Memphis, Tennessee Riot – 1866
Memphis, Tennessee sits along the shores of the Mississippi. The hinterland of Memphis, prior to the Civil War, was filled with cotton fields and slave labor. When the Civil War ended and the Thirteenth Amendment signed forever outlawing slavery in the United States, Memphis became a mecca for freedmen and their families. As a river town, Memphis held the promise of jobs for the ever-increasing shipping traffic. Along the riverfront, freedmen and Irish laborers fought for the same jobs and dealt with discrimination.
In addition to the freedmen from the hinterland, Memphis had numerous mustered-out black Union soldiers also seeking labor opportunities. Memphis was a southern town that fell to Union forces in 1862. The sight of Union soldiers was not new in 1866. What was new was the sight of mustered out black Union soldiers. As residents of Memphis continued to adjust to peacetime they also had to adjust to the changes in social hierarchy. As long as slavery was legal, the Irish would never be at the bottom of the American social order. Once slavery was outlawed, freedmen and the Irish began battling for which group would be at the bottom of the ladder in a post-slavery country. Complicating this matter further was that the Memphis police force consisted mostly of Irish immigrants.
When black soldiers mustered out of the army and celebrated in the saloons and taverns of Memphis, the Irish police officers ensured that these freedmen knew where they stood in the social hierarchy. Tensions between the two groups intensified as Federal black soldiers patrolled the city to ensure the peace. On April 30, 1866, three black mustered-out soldiers and four Irish police officers had a violent encounter. As one officer shot a former soldier lines were drawn. The next day, on May 1, 1866, whites began pulling black people from their homes, burning houses, churches, schools, and businesses. White mobs raped several black women dozens of black residents were killed. The violence lasted for three days before martial law was declared to restore order to the city.
In the riot’s aftermath, 46 blacks and two whites were killed and hundreds of homes, schools, and churches were burned, and many blacks fled Memphis. Northerners were appalled at the violence, and support shifted from President Andrew Johnson’s Presidential Reconstruction plan toward the more militarized plan. The Radical Reconstruction Act carved the South into five military zones, Congress ratified the Fourteenth Amendment that defined who was an American citizen and that those citizens have a right to due process and equal protection under the law, and ultimately was the catalyst that led to the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson.