The Election Massacre of 1874, or Coup of 1874, took place on election day, November 3, 1874, near Eufaula, Alabama in Barbour County. Freedmen comprised a majority of the population and had been electing Republican candidates to office. Members of an Alabama chapter of the White League, a paramilitary group supporting the Democratic Party's drive to regain political power in the county and state, used firearms to ambush black Republicans at the polls.
In Eufaula, members of the White League killed an estimated 15-40 black voters and wounded 70, while driving away more than 1,000 unarmed black people at the polls. In attacking the polling place in Spring Hill, the League effectively hijacked the elections. They turned all Republicans out of office and Democratic candidates took a majority of offices up for election.
Background
The White League had formed in 1874 as an insurgent, white Democratic paramilitary group in Grant Parish and nearby parishes on the Red River of the South in Louisiana. The League was founded by members of the white militia who had committed the Colfax Massacre in Louisiana in 1873, killing numerous black people in order to turn out Republicans from parish offices as part of the disputed 1872 gubernatorial election. Historians such as George Rabe consider groups such as the White League and Red Shirts as a "military arm" of the Democratic Party. Their members worked openly to disrupt Republican meetings, and attacked and intimidated voters to suppress black voting. They courted press attention rather than operating secretly, as had the Ku Klux Klan.
Chapters spread to Alabama and other states in the Deep South. A similar paramilitary group was the Red Shirts, which originated in Mississippi and became active in the Carolinas. Both paramilitary groups contributed to the Democrats' regaining control in the state legislatures in the late 1870s. The Red Shirts were still active in the 1890s and were implicated in the Wilmington Insurrection of 1898 in North Carolina. In the days leading up to the election, the commanding officer in Eufaula was expecting trouble but was ordered by the headquarters in Kentucky to stay away from the local officials over the polls and not interfere with the election under any circumstance.
Events
On the eve of the 1874 election, approximately 1,000 black Republicans were camped outside of Eufaula. While rumors spread throughout the white community that black Republicans would attempt an invasion. On election day, November 3, 1874, an Alabama chapter of the White League repeated actions taken earlier that year in Vicksburg, Mississippi. After the election started, an underage black Republican was caught attempting to vote. After being discovered by the white democrats, he was stabbed in an alleyway. The White League invaded Eufaula and, with firearms, ambushed Black voters as they marched down Broad Street, killing an estimated 15-40 black Republicans, injuring at least 70 more, and driving off more than 1,000 unarmed Republicans from the polls. The group moved on to Spring Hill, where members stormed the polling place, destroying the ballot box, and killing the 16-year-old son of a white Republican judge in their shooting.
The White League refused to count any Republican votes cast. But, Republican voters reflected the black majority in the county, as well as white supporters. They outnumbered Democratic voters by a margin greater than two to one. The League declared the Democratic candidates victorious, forced Republican politicians out of office, and seized every county office in Barbour County in a kind of coup d'état. Such actions were repeated in other parts of the South in the 1870s, as Democrats sought to regain political dominance in states with black majorities and numerous Republican officials. In Barbour County, the Democrats auctioned off as "slaves" (for a maximum cost of $2 per month) or otherwise silenced all Republican witnesses to the events. They were intimidated from testifying to the coup if the case went to federal court. Eventually, the rioters stood before a grand jury, and the grand jury blamed the "militant" black Republicans for the tense atmosphere in Eufaula.
Legacy
Due to the actual and threatened violence by the White League, Black voters began to stay away from the polls in Barbour County. They no longer voted in sufficient number to retain a majority of Republican officeholders. White Democrats continued to intimidate black voters through the late 19th century, especially after a Populist-Republican alliance elected some Fusion candidates in the Deep South, as well as local Republican officials in many states.