Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. We are coming up on
Speaker 1: the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of the Memphis Massacre
Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty six, and it is a coincidence that
Speaker 1: this episode is coming out right alongside that anniversary. I
Speaker 1: had originally planned a somewhat different episode, and the focus
Speaker 1: shifted along the way, and we will talk about that
Speaker 1: in our Friday Behind the Scenes. This was a truly
Speaker 1: horrific wave of destruction and violence, including sexual violence and murders,
Speaker 1: against the black community of Memphis, just a year after
Speaker 1: the end of the US Civil War. The perpetrators of
Speaker 1: this included police officers and firefighters, and the victims included
Speaker 1: veterans who had fought for the United States during the war.
Speaker 1: We've talked about a number of other similar waves of
Speaker 1: mass anti black violence on the show, including the Wilmington
Speaker 1: Coup of eighteen ninety eight, the Tulsa Massacre of nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty one, and multiple incidents that took place in and
Speaker 1: around the Red Summer of nineteen nineteen just as examples.
Speaker 1: So the Memphis massacre was part of this pattern of violence,
Speaker 1: and these incidents all had some similar traits, but what
Speaker 1: happened in Memphis also had a couple of aspects that
Speaker 1: really set it apart. It played a role in the
Speaker 1: passage and ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution,
Speaker 1: and the investigations that followed. The massacre heard the first
Speaker 1: known testimony of a transgender person before a Congressional committee,
Speaker 1: so for background. In eighteen eighteen, the United States and
Speaker 1: the Chickasaw Nations signed the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, also known
Speaker 1: as the Treaty of Old Town. The negotiators on the
Speaker 1: US side were future President Andrew Jackson and former Kentucky
Speaker 1: Governor Isaac Shelby, and the Chickasaw Nation was represented by
Speaker 1: brothers Levi and George Colbert. Under this treaty, the US
Speaker 1: purchased land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers in what
Speaker 1: is now Kentucky and Tennessee, with the Chickasaw Nation receiving
Speaker 1: three hundred thousand dollars at the rate of twenty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars annually for fifteen years. This became known as the
Speaker 1: Jackson Purchase. This, of course, is just one tiny piece
Speaker 1: of the United States relationship with the Chickasaw Nation. Among
Speaker 1: other things, the Treaty of Tuscaloosa was one of several
Speaker 1: that were signed in eighteen eighteen. Jackson would face allegations
Speaker 1: of corruption over his land speculations during these negotiations, and
Speaker 1: the Chickasaw Nation would later be one of the indigenous
Speaker 1: nations that was forced to move west under the Indian
Speaker 1: Removal Act of eighteen thirty. That act, of course, was
Speaker 1: passed early in Jackson's presidency and was part of his
Speaker 1: overall policy toward indigenous people. The part of this history
Speaker 1: that is most relevant to today's episode, though, is the
Speaker 1: Jackson Purchase, since a year later, the city of Memphis
Speaker 1: was established on a part of the acquired land. Tennessee
Speaker 1: had been admitted to the Union as a slave state
Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety six, and on June eighth, eighteen sixty one,
Speaker 1: a few months after the start of the Civil War,
Speaker 1: Tennessee residents voted to secede from the Union. Tennessee was
Speaker 1: the last state to secede, and this vote was largely
Speaker 1: split along regional lines. East Tennessee voted decisively to remain
Speaker 1: in the Union, and a substantial majority of West Tennessee,
Speaker 1: where Memphis is, voted to secede. East Tennessee is in
Speaker 1: the Appalachian mountains and foothills, and slavery was not widely
Speaker 1: practiced there, which was not the case in the western
Speaker 1: part of the state. The United States captured Memphis from
Speaker 1: the Confederacy on June six, eighteen sixty one. Two. The
Speaker 1: Confederacy launched a series of raids and incursions into Memphis
Speaker 1: after this, including the Second Battle of Memphis in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty four, but the city remained in Union hands for
Speaker 1: the rest of the war, and the population of Memphis
Speaker 1: changed dramatically during that time. In eighteen sixty Memphis had
Speaker 1: about twenty two thousand residents. The next census was not
Speaker 1: until eighteen seventy, so there's not an exact population number
Speaker 1: for eighteen sixty six, when the massacre happened, but it's
Speaker 1: estimated to have been around thirty five thousand or forty
Speaker 1: thousand people. Many of those new residents were black, including
Speaker 1: people who had fled from more rural areas after hearing
Speaker 1: that Memphis was under Union control. President Lincoln issued the
Speaker 1: Emancipation Proclamation on January first, eighteen sixty three, and six
Speaker 1: months later, the third US Colored Heavy Artillery was established
Speaker 1: and started recruiting black soldiers who were garrisoned at Fort
Speaker 1: Pickering in Memphis. That same year, the US decided to
Speaker 1: consolidate some of its contraband camps in the Mississippi River Valley,
Speaker 1: and Memphis was chosen as one of the locations to
Speaker 1: move people to. We have done an episode about these camps.
