1871: Klan Trials
From Bensonwiki
Description:
Under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, habeas corpus was suspended in nine counties in South Carolina to prevent the spread of Klan violence. The counties were: "Spartansburgh, York, Marion, Chester, Laurens, Newberry, Fairfield, Lancaster, and Chesterfield."1 The state of South Carolina became famous not only for being the only state in which habeas corpus was suspended under the 1871 act, but also for being the site of the famous Ku Klux Klan trials of 1871-1872. Hundreds of members of the Ku Klux Klan were arrested, and the trials began in Columbia in November 1871.2 Some of the chief players in the trials were South Carolina attorney general Daniel H. Chamberlain for the prosecution, Henry Stanbery for the defense, and Federal Circuit Judge Hugh Lennox Bond.3 Jurors, as per the 1871 act, were made to swear an oath. The oath read, "We, the undersigned, do solemnly swear that we have never, directly or indirectly, counseled, advised or voluntarily aided any such combination or conspiracy, as set forth and described in an Act of Congress entitled 'An Act to enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes,' approved April 20, A.D.1871."4 In the end, the trials resulted in only five convictions.5 They did succeed in proving, however, that the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments would be enforced. In addition, the trials were another reflection of the violence resulting from the new status of blacks in the South during and after Reconstruction.
Related Events:
1866: Foundation of the Ku Klux Klan 1866: Proposition of the Fourteenth Amendment 1870: Fifteenth Amendment is adopted 1870: Force Bill 1871: Ku Klux Klan Act
Sources:
1 J.C. Banscroft Davis, "The Ku-Klux-- Proclamation of the President," Christian Advocate, 26 October 1871, APS Online.
2 Paul Finkelman, ed. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, s.v. "Ku Klux Klan," (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001), 153.
3 Lou Falkner Williams, The Great South Carolina Ku Klux Klan Trials: 1871-1872, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996).
4 United States Circuit Court (Fourth Circuit), Proceedings in the Ku Klux trials at Columbia, S.C., in the United States Circuit Court, November term, 1871, Printed from government copy, (Columbia, South Carolina: Republican Printing Company, State Printers, 1872), 12.
5 Finkelman, ed. Encyclopedia, 153.