In September, 1868, a teacher named Emerson Bentley found a note on his school door. It read: “E.B. Beware! KKK”. The note included a coffin, skull and bones, and a bloody dagger. The 18-year-old Bentley had come south from Ohio to Opelousas, Louisiana to teach at a Freedmen’s Bureau school. Besides teaching black kids, he also was an editor of The St. Landry Progress. His editorials criticized the Democratic Party and praised the higher morals of the Republicans. Louisiana Democrats were upset with the Louisiana Constitution of 1868. Carpetbaggers and blacks controlled the state legislature and put a bill of rights, black voting, and access for all to public accommodations into the constitution. The 14th Amendment gave African-Americans equal protection of the laws. Supposedly. In elections held in 1868, Republicans won control of the state legislature and Henry Clay Warmouth was elected Governor. Whites in Louisiana were incensed that they were losing power. The Knights of the White Camellia (an organization similar to the KKK) was estimated to include 20% of whites in St. Landry Parish. Many other white males joined vigilante groups. A campaign of harassment, intimidation, and murder began. On Sept. 28, 1868, three men visited Bentley’s classroom. They beat the teacher in front of his kids and forced him to retract an anti-Democrat editorial. The kids ran from the classroom yelling “They’re killing Mr. Bentley”. This started the rumor that Bentley had been killed. A group of African-Americans armed themselves. Word spread through the white community that blacks were rising up. A large group of whites on horseback confronted the blacks. 29 were arrested and 27 were lynched. And then their families were hunted down. In the next two weeks, it was open season on blacks in St. Landry Parish. Around 250 were killed. It is believed to be the deadliest incident of racial violence during Reconstruction, eclipsing the more famous 1873 Colfax Massacre. Unfortunately, it worked because in the Election of 1868, Ulysses Grant did not get one vote in St. Landry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opelousas_massacre#Aftermath
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