Speaker 1: They were established to house people who liberated themselves from
Speaker 1: enslavement and made it to Union territory or were confiscated
Speaker 1: when Confederate sites were captured. Memphis also became home to
Speaker 1: a Freedman's Bureau office in eighteen sixty five, which freed
Speaker 1: people saw as a resource for protection and help and
Speaker 1: became another reason to go to the city. There were
Speaker 1: about four thousand enslaved and free black people in Memphis
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty and at that point, the city's population
Speaker 1: was about eighty percent white. As a result of everything
Speaker 1: we just talked about. When the war ended in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five, the city's free black population had quadrupled to
Speaker 1: about sixteen thousand people. And made up about forty percent
Speaker 1: of the city's population. Some estimates are even higher, estimating
Speaker 1: a black majority in Memphis at some points in the
Speaker 1: mid eighteen sixties, Memphis's Irish population had also grown dramatically.
Speaker 1: The Great Famine had started in eighteen forty five, and
Speaker 1: people fleeing Ireland typically arrived at northeastern ports, but many
Speaker 1: started making their way to Kentucky and Tennessee in the
Speaker 1: eighteen fifties to find work building railroads. Prior to eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty three, most of the manual laborers building railroads were
Speaker 1: enslaved Africans who the railroad companies rented from there enslavers,
Speaker 1: But that year the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that
Speaker 1: people who rented enslaved laborers would be liable if they
Speaker 1: were harmed doing work that they didn't typically do, like
Speaker 1: building a railroad instead of working in a field. In
Speaker 1: other words, the railroads would have to compensate in slavers
Speaker 1: for injuries or deaths among the people who were considered
Speaker 1: their property. It became more economical to higher Irish laborers,
Speaker 1: who didn't have that financial risk if they were hurt
Speaker 1: or killed doing the work. In eighteen fifty less than
Speaker 1: ten percent of the population of Memphis was Irish. That
Speaker 1: number more than doubled by eighteen sixty If you've listened
Speaker 1: to some of our other episodes about this kind of
Speaker 1: mob violence, including previous Hosts episode on the New York
Speaker 1: Draft riots of eighteen sixty three, this probably sounds familiar.
Speaker 1: There were black and Irish entrepreneurs in Memphis, but aside
Speaker 1: from the soldiers, most black and Irish men were competing
Speaker 1: for the same jobs doing manual labor. Irish laborers saw
Speaker 1: the influx of black people into Memphis as a threat
Speaker 1: to their livelihoods, and this was particularly true immediately after
Speaker 1: the Civil War, when slavery had been abolished and the
Speaker 1: city was in an economic recession, mostly staying afloat through
Speaker 1: investments and loans from the North. Broadly speaking, the Irish
Speaker 1: community also had a strong sense of solidarity, in part
Speaker 1: because they faced so much bigotry and derision from other
Speaker 1: white people. Sometimes you'll see this described as Irish immigrants
Speaker 1: not being considered white, but that's not exactly true. Irish
Speaker 1: immigrants to the United States could and did become US citizens.
Speaker 1: They could vote, and own property and hold public office,
Speaker 1: things that people who were not considered white would not
Speaker 1: be allowed to do They were barred from those activities.
Speaker 1: It was more like Irish immigrants were thought of as
Speaker 1: the wrong kind of white people. For example, a Freedman's
Speaker 1: Bureau report on the massacre refers to the instigators who
Speaker 1: were predominantly Irish as quote low whites at two different points.
Speaker 1: The Congressional report on the massacre uses both Irish and white.
Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty six, Irish people also had a lot
Speaker 1: of political power and influence in Memphis. The year before,
Speaker 1: Tennessee had passed a distance franchisement law that stripped former
Speaker 1: Confederates and Confederate sympathizers of the right to vote for
Speaker 1: a minimum of fifteen years. A lot of the people
Speaker 1: who had previously held office in Memphis were wealthy landowners
Speaker 1: and slaveholders, and they were affected by this law. Even
Speaker 1: if they hadn't explicitly sided with the Confederacy or if
Speaker 1: they had not been in favor of Tennessee's secession, A
Speaker 1: lot of them refused to do things like take a
Speaker 1: loyalty oath that was required that endorsed the Emancipation Proclamation. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the vast majority of the Irish residents of Tennessee were
Speaker 1: newly arrived in the United States and didn't feel a
Speaker 1: real connection to the war or a reason to fight.
