7. The Election Riot of 1874 saw the White League successfully attack polling stations, murder black voters, and remove all Republicans from office in Barbour County, Alabama
Another incident involving the White League, whose explicit objective was the overthrow of Reconstruction governments and the resurrection of racial slavery, the Election Riot of 1874, also known as the Coup of 1874, saw the paramilitary group seek to overturn the election results. Including members involved in the Colfax Massacre in 1873 – wherein the White League attacked blacks attempting to vote during elections in Louisiana – the group actively disrupted Republican political operations throughout the South. On November 3, 1874, the Alabama chapter attacked poll stations in Eufaula, killing at least seven black voters, injuring dozens more, and driving more than one thousand from the polls.
Continuing on their rampage, the force moved to Spring Hill where they stormed the polling station, destroying ballot boxes and murdering the son of a white judge. Refusing to count any Republican votes, the White League proclaimed a Democratic victory in all the offices of Barbour County. Eliciting no response from the federal government, even as black voters increasingly avoided the polls out of fear of violence, the coup was successful. Two years later, a deal was struck to remove federal troops and end Reconstruction, with repression by white militias only increasing in the aftermath.