White League

White League
White Man's League Participant in the Reconstruction Era
White League and Ku Klux Klan alliance, in illustration, by Thomas Nast, in Harper's Weekly, October 24, 1874
Active	1874–1876
Ideology	White supremacy
Originated as	Confederate Army veterans
Became	State militias
Allies	U.S. Democratic Party
Opponents	U.S. government, U.S. Republican Party, African Americans, Carpetbaggers, Scalawags
Battles and wars	Coushatta massacre Battle of Liberty Place

The White League, also known as the White Man's League, was an American white paramilitary organization started in 1874 to turn Republicans out of office and intimidate freedmen from voting and political organizing. Affiliated with the Democratic Party, its first chapter was formed in Grant Parish, Louisiana and neighboring parishes, made up of many of the Confederate veterans who had participated in the Colfax massacre in April 1873. Chapters were soon founded in New Orleans and other areas of the state.

The Red Shirts was a similar group that formed chapters in Mississippi and the Carolinas. Active during the later years of Reconstruction, these paramilitary groups were described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party." Through violence and intimidation of blacks and allied whites, their members suppressed Republican voting and contributed to the Democrats' taking control of the Louisiana Legislature in 1876 (and to Democratic control in other southern states).

After white Democrats regained control of the state legislature in 1876, members of the White Leagues were absorbed into the state militias and the National Guard.

Although sometimes linked to the secret vigilante groups, the Ku Klux Klan and Knights of the White Camelia, the White League and other paramilitary groups of the later 1870s marked a significant change. They operated openly in communities, solicited coverage from newspapers, and the men's identities were generally known. Similar paramilitary groups were chapters of the Red Shirts, started in Mississippi in 1875 and active also in North and South Carolina. They had explicit political goals to overthrow the Reconstruction government. They directed their activities toward intimidation and removal of Northern and African American Republican candidates and officeholders. Made up of well-armed Confederate veterans, they worked to turn Republicans out of office, disrupt their political organizing, and use force to intimidate and terrorize freedmen to keep them from the polls. Backers helped finance purchases of up-to-date arms: Winchester rifles, Colt revolvers and Prussian needle guns.