Speaker 1: They only did because they had been conscripted. Most were
Speaker 1: also poor and had never enslaved anyone. Some who had
Speaker 1: served in the Confederate military could make the case that
Speaker 1: they had been forced into service and had otherwise remained
Speaker 1: loyal to the United States. Others deserted the Confederacy and
Speaker 1: fought for the United States after the Union took control
Speaker 1: of the area where they were so. In the eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty five municipal election in Memphis, Irish Men were disproportionately
Speaker 1: still able to vote, while non Irish white men disproportionately
Speaker 1: were not. John Park, who was either Irish or the
Speaker 1: child of Irish immigrants, I found sources calling him each
Speaker 1: of those things. He was elected mayor. Irish Men were
Speaker 1: elected to nine of the sixteen seats on the Board
Speaker 1: of Aldermen. Irish people also held two thirds of all
Speaker 1: the elected and appointed offices in the Memphis government. The
Speaker 1: large majority of the police and firefighters in Memphis were
Speaker 1: also Irish. All of this is part of the context
Speaker 1: for this massacre which we will talk about after we
Speaker 1: pause for a sponsor break. During and after the Civil War,
Speaker 1: the black population of Memphis fought to be treated with
Speaker 1: dignity and respect. This was particularly true of black soldiers
Speaker 1: and veterans, who felt that they had earned that dignity
Speaker 1: and respect through their service to the United States, and
Speaker 1: whose presence in uniform was just really galling to people
Speaker 1: who thought that they should not have it. For months
Speaker 1: leading up to the massacre, black people in Memphis had
Speaker 1: faced increasing antagonism and harassment from the city's white population,
Speaker 1: including and especially its predominantly Irish police force and firefighting forces.
Speaker 1: This really spiraled, with black soldiers and veterans and civilians
Speaker 1: pushing back against racism, wrongful arrest, police brutality, and other mistreatment,
Speaker 1: only for the white population to become even more hostile.
Speaker 1: This whole cycle also seemed to strengthen this of solidarity
Speaker 1: among Irish immigrants, who had an increasingly US versus them mentality,
Speaker 1: with US specifically meaning Irish people, not white people. More broadly.
Speaker 1: In April of eighteen sixty six, the Civil War was over,
Speaker 1: and black soldiers stationed at Fort Pickering were waiting to
Speaker 1: be paid and mustered out. Of the Army. On April thirtieth,
Speaker 1: a group of black soldiers were walking down Cosey Street
Speaker 1: when four Irish police officers forced them off the sidewalk.
Speaker 1: The details of this aren't clear, like I don't know
Speaker 1: if there was some instigation of forcing them off the
Speaker 1: sidewalk besides just to be antagonistic. But one witness said
Speaker 1: that some words passed between the men, but not what
Speaker 1: was said other than that strong language was used on
Speaker 1: both sides. One of the soldiers fell and then one
Speaker 1: of the police officers tripped over him. Then the police
Speaker 1: officers attacked the soldiers, including one who started beating the
Speaker 1: men with his pistol. This fight went on for several minutes,
Speaker 1: and in the words of the Freedman's Bureau report on
Speaker 1: the massacre quote, both parties then separated, deferring the settlement
Speaker 1: by mutual consent to some future time. Most of the
Speaker 1: black soldiers were mustered out of the army on April thirtieth,
Speaker 1: but they didn't receive their back pay until May first.
Speaker 1: That day, after being paid, many of them went out
Speaker 1: to celebrate. A Large group of people, including women and children,
Speaker 1: congregated on South Street, which was seen as a border
Speaker 1: between white and black neighborhoods of Memphis. This crowd was
Speaker 1: boisterous and loud, with some people singing and dancing. Some
Speaker 1: of them were intoxicated, none of which is surprising since
Speaker 1: they had just been mustered out of the army after
Speaker 1: serving in a war and had just gotten the back
Speaker 1: pay that they had been waiting for. Yes, this was
Speaker 1: definitely rowdy. Understandably, that is exactly the time you should celebrate. Correct.
Speaker 1: Police arrived and they arrested two black men from the
Speaker 1: crowd and tried to escort them from the scene. Several
Speaker 1: other black men tried to intervene. They surrounded the police
Speaker 1: and the men they'd taken into custody, and they fired
Speaker 1: their pistols into the air. The police officers thought they
Speaker 1: were being fired upon, and they started firing into the
Speaker 1: crowd again. In the words of the freedman Spiau report quote,
Speaker 1: during this afray, one police officer was wounded in the finger. Another, Stevens,
Speaker 1: was shot by the accidental discharge of the pistol in
Speaker 1: his own hand, and afterward died. Word of what was
Speaker 1: happening started to spread through Memphis, including rumors that black
Speaker 1: residents were going to try to take over the city.
