Carrolton, Mississippi March 17,
1886 — James Liddell was an attorney and newspaper publisher with a near
pathological hatred of Black people, he also was absolute in his belief Black
people should always be subservient to Whites.
On March 17, 1886, 23 black people
were murdered because of Liddell’s unshakable racism. He organized the horrifying
event because he felt two Black men, brothers Ed and Charley Brown were being arrogant. They had the audacity to press attempted murder charges against him after
an incident on February 12th where Liddell shot at both men over a
minor incident with a friend even earlier in January.
That incident involved the Brown
brothers, who were in the delivery business. They were delivering molasses to a
saloon in Carrollton when they accidentally bumped into Robert Moore a White businessman
from a neighboring town. While Moore was angry, he settled with the Brown
brothers amicably and had no further complaints.
It was Liddell who was incensed
by what happened. On February 12th in Carrollton, he confronted the
Browns accusing them of attacking Moore and deliberately spilling molasses on him.
During the confrontation things became physical between Liddell and Ed Brown,
however, onlookers and witnesses separated the men and prevented further
fighting.
Liddell left the scene after this
intervention and went down the street to a tavern for food. During his dinner, someone
reported to him that the Browns were making vulgar remarks about Liddell to
other Blacks. Liddell left his dinner and once more confronted the Browns. A
shooting soon followed with both Liddell and Ed Brown reporting injuries. There
was no record of who shot first or what the injuries were.
The next morning the Browns
responded by pressing assault charges against Liddell. While Blacks had few
rights in the Jim Crow era in Mississippi they did have this right. Apparently, most White people did not know this, or if they did they never believed a Black
person would have the courage to disrespect a White man that much.
Liddell and his friends and many
White residents of Carrollton were incensed about what they took as disrespect
from Negroes. Word spread through the community that such an effrontery. So
they began plotting against the Brown brothers.
The trial of the Brown vs Liddell
was set to begin on March 17 at the Carrol County Courthouse in Carrollton. The
morning of the trial the courtroom filled with both Blacks and Whites both
groups ready to witness the proceedings. This is when a group of 70 white men,
including Liddell made their statement. They plowed into the courthouse through
the four doors and with rifles started firing into the gathered Blacks.
After emptying their weapons, the
mob mounted their horses and rode away. They left behind 23 dead. They had
killed people trying to escape through the windows or emptied their guns into
dead victims. No Whites were even injured in the attack.
The vicious attack made news not
only in Mississippi but around the county. Reading the old newspapers there is
a clear line between defending the White men of Carrollton in the smaller local
papers of the state and the large national publications.
The large papers such as the New
Orleans Picayune spread the story and it hit the wire services. These stories
were written detailing the massacre and presenting the negros who died or were
injured as the victims. This led to editorials expressing outrage in papers in
Boston, New York, Cleveland, and California. Even in Toronto and Montreal and England, there were expressions of anger about the appalling incident.
To read the smaller papers in Vicksburg,
Grenada, and Jackson reported that the negros had fired first. They reported that
James Liddell had been badly wounded in the initial brawl. These papers didn’t have
more than two stories regarding the massacre and in those stories the Blacks
were painted as the aggressors from the time they first encountered Moore,
saying they had painted him with molasses.
Only The Clarion in Jackson,
Mississippi broke with this wall of misinformation. The Clarion editor wrote an
opinion column saying, “To such considerations, we can close our eyes and our
ears; but we cannot be blind or deaf to the appeals of the weak who claim and
deserve our protection, nor can we be unmindful of the indelible blot that has
been put upon the reputation of the State.”
This call was not heard by the
Mississippi authorities. Carroll County took no action, no coroner’s inquest
was ordered, and no grand jury was empaneled. Mississippi Governor Robert Lowry
openly blamed the victims. “The riot was provoked and perpetrated by the
outrage and conduct of the Negroes,” was his only statement. Congressional
representative Hernando De Soto Money and Senator James Z. George, both
from Carrollton, spoke out in opposition to any further action. This wall of
silence hid the massacre from history for decades, even though the bullet holes
were still visible until renovations were done to the courthouse in 1992, at
that time a plaque was hung memorializing the victims.
Sources: https://www.thehistoryreader.com/us-history/mississippi-murder-mystery/
http://ah.ms.gov/issue/the-carroll-county-courthouse-massacre-1886-a-cold-case-file
https://mscivilrightsproject.org/carroll/event-carroll/carrollton-courthouse-massacre/
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/carroll-county-courthouse-massacre-1886/
No comments:
Post a Comment