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Serious rioting over three days in Memphis, Tennessee killed 46 blacks and two whites, burned 91 homes, four black churches, and eight black schools. Street altercations between police and recently discharged black soldiers spread to the wider white population, resulting in indiscriminate atrocities against blacks. The event had a strong impact on public opinion and the current moves towards the Fourteenth Amendment. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"The Memphis Riots," Harper's Weekly Magazine, May 26, 1866, p. 321.
Kevin Hardwick, "'Your Old Father Abe Lincoln is Dead and Damned': Black Soldiers and the Memphis Race Riot of 1866". Journal of Social History 27(1), Autumn 1993; pp. 109–218.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Crime/Disasters