Speaker 1: John C. Creighton, the city recorder, went out into the
Speaker 1: streets and made a speech on horseback, encouraging the white
Speaker 1: residents around them to arm themselves and to try to
Speaker 1: kill Memphis's black population or them from the city. Shelby
Speaker 1: County Sheriff TM Winters went to Major General George Stoneman,
Speaker 1: who was in command of the troops in Memphis, to
Speaker 1: ask for military help in restoring order. By that point,
Speaker 1: though most of the troops who had been in Memphis
Speaker 1: had been mustered out or transferred elsewhere. Stoneman argued that
Speaker 1: he only had enough men on hand to try to
Speaker 1: protect government property from the mob. He also pointed out
Speaker 1: that the people of Memphis had been very ready to
Speaker 1: get rid of the federal troops who had been stationed
Speaker 1: there to enforce the law. His attitude was sort of like, well,
Speaker 1: you all claimed you were competent and able to take
Speaker 1: care of yourselves, so we sent most of the troops
Speaker 1: away like you asked, and now look where we are. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Winters raised a posse that seems to add to the
Speaker 1: violence rather than controlling it. The violence in Memphis stretched
Speaker 1: from May first through the third, eighteen sixty sive again.
Speaker 1: In the words of the Freedmen's Bureau report quote, the
Speaker 1: city seemed to be under the control of a lawless mob.
Speaker 1: During this and the two succeeding days, all crimes imaginable
Speaker 1: were committed, from simple larceny to rape and murder. Several
Speaker 1: women and children were shot in bed. One woman, Rachel Johnson,
Speaker 1: was shot and then thrown into the flames of a
Speaker 1: burning house and consumed. Another was forced twice through the
Speaker 1: flames and finally escaped. In some instances, houses were fired
Speaker 1: and armed men guarded them to prevent the escape of
Speaker 1: those inside. A number of men, whose loyalty is undoubted.
Speaker 1: Long residents of Memphis who depreciated the riot during its
Speaker 1: progress were denominated Yankees and abolitionists, and were informed in
Speaker 1: language more emphatic than gentlemanly that their presence here was unnecessary.
Speaker 1: Mayor John Park was described as totally losing control of subordinates.
Speaker 1: Those subordinates, including the police officers and firefighters who terrorized, raped, robbed,
Speaker 1: and killed black residents of the city. Park was described
Speaker 1: as intoxicated during part or most of the time, and
Speaker 1: unable to carry out his duties as the mayor. While
Speaker 1: other people characterized him as intentionally sowing discord and disorder
Speaker 1: among the other city officials to try to get them
Speaker 1: to grant him emergency powers. He did make his own
Speaker 1: request for Stoneman to send troops, and Stoneman told him
Speaker 1: that one hundred and fifty troops would be made available,
Speaker 1: but only in the case of quote extreme necessity. He
Speaker 1: left it up to Park to determine whether the need
Speaker 1: was extreme. Meanwhile, black residents of Memphis flooded the Freedman's
Speaker 1: Bureau office to ask Brevet Brigadier General Ben P. Runkle,
Speaker 1: chief superintendent for the Bureau in Memphis, for help. He
Speaker 1: described himself as human in his inability to help them.
Speaker 1: He had no troops to deploy, and when he went
Speaker 1: out to appeal to the mob, no one would listen
Speaker 1: to him. Veterans who had turned in their service weapons
Speaker 1: when they were mustered out went to General Stoneman to
Speaker 1: ask to have them returned, and they were denied. Eventually,
Speaker 1: on May third, Stoneman declared martial law, banned the posse
Speaker 1: that the sheriff had rallied, and deployed reinforcements from the
Speaker 1: fourth US Cavalry to restore order. By that point, forty
Speaker 1: six black Americans, many of them US Army veterans, had
Speaker 1: been murdered at the hands of white perpetrators. Many of
Speaker 1: those perpetrators were Irish police officers and firefighters. About seventy
Speaker 1: five other black people had been injured. At least five
Speaker 1: black women had been raped. Police and civilians had fired
Speaker 1: at patients who were sitting in front of the Freedman's
Speaker 1: Bureau hospital and then fired into the hospital itself. The
Speaker 1: mob had burned down between fifty and ninety homes all Way,
Speaker 1: along with every black church and school in Memphis, and
Speaker 1: they had robbed and burned down black owned businesses. Two
Speaker 1: white men were killed over those three days, the police
Speaker 1: officer named Stevens who was killed when his own pistol
Speaker 1: accidentally discharged, and a firefighter named Dunn, who was shot
Speaker 1: and killed by another white man by mistake. A number
Speaker 1: of civic and business leaders, many of whom were Irish,
Speaker 1: intentionally spread racism and panic during all this. That included
Speaker 1: Attorney General William Wallace, who made public speeches to stoke
Speaker 1: anger and racism, and business leader John Pendergrass, who allowed
Speaker 1: rioters to use his home as a planning and rallying point.
Speaker 1: News reporting played role as well, with conservative newspapers including
Speaker 1: The Daily Argus and The Memphis Avalanche publishing just incendiary articles.
