1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,960 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:13,840 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:16,560 Speaker 1: a show that shines a light on the ups and 4 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: downs of every day history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today 5 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:25,120 Speaker 1: we're talking about a dangerous time during post war reconstruction 6 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,200 Speaker 1: when a US president made a bold move to protect 7 00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:31,600 Speaker 1: Black Americans and their supporters from the barbarity of the 8 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: Ku Klux Klan. The day was October eighteen seventy one. 9 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:47,199 Speaker 1: President Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of 10 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:51,240 Speaker 1: habeas corpus in nine South Carolina counties where k k 11 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: K activity was rampant. He took that extreme measure to 12 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:59,440 Speaker 1: ensure that once the klansmen were arrested and jailed, they 13 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 1: couldn't be set free by legislators who shared their hateful views. 14 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:08,760 Speaker 1: Grant suspension of habeas corpus was incredibly controversial at the time, 15 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: and legal scholars continued to debate its constitutionality to this day. However, 16 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:19,319 Speaker 1: the effectiveness of the action is much less disputed. Thousands 17 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:23,400 Speaker 1: of clansmen were arrested, and countless African Americans were spared 18 00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: from further acts of violence. The Latin term habeas corpus 19 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: literally means show me the body. It's generally used in 20 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:36,399 Speaker 1: reference to a legal principle meant to safeguard against unlawful 21 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:41,919 Speaker 1: and indefinite imprisonment. Beginning around the fourteenth century, English common 22 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: law allowed prisoners to challenge their incarceration if they believed 23 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,200 Speaker 1: they were being unlawfully detained. When this common law right 24 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,880 Speaker 1: was invoked, civil authorities were required to bring the prisoner 25 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: before the court for trial to determine if their detention 26 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 1: was lawful. The writ of habeas corpus became official law 27 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: in Britain in the sixteen hundreds, and was later enshrined 28 00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 1: in US law as Article one, Section nine of the Constitution. 29 00:02:09,639 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: The framers clearly understood the need to protect personal liberty 30 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:17,399 Speaker 1: against abuses of power, but they also recognized that habeas 31 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:22,280 Speaker 1: corpus could itself be abused in certain situations. For that reason, 32 00:02:22,520 --> 00:02:25,840 Speaker 1: they included a kind of escape clause declaring that a 33 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:30,679 Speaker 1: prisoner's right to petition for release cannot be suspended except 34 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:34,800 Speaker 1: in cases of rebellion or invasion, when the public safety 35 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:38,640 Speaker 1: may require it. That clause has only been invoked a 36 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: handful of times in US history. In one of the 37 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:44,920 Speaker 1: earliest and most notable cases was on this day in 38 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:49,760 Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one. Following the Union's victory in the American 39 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,560 Speaker 1: Civil War, efforts were taken to extend legal protections to 40 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:57,680 Speaker 1: formally enslaved black citizens. One way that Congress tried to 41 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:01,240 Speaker 1: do this was through the passage of the fourteen and 42 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: fifteenth Amendments, the so called Reconstruction Amendments. These important initiatives 43 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 1: abolished slavery, granted citizenship to any person born in the US, 44 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,000 Speaker 1: and gave Black Americans the right to vote. However, some 45 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 1: citizens and lawmakers, especially in the South, refused to recognize 46 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,640 Speaker 1: these constitutional rights. The staunchest opposition came from members of 47 00:03:25,639 --> 00:03:29,440 Speaker 1: the Ku Klux Klan, a secret vigilante group founded in 48 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five by former officers of the Confederate Army. 49 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: The group terrorized black citizens and their allies in an 50 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:42,120 Speaker 1: effort to undermine Reconstruction and re establish black subservience in 51 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: the South. But despite the group's egregious acts of intimidation 52 00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: and violence, the existing laws of the land were all 53 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: but powerless to stop them. Some state officials tried to 54 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:57,840 Speaker 1: bring charges against the klansmen, but were swiftly intimidated into silence. 55 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: Federal prosecution was also ruled out, as the government's jurisdiction 56 00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: didn't extend to state level outbreaks of violence. President Grant 57 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:10,280 Speaker 1: was made aware of these shortcomings as soon as he 58 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,320 Speaker 1: took office in eighteen sixty nine. Letters poured in from 59 00:04:14,320 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: the South describing the dire situation and pleading for federal support. 60 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: One especially fervent letter came from Mrs S. E. Lane 61 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: of South Carolina. She told Grant, quote, Sir, we are 62 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: in terror from ku klux threats and outrages. There is 63 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:36,279 Speaker 1: neither law nor justice in our midst our. Nearest neighbor, 64 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:40,680 Speaker 1: a prominent Republican now lies dead, murdered by a disguised 65 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 1: Ruffian band which attacked his house at midnight a few 66 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,800 Speaker 1: nights since. His wife was also murdered. She was buried yesterday, 67 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,720 Speaker 1: and a daughter is lying dangerously ill from a gunshot wound. 