Black Lives History Timeline: 1887 - Thibodaux Massacre

1887: Thibodaux Massacre

The Thibodaux Massacre started in the aftermath and as a result of a strike of cane field workers. Cane field workers's wages had been increasingly reduced over the last several years, despite the fact that cane workers had the highest rate of on the job mortality. The Knights of Labor organized a strike in four different Louisiana parishes, scheduled for November, during the highest harvest and production time for the planters. The planters appealed to the state governor, who called out the militia to suppress the strikes. Over twenty Black people were killed in this action. Many of the striking workers retreated to to an African American area of Thibodaux. Parish Judge Beattie formed a group called the "Peace and Order Committee" comprised of 300 white men who would serve as a paramilitary group, and declared martial law. Black people in the city had to show papers to enter or leave. On the morning of November 22, Beattie closed the entrances to the town. The strikers in the town refused to be boxed in, and attacked two of the blocked entrances. Beattie's men began to round up Black men and their families, leading to three days of violence and murder of Black people, men, women, and children. According to historian Rebecca Jarvis Scott, "No credible official count of the victims of the Thibodaux massacre was ever made." After the violence subsided, no further labor organizing was allowed until the 1940s.

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Thibodaux Massacre
• Smithsonian Magazine: The Thibodaux Massacre Left 60 African-Americans Dead and Spelled the End of Unionized Farm Labor in the South for Decades
• National Archive: Tracing an Atrocity
• The Thibodaux Massacre of 1887
• The Thibodaux Massacre
• Thibodaux Massacre
• Thibodaux Massacre
• Thibodaux condemns 1887 massacre
• Diverse group honoring victims of 1887 Thibodaux Massacre that targeted 'every black person in sight'
• The Thibodaux Massacre
• Researchers Unveil Findings of Thibodaux Massacre

So many of these cases are easily understood (but in no way ever acceptable) if you recognize that the violence that happened didn't happen because a Black person did something. It happened because a white person was offended by what that Black person did. Not harmed in most cases, just offended. And then they gathered friends who were of like mind, and together, they all attacked, hurt, maimed, and killed Black people. The white people nearly always in a group, and the Black often on their own, or with no defense. Are you angry yet? Because you should be. At white people. For letting this continue for so very long.