United States v. Cruikshank (1875)

Introduction

Until only one year ago, a commemorative sign at the site of the Colfax Massacre celebrated it as “the end of carpetbag misrule in the South.” On April 13, 1873, White Democrats murdered 150 Black Republicans who claimed victory in the gubernatorial election. The indictment under the Enforcement Act of 1870 of those responsible yielded only three convictions. These convictions were overturned at the level of the Supreme Court in United States v. Cruikshank, where it was argued that the protection of citizens from each other was a state responsibility so long as racial animus could not be proven in the case.

Some scholars have viewed this case as a great restriction on federal power. They argue that it gutted Reconstruction amendments and allowed violence to reign against Black Southerners. Others posit that the failure of reconstruction can be found in the language of the amendments themselves, and that the interpretation of the court logically followed their original flaws.