04/16/1866 to 04/17/1866
A white man fired into a joint rally of 800 African-Americans from Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia celebrating the congressional over-riding of President Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Act. He was set upon and killed. Federal troops escorted the marchers home but around a hundred whites, disciplined and some wearing C.S.A. uniforms, fired on Union officers and threatened "extermination" of blacks. Federal reinforcements, however, restored order. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation:
Robert W. Coakley, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Domestic Disorders, 1789-1878 (Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), 273-274.