On October 17, 1871, Pres. Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus in South Carolina.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

On this day -- Oct 17, 1871

Violence by KKK in South Carolina Forces Pres. Grant to Declare Martial Law

Founded in December 1865 by former Confederate Army officers, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) operated as a secret vigilante group targeting Black people and their allies with violent terrorism to resist Reconstruction and re-establish a system of white supremacy in the South.

KKK violence was so intense in South Carolina after the Civil War that U.S. Attorney General Amos Akerman and Army Major Lewis Merrill traveled there to investigate. In York County alone they found evidence of 11 murders and more than 600 whippings and other assaults. When local grand juries failed to take action, Mr. Akerman urged President Ulysses S. Grant to intervene, describing the counties as “under the domination of systematic and organized depravity.” Mr. Merrill said the situation was a “carnival of crime not paralleled in the history of any civilized community.”

In April 1871, President Grant signed the Ku Klux Klan Act, which made it a federal crime to deprive American citizens of their civil rights through racial terrorism. On October 12, 1871, President Grant warned nine South Carolina counties with prevalent KKK activity that martial law would be declared if the Klan did not disperse. The warning was ignored. On October 17, 1871, President Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the same nine counties. Once he did so, federal forces were allowed to arrest and imprison KKK members and instigators of racial terrorism without bringing them before a judge or into court.

Many affluent Klan members fled the jurisdiction to avoid arrest but by December 1871 approximately 600 Klansmen were in jail. More than 200 arrestees were indicted, 53 pleaded guilty, and five were convicted at trial. Klan terrorism in South Carolina decreased significantly after the arrests and trials but racial violence targeting Black people continued throughout the South for decades.

Sat Oct 12, 2024: On this day, October 12, 1871, Pres. Grant took the first step to suspending habeas corpus in South Carolina.

Tue Oct 17, 2023: On October 17, 1871, Pres. Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus in SC

Thu Oct 12, 2023: On October 12, 1871, Pres. Grant took the first step to suspending habeas corpus in South Carolina.

Sun Oct 17, 2021: On October 17, 1871, Pres. Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus in SC

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Vital point of history. Excellent post (one of many of yours). . . . . nt

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Thank you. Posting these has been my pleasure.

It's basically a vanity project. I post things that are of interest to me. I see the posts as a diversion from ... the rest of the world.

Some of the things I bring up really are important. Others, less so. The rule is whatever strikes my fancy.

Not everything is pleasant -- school shootings, hotel fires, midair collisions -- but it happened, and I feel it should be noted.

Thanks for reading my posts. And good afternoon.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. In my cursory coursework in US history

in high school and poli sci in college, Reconstruction was barely mentioned, and college was a liberal institution! Grant was described at the time as corrupt, but reality was the exact opposite.

Please note this is some of the consequence of Amendment 14, and our much mentioned sec 3, which our current SCOTUS chose to invalidate or ignore, same thing, when granting Trump immunity. These were the mechanisms of keeping insurrectionists from power. Grant is not studied a lot. He was commanding general of the Army after the Civil War, and oversaw Reconstruction from Washington D.C.

I think he put the teeth into the rule of law, as president. He fought the Klan.

[NNadir]

3. Grant, one of the most underrated Presidents in our history...

...was a champion for racial justice who would go unparalleled until Lyndon Johnson.

Without his Presidency the United States might well have disintegrated again.