Reporting from the SHA: Reconstruction, Race, and Policing

This panel at the 2019 Southern Historical Association examined the intersection of race and policing during Reconstruction. Panelists were Elizabeth Barnes (University of Reading), Bradley D. Proctor (Evergreen State College), and Samuel Watts (University of Melbourne). Geoff Ward (Washington University in St. Louis) presided and commented. All three of these papers closely intersected on how violence against African Americans affected Reconstruction policies and how the end of Reconstruction affected violence against freedpeople.

In her paper titled “‘I Saw Their Stars’: Race, Rape, and Policing in the Reconstruction South,” Elizabeth Barnes opened with riots in Memphis where black women were raped by police offices, many in their uniforms. She argued that attacks such as those in Memphis strengthened the relationship between black women and the federal government and fractured those that could have been built between the black community and local enforcement agencies. She connected the use of sexual violence back to antebellum slave patrols. Rural slave patrols were not official law enforcement, it was more of a social occasion to maintain order. These patrols often used sexual violence in order to control slaves and to control spaces, and this sexual violence was directed at both women and men. This sexual violence was used during Reconstruction too, but Barnes noted a difference in class relations. During the antebellum period slave owners often opposed slave patrols on their lands harming their slaves (a tension between upper- and lower-class whites), while during Reconstruction elite whites united with and participated in patrol violence (whites unified against African Americans). Sexual violence was central to Reconstruction police violence; they used this to force people into certain spaces (such as working for a former master) and to intimidate former slaves, particularly through the use of home invasions which was a KKK tactic. The connection between the KKK and police officers using similar tactics and abusing their power affected the ability of freedmen and women to get justice because the police were in positions of power. Barnes examined the layers of complicity between law enforcement, lawyers, and other local officials with the KKK and violence towards African Americans that further alienated freedmen from local justice. When police officers acted with the Klan in violent attacks it showed that they wanted a return to racial (not just political) status quo. This also heightened conflict between local and federal authority during Reconstruction when federal forces stepped in to try to protect freedpeople and investigate acts of white violence. This led to threats and violence against white federal authorities, or those allied to them, caused tension between white southerners and federal power, and increased calls for local and state control over an invasive intervention from the north. Violence against women showed freedpeople that the organizations meant to protect them in the community were actually a threat to them and they looked to federal officials for help. Unfortunately, federal organizations such as the Freedman’s Bureau were also ineffective to secure protection for these women.

Bradley Proctor’s paper, “Southern Policing and the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction,” dovetailed nicely with Barnes’. Using a case where the KKK broke into a depot and stole weapons meant for black militia members, he demonstrated how those who were supposed to investigate the break in and bring the thieves to justice were members of the KKK themselves and prevented justice from happening. Proctor argued that the KKK was a criminal conspiracy from the start and many white conservative male officials were in sympathy with or part of the KKK (or another similar group). The rise and fall of Reconstruction itself centered on the control of the KKK; the KKK was under stricter control during Radical Reconstruction, but when that control went away the KKK was able to exert power again. Like Barnes, he stated that pre-war patrols provided the groundwork for Reconstruction vigilantism, as those protected both the institution of slavery and racial oppression. During Radical Reconstruction there was a change in which local positions were appointed or elected, bringing new people into power, but many positions remained controlled by white men sympathetic to the KKK. There were also often fuzzy lines between police and those who were sometimes deputized or acting like police. Depending on whether the people in power were sympathetic or opposed to the Klan, violence against African Americas might be investigated or ignored. When local officials did oppose the KKK they faced violence or death, pressure and obstruction from the KKK could stop investigations, and if there was a trial it often went nowhere because of threats or violence towards witnesses or others involved in the case. Local failures led to more state and federal efforts to stop the KKK, but these were not fully effective to prosecute Klan violence. This power struggle between federal and local officials led to further violence. In response, southern whites flipped the narrative to one where KKK violence was in reaction to corruption and injustice against their society. Those engaged in vigilante action claimed that they could not charge black men for their crimes because of federal protection so they had to take matters into their own hands to punish criminals. After the reversal of Reconstruction KKK members became more entrenched in positions of power, particularly in policing.

The final paper by Samuel Watts was “Reconstruction Justice: Black Law Enforcement and the Politics of Space in Charleston and New Orleans.” He examined the presence of black police officers as a part of the spatial politics of African Americans in the deep south. During Radical Reconstruction more black men took positions of power, including as police (particularly in urban areas). Police violence in 1866 and 1867 led to calls from black communities for the presence of black officers. This happened in places like New Orleans and Charleston, where black officers had no limits on their powers. Watts states that there were about 350 black police officers during Radical Reconstruction. There were also efforts to professionalize the police force, among other social efforts for change. Black police officers were symbols of radical integration and played a visible role in social change. Black officers asserted themselves publicly and performatively. Watts shared a few cases where officers targeted certain white members of society or certain behaviors to make a point about racial equality/inequality in their society. Even just the wearing of uniforms and badges and the act of enforcing laws were ways to perform equality. These black officers performed professionalism, liberty, respect, equality, and citizenship in their roles in their local community. This was a way that the black community could form a political identity in the post-war South. Starting in 1877, however, the black police forces were dropped after the return of Democratic rule caused many of the officers to be forced out of their positions. Watts argued that they were symbols of the radical progress of the era, despite their ultimate dismissal. He notes that the rise and fall of black policemen in Reconstruction echoes the larger progression of the period.

Dr. Kathleen Logothetis Thompson earned her PhD in Nineteenth Century/Civil War America from West Virginia University, and also holds a M.A. from WVU and a B.A. from Siena College. Her research is on mental trauma and coping among Union soldiers and she is currently working on her first book, tentatively titled War on the Mind. She currently teaches history at several colleges and university and leads tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Kathleen was a seasonal interpreter at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for several years and is the co-editor of Civil Discourse.