Speaker 1: These newspapers were already highly critical of the Republican governments
Speaker 1: of both the United sis States in Tennessee, and they
Speaker 1: were especially critical of the Radical Republican faction, which was
Speaker 1: known for their opposition to slavery and their efforts to
Speaker 1: secure freedom and equal rights for black people. These newspapers
Speaker 1: framed Radical Republicans as violent and dangerous and described black
Speaker 1: people using racist stereotypes. The Avalanche started printing the names
Speaker 1: of radical Republicans and rumors that black men who had
Speaker 1: been mustered out of service were going to attack the town.
Speaker 1: Multiple investigations were launched within days of the massacre. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk more about that after we pause for
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. The Memphis massacre took place during congressional
Speaker 1: debates over a constitutional amendment that had been proposed by
Speaker 1: the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Earlier drafts of this amendment
Speaker 1: had failed, but the one that the committee reported to
Speaker 1: Congress on April thirtieth, eighteen sixty six was largely the
Speaker 1: same as today's fourteenth Amendment. Debates over the newly drafted
Speaker 1: amendment started a few days after the massacre ended. On
Speaker 1: May tenth, during debates in the House, Representative Thaddeus Stevens
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania referenced the massacre in a speech about the
Speaker 1: amendment's third provision, which barred anyone who had quote engaged
Speaker 1: in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States from
Speaker 1: holding civil or military office. Speaking to representatives who thought
Speaker 1: this language was too strong, Stephens said, quote, let not
Speaker 1: those friends of secession sing to me their siren song
Speaker 1: of peace and goodwill until they can stop my ears
Speaker 1: to the screams and groans of the dying victims at Memphis.
Speaker 1: I hold in my hand an elaborate account from a
Speaker 1: man whom I know to be of the highest respectability
Speaker 1: in the country, every word of which I believe. This
Speaker 1: account of that foul transaction only reached me last night.
Speaker 1: It is more horrible in its atrocity, although not to
Speaker 1: the same extent than the massacre in Jamaica. Tell me
Speaker 1: Tennessee or any other state is loyal of whom such
Speaker 1: things are proved. On May fourteenth, as the debates continued,
Speaker 1: Stevens motioned for the House to send a committee to
Speaker 1: Memphis to investigate what had happened. The resulting House Select
Speaker 1: Committee was made up of two Republicans, Eli Hugh Washburn
Speaker 1: of Illinois and John Brumall of Pennsylvania, and one Democrat,
Speaker 1: George Shanklin of Kentucky. They arrived in Memphis on May
Speaker 1: twenty second. They interviewed one hundred and seventy victims and witnesses,
Speaker 1: as well as officials who had been ostensibly in charge
Speaker 1: in Memphis during the massacre, including Major General Stoneman and
Speaker 1: Mayor John Park. Resulting report, which is not the Freedman's
Speaker 1: Bureau report that we have read from earlier. That was
Speaker 1: a much shorter report. The resulting Congressional Report was about
Speaker 1: four hundred pages long and was printed through the Government
Speaker 1: Printing Office. It detailed the initial altercation on April thirtieth,
Speaker 1: the incidents that happened afterward, and the decisions made by
Speaker 1: civil and military leaders. It reported on the destruction of
Speaker 1: the schools, churches, businesses, and homes, and on the murders,
Speaker 1: sexual assaults, and rapes. It also detailed incidents of white
Speaker 1: residents trying to shelter and protect black people. Most often
Speaker 1: these were landlords and employers who were trying to protect
Speaker 1: people who lived on their property or worked for them.
Speaker 1: Although at least forty of the known perpetrators served in
Speaker 1: the Confederate Army, the people who were interviewed really focused
Speaker 1: on the fact that they were Irish, not on their
Speaker 1: status as former Confederates. In his testimony, General Stoneman tried
Speaker 1: to dispel ideas that were circulating about the soldier's conduct
Speaker 1: having justified the massacre. He acknowledged that some had behaved
Speaker 1: lawlessly on the night of May the first, and said
Speaker 1: that was inexcusable, but he said that overall their conduct
Speaker 1: compared very favorably to that of white troops and similar circumstances.
Speaker 1: Other officers also testified to the black troops general good
Speaker 1: conduct and said that none of them had tried to
Speaker 1: mistreat or attack the white population in any way. Captain
Speaker 1: Thomas J. Dornan said quote, I never saw any riotous
Speaker 1: act among them, and one thing I will say for
Speaker 1: them that there is no number of white soldiers that
Speaker 1: I ever saw that could be held in such subjection
Speaker 1: as they were when their houses were being burned as
Speaker 1: theirs were. I could not have expected it, never could
Speaker 1: have believed it could be done. The congressional report also
Speaker 1: included the oral testimonies of the people who were interviewed.
Speaker 1: These testimonies included those of five black women who brave
Speaker 1: testified about having been raped. Those were Lucy Tibbs, Harriet Armer,
Speaker 1: Francis Thompson, Lucy Smith, and Rebecca Ann Bloom. Lucy Smith
Speaker 1: was Francis Thompson's sixteen year old housemate. Both of them
Speaker 1: testified that men had come to their house. Francis had
Speaker 1: said there were six men, and Lucy said there were seven.
