Phoenix Election riot

The Phoenix Election riot in 1898 was a riot by white South Carolinians in the name of Redemption in Greenwood, South Carolina. Over a dozen prominent black leaders were murdered and hundreds were injured by the white mob.

Following a series of federal initiatives designed to shape a more racially tolerant society in what would be known as Reconstruction, Whites in Southern states began to fight back with state legislation specifically designed to disenfranchise African American citizens. Beginning in 1895, South Carolina took its first steps towards the disfranchisement of the black citizen; by 1896, the list of eligible black voters had been drastically reduced. Facing the complete revocation of their right to vote and led by a Republican former anti-secessionist Confederate (in the Tolbert family), black South Carolinians cast affidavits in place of their denied ballots.

References

Wells, Tom Henderson (1970). "The Phoenix Election Riots". Phylon (Clark Atlanta University) 31 (1): 58–69. doi:10.2307/273874. (subscription required)
Wilk, Daniel Levinson (2002). "The Phoenix Riot and the Memories of Greenwood County". Southern Cultures (University of North Carolina Press) 8 (4): 29–55. doi:10.1353/scu.2002.0052.

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