Not Just Tulsa: Five Other Race Massacres That Devastated Black America | News | BET

Despite some people claiming America was “great” for Black people seven years after the Civil War, Black men and women were being massacred in plain sight. One of the most horrific incidents — at least, that we know of — was April of 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana. Approximately 150 Black men were murdered by white men with guns and cannons for trying to freely assemble at a courthouse. Sadly, the exact number of deaths is unknown because many Black bodies were thrown into what was called the Red River.

WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA, MASSACRE (1898)
By 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a thriving area with a majority Black population. There were also several Black elected public officials, forcing whites to share power. Of course, “the threat of Negro rule” created illogical white racial resentment. In addition, the media frequently reported, erroneously, that “white womanhood” was threatened by Black men. A white Wilmington newspaper printed a speech by a Georgia feminist that read, “If it requires lynching to protect woman’s dearest possession from ravening, drunken human beasts, then I say lynch a thousand negroes a week … if it is necessary.”

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