Speaker 1: Both of them said that men had demanded food, so
Speaker 1: they had fed them. They both testified that after the
Speaker 1: men were done eating, they raped Smith and Thompson both
Speaker 1: so badly that they had to get medical treatment and
Speaker 1: stay in bed for about two weeks afterward. Lucy thought
Speaker 1: that the men had been particularly violent toward them because
Speaker 1: they had pictures of Union officers in the house, including
Speaker 1: one of Union General Joseph Hooker. The committee's members came
Speaker 1: to very different conclusions, and those conclusions fell along political lines.
Speaker 1: Its Republican members concluded that what happened in Memphis was
Speaker 1: not a riot, it was a massacre. They pair offf
Speaker 1: Race General Stoneman as saying the black population of Memphis
Speaker 1: quote had nothing to do with it after the first day,
Speaker 1: except to be killed and abused. Conversely, Democrat George Shanklin
Speaker 1: put more of the blame on the black community for
Speaker 1: instigating the violence and Tennessee's disenfranchisement law for barring most
Speaker 1: of the city's property owners and businessmen from voting, leaving
Speaker 1: people from quote the more inferior classes of society to
Speaker 1: be elected quote against the consent of the masses of
Speaker 1: the better population of the city. Shanklin also cited the
Speaker 1: quote antagonistic interest and feelings of hostility that exists between
Speaker 1: the laboring classes of foreign population and the Negro race. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just to be clear, the black population had not instigated
Speaker 1: the violence. He was blaming them here for things that
Speaker 1: had they had not done. As the Select Committee was
Speaker 1: conducting its interviews, Harper's Weekly printed a front page article
Speaker 1: about the massacre. It was illustrated with the depiction of
Speaker 1: a mob burning down a freedman's schoolhouse and one of
Speaker 1: a group of houses in flames, with black families trying
Speaker 1: to flee as men brandished weapons and fired at them.
Speaker 1: Harper's described this incident as quote a disgrace to civilization,
Speaker 1: but it also framed the quote lower class of white
Speaker 1: citizens and the third United States Colored Infantry as equally
Speaker 1: responsible for the original incident on the first day, but
Speaker 1: after that point, Harper's described the mob as indiscriminately killing
Speaker 1: people who were simply going about their days, doing their
Speaker 1: jobs or trying to get to safety. This article also
Speaker 1: made a comparison between what happened in Memphis and the
Speaker 1: eighteen sixty three New York Draft riots, which were similarly
Speaker 1: carried out by a predominantly Irish mob. The House Select
Speaker 1: Committee left Memphis for Washington, d C. On June sixth,
Speaker 1: and by that point the massacre had become a national
Speaker 1: news story beyond the reporting Tracy just talked about in
Speaker 1: Harper's Weekly. On June thirteenth, the House voted to propose
Speaker 1: that the fourteenth Amendment be ratified, and it was sent
Speaker 1: to the States for ratification on June sixteenth, eighteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: The massacre has been credited with giving this a sense
Speaker 1: of urgency since the Fourteenth Amendments first section includes quote
Speaker 1: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
Speaker 1: abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.
Speaker 1: Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty,
Speaker 1: or property without due process of law, nor deny to
Speaker 1: any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Speaker 1: On July twenty fourth, eighteen sixty six, perhaps surprisingly considering
Speaker 1: that it had just been the site of a racist
Speaker 1: massacre two months before, Tennessee was readmitted to the Union.
Speaker 1: Although the House Committee, the Freedman's Bureau, and the military
Speaker 1: all investigated the massacre, no charges were ever filed against
Speaker 1: any of the perpetrators. Almost all of Memphis's elected officials
Speaker 1: were replaced in the eighteen sixty six election, and the
Speaker 1: police and firefighting forces also turned over almost completely. Tennessee
Speaker 1: also passed the Metropolitan Police Bill in eighteen sixty six,
Speaker 1: which gave the governor the authority to appoint commissioners to
Speaker 1: oversee the police in four cities, one of those was Memphis,
Speaker 1: basically took control of the police force out of Memphis's
Speaker 1: direct hands. This law was repealed in eighteen sixty nine.
Speaker 1: While there were virtually no consequences for the perpetrators beyond
Speaker 1: being voted out of office, the Memphis massacre and the
Speaker 1: investigations and news reporting around it are credited with galvanizing
Speaker 1: radical Republicans and voters. As a quick recap, black actor vists,
Speaker 1: radical Republican legislators, and others had been pushing President Abraham
Speaker 1: Lincoln on the need for rights and protections for black
Speaker 1: people and for strict requirements before Confederate states could be
Speaker 1: readmitted to the Union. That was happening for years before
Speaker 1: his assassination in eighteen sixty five. His successor, Vice President
Speaker 1: Andrew Johnson, who had served as military governor of Tennessee,
Speaker 1: was more lenient toward the rebelling states and former Confederate leaders.
