On this day, April 12, in 1873

The threat of white mob violence in Colfax, Louisiana drove hundreds of the black population into the local courthouse to seek refuge. The next day political and racial tensions climaxed as an armed mob of over 300 whites surrounded the courthouse and fired relentlessly. Over one hundred black people were violently murdered by the mob, many of who were Ku Klux Klan members. When police and Federal troops arrived, only 9 were arrested in connection with the Colfax Massacre, and each of those nine were charged with the murder of only one man.