A KKK attack on a Black Republican rally in Alabama suppressed Black voter turnout and helped Democrats win the 1870 gubernatorial election.
Key Facts
- Date
- October 25, 1870
- Rally attendees targeted
- Approximately 2,000 Black citizens
- Killed
- Up to 4 people
- Wounded
- 54 people
- Location
- Courthouse square, Eutaw, Alabama
- Political context
- Pre-election racial terrorism during Reconstruction
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
During the 1870 Reconstruction Era, white Democrats in Alabama deployed racial terrorism to suppress Black Republican voting ahead of the fall gubernatorial election. The Ku Klux Klan conducted a sustained campaign of intimidation targeting Black citizens and their Republican allies across heavily Black majority counties.
On October 25, 1870, white Klan members attacked a Republican rally of approximately 2,000 Black citizens gathered in the courthouse square of Eutaw, Alabama. The assault killed as many as four people and wounded 54, terrorizing the assembled crowd in one of the most violent pre-election incidents of the Reconstruction period.
The attack succeeded in suppressing Black Republican participation at the polls. Many Black voters either stayed home or voted Democratic out of fear. Combined with similar intimidation across other Republican-majority counties, this violence contributed directly to a Democratic victory in the 1870 Alabama gubernatorial election.
Political Outcome
Democrats won the 1870 Alabama gubernatorial election after racial terrorism suppressed Black Republican voter turnout.
Republican electoral strength backed by Black majority voters in Greene County and similar counties
Democratic Party victory secured through systematic voter suppression and racial violence