Speaker 1: His less ambitious plan became known as Presidential Reconstruction, But
Speaker 1: in the elections that took place the November after this massacre,
Speaker 1: Republicans won majorities in both the Senate and the House,
Speaker 1: and that began the era known as Congressional Reconstruction or
Speaker 1: radical reconstruction. Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of eighteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: which organized the rebelling States or the formerly rebelling states
Speaker 1: into military districts except for Tennessee, which had already been readmitted,
Speaker 1: and then required those states to pass new constitutions that
Speaker 1: had to be approved by Congress. Those constitutions had to
Speaker 1: include suffrage for all men, regardless of race, and the
Speaker 1: states had to approve the Fourteenth Amendment to be readmitted.
Speaker 1: The Memphis massacre and another massacre that took place in
Speaker 1: New Orleans in July of eighteen sixty six are seen
Speaker 1: as providing obvious evidence that the black population had to
Speaker 1: have equal rights any core protections under the laws. This
Speaker 1: also connects to the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment by
Speaker 1: the States. It was ratified on July ninth, eighteen sixty eight.
Speaker 1: At the top of the show, we said that the
Speaker 1: first known transgender person to testify before a Congressional committee
Speaker 1: did so after the Memphis riots. To be clear, the
Speaker 1: word transgender as is just a term that didn't exist
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty six, and it's not a concept that
Speaker 1: was part of the commonly held understanding of sex and
Speaker 1: gender in the US at the time. But there have
Speaker 1: always been people across cultures and throughout history whose gender
Speaker 1: or sexual orientation hasn't aligned with the standards and expectations
Speaker 1: of their culture. So we're using the broad definition of
Speaker 1: transgender here, meaning a person whose gender does not align
Speaker 1: with the sex they were assigned at birth. That was
Speaker 1: the case with Francis Thompson, who had been born in
Speaker 1: Maryland and enslaved from birth before eventually moving to Memphis
Speaker 1: and being freed, not actually sure the order in which
Speaker 1: that happened, her move and her freedom. On July eleventh,
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy six, a decade after the massacre, she was
Speaker 1: arrested for suspicion of cross dressing. When she was questioned,
Speaker 1: she described herself as being quote of double sex or
Speaker 1: most likely intersex in modern parlance. She said she had
Speaker 1: been wearing dresses since she was a child. All of
Speaker 1: her friends and neighbors knew her to be a woman,
Speaker 1: and she said that had been the case for twenty
Speaker 1: seven years, and an article in the Memphis Daily Appeal,
Speaker 1: she described herself as quote regarded always as a woman.
Speaker 1: After these allegations, Thompson was forced to undergo a physical
Speaker 1: examination by a panel of four doctors. They concluded that
Speaker 1: she was male. Afterwards, she was forced to wear men's
Speaker 1: clothing and a station housekeeper basically put her on exhibit.
Speaker 1: At the jail, she was fined and sentenced to work
Speaker 1: on a chain gang. Despite the fact that she was
Speaker 1: physically disabled. She used a cane and said that she'd
Speaker 1: had cancer in her foot. Thompson contracted pneumonia while being
Speaker 1: forced to work on that chain gang and died in
Speaker 1: a hospital on November first, eighteen seventy six. This is
Speaker 1: obviously a sad and dehumanizing thing to have happened to her,
Speaker 1: and news reporting around all of this was horrible. Articles
Speaker 1: implied or stated that Thompson was a sex worker. It's
Speaker 1: really not clear whether that was true, since cross dressing
Speaker 1: was associated with sex work, and she's also described as
Speaker 1: a cook and a domestic worker, sometimes in the same article. Regardless,
Speaker 1: the idea of sex work was used to discredit her.
Speaker 1: Articles also framed her as criminal and deviant when she
Speaker 1: said she planned to leave Memphis after being released. Police
Speaker 1: took photographs of her, one in a dress and one
Speaker 1: an immen's shirt, jacket and hat, so that they could
Speaker 1: distribute those photographs to other jurisdictions. A New York publication
Speaker 1: called The Day's Doings made illustrations from these photographs and
Speaker 1: published them. Newspapers also dug up other examples of people
Speaker 1: accused of cross dressing, especially other black people accused of
Speaker 1: cross dressing to hype up the idea that this was
Speaker 1: some kind of ongoing massive skge. This happened as the
Speaker 1: period of Reconstruction was coming to an end. The former
Speaker 1: Confederate States had all been readmitted to the Union, and
Speaker 1: there had been a brief window in which civil rights
Speaker 1: and legal protections for black people had led to some
Speaker 1: first steps toward racial equality, but a backlash had followed,
Speaker 1: including the passage of discriminatory laws that relegated Black Americans
Speaker 1: to second class citizenship. Reconstruction is considered to have ended
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven after a compromise to settle the
Speaker 1: outcome of the eighteen seventy six election included the removal
Speaker 1: of the last federal troops from the former Confederate States.
