Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class The Memphis Massacre About this episode The Memphis Massacre was a truly horrific wave of destruction and violence, including sexual violence, against the Black community of Memphis just a year after the end of the U. S. Civil War.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:04 Speaker 01 OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A plus by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
0:32 Holly Frey? We've all tumbled down an internet rabbit hole trying to self-diagnose, and it leaves us more anxious than informed. Our feeds are full of wellness trends, but how do we know what's real, what's exaggerated, and what's just wrong? Health vs. Hype from the American Medical Association breaks it all down. Emmy-nominated science communicator Trace Dominguez talks to doctors, influencers, and real people trying these trends, not to cancel them, but to understand them. Because when it comes to your health, who you listen to matters. So listen to Health vs. Hype wherever you get your podcasts.
1:04 Speaker 03 If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Grainger for easy reordering, so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done.
1:33 Tracy V. Wilson? Whether you're calling the wise women in your life, video calling your girlfriends across the country, or checking in on someone who always knows how to make you smile, staying connected matters. Those small conversations, shared laughs, and quick hellos are what keep relationships strong even when life gets busy. Some of the most life-giving conversations start with just a phone call. That's why AT&T guarantees the network you can rely on, so you can focus on the moments and people that matter most. That's the AT&T Guarantee. AT&T: Connecting Changes Everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details.
2:10 Holly Frey? Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
2:20 Tracy V. Wilson? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
2:24 Holly Frey? And I'm Holly Frey.
2:25 Tracy V. Wilson? We are coming up on the 160th anniversary of the Memphis massacre of 1866. And it is a coincidence that this episode is coming out right alongside that anniversary. I had originally planned a somewhat different episode and the focus shifted along the way. And we will talk about that in our Friday behind the scenes. This was a truly horrific wave of destruction and violence, including sexual violence and murders against the Black community of Memphis, just a year after the end of the US Civil War. The perpetrators of this included police officers and firefighters, and the victims included veterans who had fought for the United States during the war.
3:10 Tracy V. Wilson? We've talked about a number of other similar waves of mass anti-Black violence on this show, including the Wilmington coup of 1898, the Tulsa massacre of 1921, and multiple incidents that took place in and around the Red Summer of 1919, just as examples. So the Memphis massacre was part of this pattern of violence, and these incidents all had some similar traits. But what happened in Memphis also had a couple of aspects that really set it apart. It played a role in the passage and ratification of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and the investigations that followed the massacre heard the first known testimony of a transgender person before a congressional committee.
3:56 Holly Frey? So for background, in 1818, the United States and the Chickasaw Nation signed the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, also known as the Treaty of Old Town. The negotiators on the US side were future President Andrew Jackson and former Kentucky Governor Isaac Shelby. And the Chickasaw Nation was represented by brothers Levi and George Colbert. Under this treaty, the US purchased land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers in what is now Kentucky and Tennessee, with the Chickasaw Nation receiving $300,000 at the rate of $20,000 annually for 15 years. This became known as the Jackson Purchase.
4:37 Tracy V. Wilson? This, of course, is just one tiny piece of the United States' relationship with the Chickasaw Nation. Among other things, the Treaty of Tuscaloosa was one of several that were signed in 1818. Jackson would face allegations of corruption over his land speculations during these negotiations, and the Chickasaw Nation would later be one of the indigenous nations that was forced to move west under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. That act, of course, was passed early in Jackson's presidency and was part of his overall policy toward indigenous people. The part of this history that is most relevant to today's episode, though, is the Jackson Purchase, since a year later,
5:18 Tracy V. Wilson? the city of Memphis was established on a part of the acquired land.
5:24 Holly Frey? Tennessee had been admitted to the Union as a slave state in 1796, and on June 8, 1861, a few months after the start of the Civil War, Tennessee residents voted to secede from the Union. Tennessee was the last state to secede, and this vote was largely split along regional lines. East Tennessee voted decisively to remain in the Union, and a substantial majority of West Tennessee, where Memphis is, voted to secede. East Tennessee is in the Appalachian Mountains and foothills, and slavery was not widely practiced there, which was not the case in the western part of the state.
