Wednesday, December 7, 2022

CRT History: Election of Black Sheriff Leads To Massacre of Hundreds of Blacks


December 7, 1874, Blacks rallied in support of Sheriff Peter Crosby in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Crosby, a former slave, had been legally elected but the whites refused to recognize his authority and falsified evidence of bribes and corruption and got the board of supervisors in the county to remove him.

On this day when the black population of the county tried to host a rally for Crosby white mobs attacked and began randomly killing blacks. The mobs were declared a “Militia” and began hunting down negros sweeping into black neighborhoods and the outlying black areas where planters and sharecroppers lived. Killing as many blacks as possible and white Republicans.

Southern newspapers such as the “Republican Banner” in Memphis and the New Orleans Bulletin reported on this mob violence as a war for Vicksburg and claimed that hundreds of blacks were armed and marching on the city to massacre whites. These were lies.

Mississippi Governor Adelbert Ames refused to request federal troops at this time and issued a proclamation calling the incident a riot. He did call the state legislature into special session to her of the causes and see if there was anything to be done as violence continued for weeks, eventually, he did request federal aid and in January President Grant sent in troops to restore order. They restored Crosby to the office after an investigation. Crosby made a white man named J.P. Gilmer his undersheriff. Gilmer shot Crosby in June of 1875 but was never arrested. In fact while as many as 300 blacks were killed no one was ever charged with any crime



Sources:

https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/dec/07

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604770210/?terms=Vicksburg&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604770210/?terms=Vicksburg&match=1

https://www.newspapers.com/image/604770210/?terms=Vicksburg&match=1

 

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