Speaker 1: The US was on the cusp of the period that
Speaker 1: has been described as the Natiir of race relations. The
Speaker 1: news reporting around Francis Thompson's eighteen seventy six arrest and
Speaker 1: sentencing was connected to this. Newspapers all across the country
Speaker 1: either wrote or republished articles that led with her testimony
Speaker 1: before the Select Committee, and then they accused her of
Speaker 1: committing perjury during that testimony, saying that she was lying
Speaker 1: about having been raped. These reports called not just her
Speaker 1: testimony into question, but the whole investigation into the eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty six massacre, and, by extension, congressional Republicans and the
Speaker 1: entire project of congressional reconstruction. By the early twentieth century,
Speaker 1: the Memphis Massacre and Francis Thompson had largely fallen out
Speaker 1: of public memory. That continued until the approach of the
Speaker 1: Massacres one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. In twenty sixteen, Among
Speaker 1: other things, the University of Memphis hosted a whole semester
Speaker 1: of workshops, talks by historians, and other events, culminating in
Speaker 1: a symposium on the massacre. This was to both encourage
Speaker 1: new research into the massacre and to spread awareness of
Speaker 1: its history. A historical marker was also erected in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: and that's something that illustrates how debates over how to
Speaker 1: interpret this event have continued until today. The Tennessee Historical
Speaker 1: Marker Commission wanted the term race riot at the top
Speaker 1: of the marker, while Black historians, the NAACP, and others
Speaker 1: felt that term was not reflective of what had actually
Speaker 1: happened and would give people who only looked at the
Speaker 1: heading the wrong idea about what had happened. The NAACP
Speaker 1: ultimately wound up putting up a marker privately in conjunction
Speaker 1: with the city headed eighteen sixty six Memphis Massacre, rather
Speaker 1: than going through the State Historical Marker Commission and having
Speaker 1: that race riot language on there. Sometimes you got to
Speaker 1: go around instead of through. Do do you have listener
Speaker 1: mail for us? I do have listener mail. This listener
Speaker 1: mail is from Amelia, who wrote about an episode Holly
Speaker 1: wrote and one about and I wrote. Amelia wrote, Hey,
Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy. I live in metro Atlanta and recently
Speaker 1: returned from a trip to Philadelphia. So the Richard Peters
Speaker 1: podcast was well timed and I enjoyed learning about his
Speaker 1: life and lasting impacts on the city of Atlanta. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine what the property he owned would be worth today?
Speaker 1: I be Hall, built by Richard's son, is a beautiful
Speaker 1: home and I tried to get married there but it
Speaker 1: didn't work out. We later got married in the Hay
Speaker 1: House in Macon. The Mom's Mabley podcast reminded me of
Speaker 1: my trip to mom's hometown of Brevard, North Carolina. Did
Speaker 1: you know the town is known for their white squirrels.
Speaker 1: All the downtown businesses promote the white squirrel with merchandise
Speaker 1: and signage, and even have a big festival each year.
Speaker 1: I thought it was just a funny mascot until I
Speaker 1: saw one myself. Rumor has it a white squirrel escaped
Speaker 1: from a carnival. I attached a picture of myself as
Speaker 1: a white squirrel with my aunts and a picture of
Speaker 1: the real squirrel. Thank you for your podcast. You've covered
Speaker 1: topics I have never thought to wonder about. In topics
Speaker 1: I greatly enjoy, like embroidery. We also have a lot
Speaker 1: of fur babies, so I have no shortage of pet tacks.
Speaker 1: I've attached a picture of Indie, my black German Shepherd
Speaker 1: husky mix who loves cold weather like me. And my cats.
Speaker 1: Juniper the tuxedo or the Russian Blue and Helena the
Speaker 1: blind torty were pictured together, and we recently foster failed
Speaker 1: with Danny, a three legged torty who fits right in
Speaker 1: with our pack. We frequently find them all sleeping together
Speaker 1: in one big cat pile. Sincerely, Amelia, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for this Amelia. I when I read this, I
Speaker 1: was like, why have I never heard of this white
Speaker 1: squirrel situation in Brevard because I've been to Brevard a
Speaker 1: number of times, and then I realized that like my
Speaker 1: going to Brevard was never to the downtown area of Brevard,
Speaker 1: it was to get to Pisga National Forest and go hiking.
Speaker 1: Had no concept that there was a white squirrel trend
Speaker 1: is not the right word. There are real white squirrels
Speaker 1: that live there, and they're also kind of a theme.
Speaker 1: And then we have adorable animal pictures. They're always so good.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much Amelia for this email. If
Speaker 1: you would like to write to us, we're at History
Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com. If you would like to
Speaker 1: look at the show notes for all of our episodes,
Speaker 1: they are at our website which is at mistonhistory dot com.
Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio
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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
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