6:03 Tracy V. Wilson? The United States captured Memphis from the Confederacy on June 6, 1862. The Confederacy launched a series of raids and incursions into Memphis after this, including the Second Battle of Memphis in 1864. But the city remained in Union hands for the rest of the war, and the population of Memphis changed dramatically during that time. In 1860, Memphis had about 22,000 residents. The next census was not until 1870, so there's not an exact population number for 1866, when the massacre happened. But it's estimated to have been around 35,000 or 40,000 people.
6:44 Holly Frey? Many of those new residents were black, including people who had fled from more rural areas after hearing that Memphis was under Union control. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and six months later, the Third U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery was established and started recruiting black soldiers, who were garrisoned at Fort Pickering in Memphis. That same year, the U.S. decided to consolidate some of its contraband camps in the Mississippi River Valley, and Memphis was chosen as one of the locations to move people to. We have done an episode about these camps. They were established to house people who liberated themselves from enslavement and made it to Union territory,
7:29 Holly Frey? or were confiscated when Confederate sites were captured. Memphis also became home to a Freedmen's Bureau office in 1865, which freed people saw as a resource for protection and help, and became another reason to go to the city.
7:44 Tracy V. Wilson? There were about 4,000 enslaved and free black people in Memphis in 1860, and at that point, the city's population was about 80% white. As a result of everything we just talked about, when the war ended in 1865, the city's free black population had quadrupled to about 16,000 people and made up about 40% of the city's population. Some estimates are even higher, estimating a black majority in Memphis at some points in the mid-1860s.
8:16 Holly Frey? Memphis's Irish population had also grown dramatically. The Great Famine had started in 1845, and people fleeing Ireland typically arrived at northeastern ports. But many started making their way to Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1850s to find work building railroads. Prior to 1853, most of the manual laborers building railroads were enslaved Africans who the railroad companies rented from their enslavers. But that year, the Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that people who rented enslaved laborers would be liable if they were harmed doing work that they didn't typically do, like building a railroad instead of working in a field.
8:58 Holly Frey? In other words, the railroads would have to compensate enslavers for injuries or deaths among the people who were considered their property. It became more economical to hire Irish laborers, who didn't have that financial risk if they were hurt or killed doing the work. In 1850, less than 10% of the population of Memphis was Irish. That number more than doubled by 1860.
9:22 Tracy V. Wilson? If you've listened to some of our other episodes about this kind of mob violence, including previous host's episode on the New York draft riots of 1863, this probably sounds familiar. There were Black and Irish entrepreneurs in Memphis, but aside from the soldiers, most Black and Irish men were competing for the same jobs doing manual labor. Irish laborers saw the influx of Black people into Memphis as a threat to their livelihoods. And this was particularly true immediately after the Civil War, when slavery had been abolished and the city was in an economic recession, mostly staying afloat through investments and loans from the North.
10:06 Holly Frey? Broadly speaking, the Irish community also had a strong sense of solidarity, in part because they faced so much bigotry and derision from other white people. Sometimes you'll see this described as Irish immigrants not being considered white, but that's not exactly true. Irish immigrants to the United States could and did become US citizens. They could vote and own property and hold public office, things that people who were not considered white would not be allowed to do. They were barred from those activities. It was more like Irish immigrants were thought of as the wrong kind of white people. For example, a Freedmen's Bureau report on the massacre refers to the instigators, who
10:48 Holly Frey? were predominantly Irish, as quote, "low whites" at two different points. The Congressional report on the massacre uses both Irish and white.
10:59 Tracy V. Wilson? In 1866, Irish people also had a lot of political power and influence in Memphis. The year before, Tennessee had passed a disenfranchisement law that stripped former Confederates and Confederate sympathizers of the right to vote for a minimum of 15 years. A lot of the people who had previously held office in Memphis were wealthy landowners and slaveholders, and they were affected by this law. Even if they hadn't explicitly sided with the Confederacy, or if they had not been in favor of Tennessee's secession, a lot of them refused to do things like take a loyalty oath that was required and that endorsed the Emancipation Proclamation.
11:41 Holly Frey? Meanwhile, the vast majority of the Irish residents of Tennessee were newly arrived in the United States and didn't feel a real connection to the war or a reason to fight. They only did because they had been conscripted. Most were also poor and had never enslaved anyone. Some who had served in the Confederate military could make the case that they had been forced into service and had otherwise remained loyal to the United States. Others deserted the Confederacy and fought for the United States after the Union took control of the area where they were.
