One hundred and fifty years ago this month, the white population of Memphis, Tennessee, set about raping, murdering, and plundering the city’s African Americans, most of whom were recently liberated slaves. The riot left dozens dead and entire African-American neighborhoods completely destroyed. It was a harbinger of things to come. Soon the Ku Klux Klan, which had been founded only a few months earlier, in addition to other white-supremacist vigilante groups, would embark on a more general campaign of violence and terror, ultimately succeeding in bringing Reconstruction to an end and ensuring that African-Americans would not enjoy full equality and freedom for many, many more years.
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