A Massacre in Memphis: The Race Riot That Shook the Nation One Year After the Civil War

In May 1866, just one year after Appomattox, Memphis erupted in a three-day spasm of racial terror as white mobs stormed through Black neighborhoods, torched forty churches and schools, and murdered forty-six freed people whose only crime was claiming the hard-won rights of Reconstruction. Stephen V. Ash plunges readers into smoke-choked streets where newly arrived Union officers raced to save lives, former Confederates fanned the flames of vengeance, and freed families huddled behind barricaded doors praying for dawn. When Congress learned that local courts had turned a blind eye to the violence, lawmakers empowered Radical Reconstruction—one of America’s boldest experiments in Political Justice and Racial Justice—to protect four million former slaves from terror and restore their citizenship. Ash’s vivid, present-tense reporting unlocks diaries, newspapers, and trial transcripts to reveal how the riot reshaped national debates over Education Equity, voting rights, and the very meaning of freedom. This tour de force doesn’t just recount the worst-documented massacre of the nineteenth century; it challenges every classroom, book group, and worship service to confront the legacies of racial terror still echoing through our streets. Tap the Save to List button to bookmark this title, or tap the External Link button to view purchase and rental options.