68 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:56,479 Speaker 1: Grant knew he had to do something or else the 69 00:04:56,480 --> 00:04:59,359 Speaker 1: country would slip right back into civil war if it 70 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:03,359 Speaker 1: hadn't our. With that grim notion in mind, he implored 71 00:05:03,400 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: Congress to write new laws that would empower the federal 72 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: government to deal with rampaging clansmen. After much debate, Congress 73 00:05:11,240 --> 00:05:16,200 Speaker 1: eventually obliged passing three Enforcement Acts aimed at suppressing white 74 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:21,279 Speaker 1: supremacist violence. The first law, enacted in May of eighteen seventy, 75 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,839 Speaker 1: banned voter discrimination, including the use of terror to discourage 76 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:29,719 Speaker 1: black citizens from voting. The second Act became law in 77 00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:33,960 Speaker 1: April of eighteen seventy one. It placed national elections under 78 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,479 Speaker 1: the control of the federal government and empowered federal judges 79 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:41,599 Speaker 1: and U S marshals to supervise local polling places. The 80 00:05:41,839 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: Third Enforcement Act, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, 81 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: was approved by Congress in April of eighteen seventy one. 82 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 1: It broadened President Grant's powers to enforce the first two 83 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:57,440 Speaker 1: laws by making it a federal crime to deprive American 84 00:05:57,520 --> 00:06:02,120 Speaker 1: citizens of their civil rights through racial terrorism. This empowered 85 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:06,160 Speaker 1: the president to mobilize armed forces and suspend Habeas corpus 86 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: in response to the KKKS violence and intimidation. Grant finally 87 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 1: had the power to act on his own initiative, but 88 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: he still hoped he wouldn't have to use it. After 89 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: signing the Act into law, he said, quote, it is 90 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 1: my earnest wish that peace and cheerful obedience to law 91 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:26,479 Speaker 1: may prevail throughout the land, and that all traces of 92 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:32,279 Speaker 1: our late, unhappy civil strife may be speedily removed. Unfortunately, 93 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 1: that turned out to be wishful thinking, as the legislation 94 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: did little to deter the clansmen. Desperate letters continued to 95 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,359 Speaker 1: arrive from all across the South, pleading for presidential protection. 96 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,240 Speaker 1: The epicenter of the violence seemed to be South Carolina, 97 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:50,080 Speaker 1: which had been the first state to secede from the Union. 98 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:55,000 Speaker 1: Grant dispatched Attorney General Amos Ackerman and Army Major Lewis 99 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: Merrill to investigate the claims. Their subsequent findings were worse 100 00:06:59,440 --> 00:07:02,400 Speaker 1: than he had even and imagined. In one county alone, 101 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: they found evidence of eleven murders and more than six 102 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:10,720 Speaker 1: hundred whippings and other assaults. Ackerman implored Grant to intervene, 103 00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:15,400 Speaker 1: describing South Carolina as quote under the domination of systematic 104 00:07:15,480 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: and organized depravity, a carnival of crime not paralleled in 105 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:25,400 Speaker 1: the history of any civilized community. Grant responded to Ackerman's 106 00:07:25,440 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: report by issuing a warning to nine South Carolina counties 107 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: with extreme levels of clan activity. He ordered those responsible 108 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: for the chaos to surrender all weapons, uniforms, and disguises, 109 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: and to return to their homes immediately. He gave them 110 00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:45,400 Speaker 1: five days to comply, but as expected, his warning was ignored, 111 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:50,559 Speaker 1: and so on October seventeenth, eighteen seventy one, President Grant 112 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 1: declared martial law and suspended the rid of Habeas corpus 113 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:59,520 Speaker 1: within those nine South Carolina counties. Federal forces immediately began 114 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,880 Speaker 1: rounding up KKK members and other instigators of racial violence, 115 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,080 Speaker 1: and because Habeas corpus had been suspended, those arrested were 116 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: not taken before a judge or given a trial. Instead, 117 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:14,360 Speaker 1: they were taken straight to jail, where they would be 118 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 1: held indefinitely without bail. Many wealthy and well connected clansmen 119 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:23,080 Speaker 1: fled into hiding, but by December of that year, Attorney 120 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:27,640 Speaker 1: General Ackerman had successfully indicted three thousand members of the KKK, 121 00:08:28,400 --> 00:08:31,960 Speaker 1: six hundred of whom were eventually tried and convicted of crimes. 122 00:08:32,679 --> 00:08:35,679 Speaker 1: Many of the others were given plea bargains in exchange 123 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:39,920 Speaker 1: for information deemed detrimental to the clan. In the short term, 124 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:44,880 Speaker 1: these efforts greatly reduced racial terrorism in South Carolina, ensuring 125 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,680 Speaker 1: that the elections of eighteen seventy two were free and 126 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: fair and allowing black citizens to rest easy. However, briefly 127 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 1: in the decades that followed, African Americans continued to be 128 00:08:56,600 --> 00:08:59,760 Speaker 1: targeted throughout the South, not only by vestiges of the 129 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:03,360 Speaker 1: coup Kluck's plan, but by racist policies that sought to 130 00:09:03,440 --> 00:09:09,040 Speaker 1: disenfranchise and segregate them. President Grant's action disrupted clan activity 131 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: for a time, but the hatred at the heart of 132 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,240 Speaker 1: the group found new, more insidious ways to assert itself, 133 00:09:16,040 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: just as it still does today. I'm Gay Bluisier and 134 00:09:21,520 --> 00:09:24,840 Speaker 1: hopefully you now know a little more about history today 135 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:28,560 Speaker 1: than you did yesterday. You can learn even more about 136 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at 137 00:09:32,559 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: t d i HC Show, and if you have any 138 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, you can always send them my way 139 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:42,760 Speaker 1: at this Day at iHeart media dot com. Thanks to 140 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,360 Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks to you 141 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for 142 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:50,320 Speaker 1: another day in History class.