Robert Cwiklik, guest author, explains that following the 1866 massacres, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, imposing military rule and requiring new state constitutions that enfranchised Black men. This era saw the rise of "carpetbaggers"—No

Robert Cwiklik, guest author, explains that following the 1866 massacres, Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, imposing military rule and requiring new state constitutions that enfranchised Black men. This era saw the rise of "carpetbaggers"—Northern Republicans who moved south and were elected by newly empowered Black voters—and the implementation of progressive policies like public education. Despite these gains, tensions escalated as white Southerners resented the resulting higher land taxes and political displacement. Ulysses S. Grant emerged as a unifying Republicanfigure, but the 1872 Louisiana election triggered a catastrophic dispute over the legitimacy of the vote. This culminated in the 1873 Colfax Massacre, where white vigilantes slaughtered at least 70 Black people on the Red River. This event remains one of the bloodiest racial massacres in U.S. history, demonstrating that even with federal intervention, the struggle for control over Southern governance remained lethal and unresolved. Sheridan's Secret Mission: How the South Won the War After the Civil War (3)