The South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials of 1871–1872

CLAIM CONNECTIONS / 8

Where this source is used

• Disputed 1876 returns left rival claimants to the South Carolina governorship, and both parties inaugurated their candidates.

  • supports · paragraph beginning ‘While raids on homes did not resume’, rival victory claims and inaugurations

• The Federal Judicial Center reports that §5 of the Enforcement Act of 1870 imposed criminal penalties for violence or intimidation used to prevent Black citizens from voting.

  • supports · paragraph beginning ‘The defendants were charged under two federal statutes’, discussion of §5

• Federal troops detained more than 600 suspected participants by the end of 1871, according to the Federal Judicial Center account.

  • supports · paragraph following the October suspension account

• President Grant declared upcountry counties in rebellion and suspended habeas corpus there in October 1871.

  • supports · paragraph beginning ‘Alarmed by reports’

• The Federal Judicial Center reports that §2 of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 criminalized violence or intimidation against a qualified voter for supporting a lawful candidate in a federal election.

  • supports · paragraph beginning ‘The second statute’, discussion of §2

• The Federal Judicial Center concludes that the prosecutions did not establish durable federal protection for Black political rights.

  • supports · concluding discussion extending through 1873–1885

• The Federal Judicial Center assesses the prosecutions as briefly halting Klan violence.

  • supports · opening and concluding assessment

• The Federal Judicial Center reports that prosecutors obtained convictions or guilty pleas in nearly all cases they pursued during the South Carolina trials.

  • supports · proceedings and concluding assessment