Jan. 11, 1870
The first legislature in Radical Reconstruction met in Mississippi. During this time, at least 226 Black Mississippians held public office. Lawmakers adopted a new state constitution that ushered in free public schools and had no property requirements to vote.
These acts infuriated the Southerners who embraced white supremacy, and they responded violently. They assassinated many of those who worked on the constitution.
In Monroe County, Klansmen killed Jack Dupree, a Black Mississippian who led a Republican Party group. In Vicksburg, white supremacists formed the White Man’s party, patrolled the streets with guns, and told Black voters to stay home on election day.
White supremacists continued to use violence and voter fraud to win. When the federal government refused to step in,
Congressman John R. Lynch warned, “The war was fought in vain.”
It would take almost a century for Black Mississippians to begin to regain the rights they had lost.
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