| Red Shirts | |
|---|---|
&sq=Qlik&lang=&file=File:N.98.2.77_Group_of_Red_Shirts_pose_at_the_polls_(5908630058).jpg) Red Shirts at a polling place in Old Hundred, North Carolina, on Election Day, November 8, 1898 | |
| Leaders | Benjamin Tillman Ellison D. Smith Josephus Daniels Claude Kitchin |
| Dates of operation | 1875–1900s |
| Allegiance | Democratic Party (Redeemers) |
| Motives | White supremacy |
| Headquarters | South Carolina |
| Active regions | Southern U.S. (especially The Carolinas) |
| Ideology | White supremacy Anti-Reconstruction |
| Allies | Redeemers, Ku Klux Klan, White League |
| Opponents | Republican Party, African Americans |
| Battles and wars | Hamburg massacre Wilmington insurrection of 1898 |
The Red Shirts or Redshirts of the Southern United States were white supremacist[1][2][3] paramilitary terrorist groups that were active in the late 19th century in the last years of, and after the end of, the Reconstruction era of the United States. Red Shirt groups originated in Mississippi in 1875, when anti-Reconstruction private terror units adopted red shirts to make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern Republicans, both whites and freedmen. Similar groups in the Carolinas also adopted red shirts.
Among the most prominent Red Shirts were the supporters of Democratic Party candidate Wade Hampton during the campaigns for the South Carolina gubernatorial elections of 1876 and 1878.[4] The Red Shirts were one of several paramilitary organizations, such as the White League in Louisiana, arising from the continuing efforts of white Democrats to regain political power in the South in the 1870s. These groups acted as "the military arm of the Democratic Party".[5]
While sometimes engaging in violent acts of terrorism, the Red Shirts, the White League, rifle clubs, and similar groups in the late nineteenth century worked openly and were better organized than the underground terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. They used organization, intimidation and force to achieve political purposes of restoring the Democrats to power, overturning Republicans, and repressing civil and voting rights of freedmen.[6] During the 1876, 1898, and 1900 campaigns in North Carolina, the Red Shirts played prominent roles in intimidating non-Democratic Party voters.
- ^ Prather, H. Leon (1977). "The Red Shirt Movement in North Carolina 1898–1900". The Journal of Negro History. 62 (2): 174–184. doi:10.2307/2717177. ISSN 0022-2992. JSTOR 2717177. S2CID 224836399.
- ^ Rothstein, Richard (2017). The Color of Law. New York: Liveright Publishing Co. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-63149-285-3. OCLC 959808903.
- ^ DeBonis, Mike (23 June 2015). "A field guide to the racists commemorated inside the U.S. Capitol". Washington Post. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
- ^ Charles Lane, The Day Freedom Died, (2008) p. 247
- ^ George C. Rable, But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984, p. 132
- ^ Nicholas Lemann, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Paperback, 2007, p. 76.