White supremacists erected monuments casting a massacre of Black officials as noble.

Evidence

Today there are two monuments to these events in Colfax, both erected by whites, which cast the occupation of the courthouse by black elected officials as a “riot” rather than what they were: a defense of the results of a lawful election that ended in a massacre by terrorists. The town cemetery is dominated by a white marble obelisk erected shortly after the event that reads: “In loving remembrance, erected to the memory of the heroes Stephen Decatur Parish, James West Hadnot, Sidney Harris who fell in the Colfax riot fighting for white supremacy.” The other is an official plaque, erected in 1950 at the request of the mayor by the Louisiana State Department of Commerce and Industry, which describes the incident this way: “On this site occurred the Colfax riots, in which 3 white men and 150 black men were slain. This event, on April 13, 1873, marked the end of carpetbag misrule in the South.” — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 84

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the author’s broader thesis (via specific monument inscriptions) about how white Christianity memorializes white supremacy; relevant context for any follow-up on Confederate monuments and historical memory.
• XREF: connects to: Confederate monuments physically enshrined the lie that black people were unfit for freedom — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 258; Protestors physically toppling statues act as a counter-history to white supremacy — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1146; Monuments conceal the law-endowed evils of founding figures (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Confederate monuments physically enshrined the lie that black people were unfit for freedom #corroborates (0.95) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 258
• Statues must be replaced with monuments to those killed by American racism #responds-to (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1163
• Protestors physically toppling statues act as a counter-history to white supremacy #responds-to (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1146
• Monuments conceal the law-endowed evils of founding figures #expands (0.80)