction era
"Murdering Negroes in the rear of the Mechanics' Institute" – Sketched by Theodore R. Davis (Harper's Weekly, August 25, 1866)
LocationNew Orleans, Louisiana
DateJuly 30, 1866
TargetAnti-racist marchers
Attack type
Mass murder
Deaths34–200 African Americans killed and 4 whites killed[1][2]
Injured150
PerpetratorsEx-Confederates, white supremacists, and members of the New Orleans Police Force[3]

The New Orleans massacre of 1866 occurred on July 30, when a peaceful demonstration of mostly Black Freedmen was set upon by a mob of white rioters, many of whom had been soldiers of the recently defeated Confederate States of America, leading to a full-scale massacre.[4] The violence erupted outside the Mechanics Institute, site of a reconvened Louisiana Constitutional Convention.[5] According to the official report, a total of 38 were killed and 146 wounded, of whom 34 dead and 119 wounded were Black Freedmen. Unofficial estimates were higher.[6] Gilles Vandal estimated 40 to 50 Black Americans were killed and more than 150 Black Americans wounded.[7] Others have claimed nearly 200 were killed.[2] In addition, three white convention attendees were killed, as was one white protester.[8]

During much of the American Civil War, New Orleans had been occupied and under martial law imposed by the Union. On May 12, 1866, Mayor John T. Monroe, a Democrat who had ardently supported the Confederacy, was reinstated as acting mayor, the position he held before the war. Judge R. K. Howell was elected as chairman of the convention, with the goal of increasing participation by voters likely to vote for removal of the Black Codes.[9]

The massacre expressed conflicts deeply rooted in the social structure of Louisiana. The New Orleans massacre was a continuation of a longer shooting war over slavery (beginning with Bleeding Kansas in 1859), of which the 1861–1865 hostilities were merely the largest part.[10] More than half of the whites were Confederate veterans and nearly half of the Black Americans were veterans of the Union army. The national reaction of outrage at the earlier Memphis riots of 1866 and the New Orleans Massacre helped the Radical Republicans win a majority in both houses of Congress in the 1866 midterm elections. The riots catalyzed support for the Fourteenth Amendment, extending suffrage and full citizenship to freedmen, and the Reconstruction Act, to establish military districts for the national government to oversee areas of the South and work to change their social arrangements.

  1. ^ "Reconstruction in America Racial Violence after the Civil War, 1865–1876". Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Ball (2020), p. 211.
  3. ^ Stolp-Smith, Michael (April 7, 2011). "New Orleans Massacre (1866) •".
  4. ^ Scott, Mike (30 June 2020). "1866 New Orleans massacre remembered as a city-led racial attack a year after the Civil War ended". NOLA.com.
  5. ^ Vandal (1984), p. 137.
  6. ^ Reynolds, Donald E. (Winter 1964). "The New Orleans Riot of 1866, Reconsidered". Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association. 5 (1): 5–27.
  7. ^ Vandal (1978), p. 225.
  8. ^ Bell, Caryn Cossé (1997). Revolution, Romanticism, and the Afro-Creole Protest Culture in Louisiana 1718–1868. Baton Rouge, La.: LSU Press. p. 262.
  9. ^ Kendall (1992), p. 305.
  10. ^ "300 unique New Orleans moments: Mechanics Institute the center of 1866 riot | 300 for 300 | nola.com". www.nola.com. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 2023-07-21.