After the Civil War, southerners continued to fight change. On this day in 1866, Ex-Confederates, Democratic Party members, white supremacists and the New Orleans Police department attacked Black and White Republicans who had gathered for a political convention. About 50 Blacks and 4 Whites were killed, and 150 Blacks wounded.
In the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln created several orders to militarily cripple the Confederate States. One of these was General Order 233, issued on this day in 1863, the Order of Retaliation. It was popularly known as ‘eye-for-eye’, which decreed that the Union will shoot a confederate soldier for every Black union soldier shot.
On this day in 1839, captured enslaved Africans rebelled and took over the slave ship Amistad. The case eventually ended up in Connecticut, where they sued for their freedom with the help of Anti-Slavery activists. The case ended up in the U. S. Supreme Court, where former President John Quincy Adams help convince the court that indeed the Africans had been illegally enslaved and therefore were free to go home. Abolitionists raised funds to make this happen.
Adam Clayton Powell was elected to the U.S. Congress from Harlem on this day in 1945.
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