12:17 Tracy V. Wilson? So in the 1865 municipal election in Memphis, Irishmen were disproportionately still able to vote, while non-Irish white men disproportionately were not. John Park, who was either Irish or the child of Irish immigrants—I found sources calling him each of those things—he was elected mayor. Irishmen were elected to nine of the 16 seats on the Board of Aldermen. Irish people also held 2/3 of all the elected and appointed offices in the Memphis government. The large majority of the police and firefighters in Memphis were also Irish.
12:56 Holly Frey? All of this is part of the context for this massacre, which we will talk about after we pause for a sponsor break.
13:05 Speaker 01 OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
13:33 Speaker 05 First start is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?
13:36 Tracy V. Wilson? Hey, everybody. It's Tracy from Stuff You Missed in History Class. That's Alan Goya, a planning engineer at AT&T. He's talking about Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, where every seat, screen, phone, and transaction is connected with AT&T fiber and 5G, defining the fans' experience. And Alan's master plan made it all possible.
13:56 Speaker 05 It was going to rival anything that was already built. And that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.
14:04 Tracy V. Wilson? That includes field services manager Drexel Jones. His team made sure it all came together and held up on game day.
14:11 Speaker 06 Through what Alan's whole crew designed, we connected the event visitors to the world.
14:16 Tracy V. Wilson? And after years of hard work and collaboration, it was opening night.
14:20 Speaker 06 To actually see the whole stadium light up and data's flowing is a beautiful thing.
14:24 Speaker 05 What the fans' experience is incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.
14:27 Tracy V. Wilson? AT&T, connecting fans to what they love. Connecting changes everything. AT&T.
14:33 Speaker 07 Okay, chicken nugget fans, I've got huge news. The new Burger King Chicken Nuggets just dropped, and they are the crispiest, the juiciest, and the tastiest chicken nuggets ever at Burger King. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old chicken nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. To go along with the new chicken nuggets, a lot of the sauces were reinvented too, because better chicken nuggets deserve better sauces. We're talking new buffalo sauce, honey mustard, sweet and sour, and even a whole new option too, the new special savory sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating U.S. restaurants. I mean, you need to taste it all for yourself.
15:15 Speaker 07 This new chicken nugget, reinvented, based on real feedback, is made with 100% white meat chicken and is now better than ever. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets and sauces today.
15:29 Tracy V. Wilson? So you're considering getting a home security system, but you want something that fits your space. Well, with ADT Blue, it's easy to customize a system that's right for you and set it up yourself. Just pick the kit and monitoring plan that makes sense for your home. Let's say you're worried about package theft. The ADT Plus app can walk you through setting up a new doorbell camera kit. Once it's installed, ADT Pros can help you keep tabs on it 24/7, or you can manage it yourself from the ADT Plus app. There are no long-term contracts, so you can change your monitoring plan whenever you want. The flexibility doesn't end there. You can add to your system as you need to with things like extra cameras or motion sensors. Some life decisions are hard, but thanks to ADT
16:11 Tracy V. Wilson? Blue, you can DIY trusted ADT home security in a snap. Head to ADT.com/BLU to build your system today. And to hear more about home protection and other grown-up topics, check out new episodes of Grown-Up Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
16:41 Tracy V. Wilson? During and after the Civil War, the Black population of Memphis fought to be treated with dignity and respect. This was particularly true of Black soldiers and veterans who felt that they had earned that dignity and respect through their service to the United States, and whose presence in uniform was just really galling to people who thought that they should not have it.
17:05 Holly Frey? For months leading up to the massacre, Black people in Memphis had faced increasing antagonism and harassment from the city's white population, including and especially its predominantly Irish police force and firefighting forces.
17:21 Holly Frey? This really spiraled with black soldiers and veterans and civilians pushing back against racism, wrongful arrest, police brutality, and other mistreatment, only for the white population to become even more hostile. This whole cycle also seemed to strengthen the sense of solidarity among Irish immigrants who had an increasingly us versus them mentality, with us specifically meaning Irish people, not white people more broadly.
