On this day in 1875

Dec. 30, 1875

Mississippi state senator Charles Caldwell was assassinated by a mob of white men in Clinton, just west of the state’s capital in Jackson.

The blacksmith had been one of the 16 black Republican delegates who participated in the 1868 Constitutional Convention, which wrote a constitution to integrate public schools, legalize interracial marriages, give the vote to all adult men and ensure property rights, regardless of race or gender.

Mississippi voters, however, rejected the constitution. An editorial in the Aug. 4, 1875, issue of the Hinds County Gazette called for the end of Republican rule, saying “the time has come when it should be stopped—peaceably if possible, forcibly if necessary.”

A month later, 2,000 Black Mississippians, along with 75 or so white allies, attended a Republican political rally and barbecue at an abandoned plantation outside Clinton, and when a former Union Army officer representing the governor began to speak, a group of 18 white men disrupted the rally. When Caldwell tried to intervene to keep the peace, gunfire erupted.

“The thing opened just like lightning, and the shot rained in there, just like rain from heaven,” one witness said.

Five Black Mississippians, including two children, were killed. So were three white Mississippians. Dozens were wounded. More than 500 Black men fled to Jackson for the protection of the U.S. Army, but the KKK-like “Modocs” killed up to 50 Black Americans, vandalized Caldwell’s home and killed several of his neighbors.

A man he thought was his friend lured him out for a Christmas week drink — only for him to be shot in the back. Caldwell told the mob, “Remember when you kill me, you kill a gentleman and a brave man. Never say you killed a coward.” Then the mob riddled him with bullets.

A historical sign now recognizes Caldwell.

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