17:49 Tracy V. Wilson? In April of 1866, the Civil War was over, and black soldiers stationed at Fort Pickering were waiting to be paid and mustered out of the army. On April 30th, a group of black soldiers were walking down Causey Street when four Irish police officers forced them off the sidewalk. The details of this aren't clear. Like, I don't know if there was some instigation of forcing them off the sidewalk besides just to be antagonistic, but one witness said that some words passed between the men, but not what was said, other than that strong language was used on both sides. One of the soldiers fell, and then one of the police officers tripped over him.
18:32 Tracy V. Wilson? Then the police officers attacked the soldiers, including one who started beating the men with his pistol. This fight went on for several minutes, and in the words of the Freedmen's Bureau Report on the Massacre, quote, "Both parties then separated, deferring the settlement by mutual consent to some future time."
18:52 Holly Frey? Most of the black soldiers were mustered out of the army on April 30th, but they didn't receive their back pay until May 1st. That day, after being paid, many of them went out to celebrate. A large group of people, including women and children, congregated on South Street, which was seen as a border between white and black neighborhoods of Memphis. This crowd was boisterous and loud, with some people singing and dancing. Some of them were intoxicated, none of which is surprising, since they had just been mustered out of the army after serving in a war and had just gotten the back pay that they had been waiting for.
19:31 Tracy V. Wilson? Yes, was definitely rowdy, understandably.
19:35 Holly Frey? That is exactly the time you should celebrate.
19:37 Tracy V. Wilson? Correct. Police arrived and they arrested two black men from the crowd and tried to escort them from the scene. Several other black men tried to intervene. They surrounded the police and the men they'd taken into custody and they fired their pistols into the air. The police officers thought they were being fired upon and they started firing into the crowd. Again, in the words of the Freedmen's Bureau report, quote, "During this fray, one police officer was wounded in the finger. Another, Stevens, was shot by the accidental discharge of the pistol in his own hand and afterward died."
20:16 Holly Frey? Word of what was happening started to spread through Memphis, including rumors that black residents were going to try to take over the city. John C. Creighton, the city recorder, went out into the streets and made a speech on horseback, encouraging the white residents around them to arm themselves and to try to kill Memphis's black population or drive them from the city.
20:40 Tracy V. Wilson? Shelby County Sheriff T.M. Winters went to Major General George Stoneman, who was in command of the troops in Memphis, to ask for military help in restoring order. By that point, though, most of the troops who had been in Memphis had been mustered out or transferred elsewhere. Stoneman argued that he only had enough men on hand to try to protect government property from the mob. He also pointed out that the people of Memphis had been very ready to get rid of the federal troops who had been stationed there to enforce the law. His attitude was sort of like, "Well, you all claimed you were competent and able to take care of yourselves, so we sent most of the troops away like you asked, and now
21:24 Tracy V. Wilson? look where we are." Meanwhile, Winters raised a posse that seems to add to the violence rather than controlling it.
21:33 Holly Frey? The violence in Memphis stretched from May 1st through the 3rd, 1866. Again, in the words of the Freedmen's Bureau report, "The city seemed to be under the control of a lawless mob during this and the two succeeding days. All crimes imaginable were committed, from simple larceny to rape and murder. Several women and children were shot in bed. One woman, Rachel Johnson, was shot and then thrown into the flames of a burning house and consumed. Another was forced twice through the flames and finally escaped. In some instances, houses were fired and armed men guarded them to prevent the escape of those inside.
22:17 Holly Frey? A number of men, whose loyalty is undoubted, long residents of Memphis who deprecated the riot during its progress, were denominated Yankees and abolitionists and were informed in language more emphatic than gentlemanly that their presence here was unnecessary."
22:34 Tracy V. Wilson? Mayor John Park was described as totally losing control of his subordinates, those subordinates including the police officers and firefighters who terrorized, raped, robbed, and killed black residents of the city. Park was described as intoxicated during part or most of the time and unable to carry out his duties as the mayor, while other people characterized him as intentionally sowing discord and disorder among the other city officials to try to get them to grant him emergency powers. He did make his own request for Stoneman to send troops, and Stoneman told him that
23:13 Tracy V. Wilson? 150 troops would be made available, but only in the case of, quote, "extreme necessity." He left it up to Park to determine whether the need was extreme.
23:25 Holly Frey? Meanwhile, black residents of Memphis flooded the Freedmen's Bureau office to ask Bravette Brigadier General Ben P. Runkel, chief superintendent for the Bureau in Memphis, for help. He described himself as "humiliated" in his inability to help them. He had no troops to deploy, and when he went out to appeal to the mob, no one would listen to him. Veterans who had turned in their service weapons when they were mustered out went to General Stoneman to ask to have them returned, and they were denied.
23:55 Tracy V. Wilson? Eventually, on May 3rd, Stoneman declared martial law, banned the posse that the sheriff had rallied, and deployed reinforcements from the 4th U.S. Cavalry to restore order. By that point, 46 black Americans, many of them U.S. Army veterans, had been murdered at the hands of white perpetrators. Many of those perpetrators were Irish police officers and firefighters. About 75 other black people had been injured. At least five black women had been raped. Police and civilians had fired at patients who were sitting in front of the Freedmen's Bureau hospital and then fired into the hospital itself. The mob had
24:35 Tracy V. Wilson? burned down between 50 and 90 homes, along with every black church and school in Memphis, and they had robbed and burned down black-owned businesses.
24:46 Holly Frey? Two white men were killed over those three days. The police officer, named Stevens, who was killed when his own pistol accidentally discharged, and a firefighter, named Dunn, who was shot and killed by another white man by mistake.
25:01 Tracy V. Wilson? A number of civic and business leaders, many of whom were Irish, intentionally spread racism and panic during all this. That included Attorney General William Wallace, who made public speeches to stoke anger and racism, and business leader John Pendergrass, who allowed rioters to use his home as a planning and rallying point.
25:23 Tracy V. Wilson? News reporting played a role as well with conservative newspapers, including The Daily Argus and The Memphis Avalanche, publishing just incendiary articles. These newspapers were already highly critical of the Republican governments of both the United States and Tennessee, and they were especially critical of the radical Republican faction, which was known for their opposition to slavery and their efforts to secure freedom and equal rights for black people. These newspapers framed radical Republicans as violent and dangerous and described black people using racist stereotypes. The Avalanche started printing the names of radical Republicans and rumors that black
26:06 Tracy V. Wilson? men who had been mustered out of service were going to attack the town. Multiple investigations were launched within days of the massacre. We're going to talk more about that after we pause for a sponsor break.
26:21 Speaker 01 OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
26:49 Speaker 07 Okay, chicken nugget fans, I've got huge news. The new Burger King Chicken Nuggets just dropped, and they are the crispiest, the juiciest, and the tastiest chicken nuggets ever at Burger King. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old chicken nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. To go along with the new chicken nuggets, a lot of the sauces were reinvented too, because better chicken nuggets deserve better sauces. We're talking new buffalo sauce, honey mustard, sweet and sour, and even a whole new option too, the new special savory sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating U.S. restaurants. I mean, you need to taste it all for yourself.
27:32 Speaker 07 This new chicken nugget, reinvented, based on real feedback, is made with 100% white meat chicken and is now better than ever. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets and sauces today.
27:45 Tracy V. Wilson? For any small business owner, there's a moment when you realize the next hire could be the difference between staying busy and actually growing. The challenge is finding the right person without wasting time sorting through candidates who aren't the right fit. That's where Indeed Sponsored Jobs comes in. When workplace chaos hits and you need someone who can step in and make a difference, this is a job for Sponsored Jobs. It helps put your job in front of candidates who match the criteria that matter most to you, whether that's skills, experience, certifications, or location. And you're certainly not alone in using Indeed. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. That's millions of businesses turning to Indeed
28:27 Tracy V. Wilson? to help solve hiring challenges and find people who can help drive results. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. Get your $75 sponsored job credit today at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now, then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.
28:56 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. Tune in for season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, a Ruby Studio production in partnership with Argenx. Hosted by public health and policy expert Dr. Martine Hackett, Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition pushes the conversation within the rare disease community forward. Featuring guests living with MG, CIDP, myositis, SMA, and other rare autoimmune conditions, each episode explores hope, progress, and connection. How does research create new opportunities? How do shared experiences help light the way forward? How do we best show up for each other? Tune
29:41 Holly Frey? in to find out. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
29:57 Tracy V. Wilson? The Memphis massacre took place during congressional debates over a constitutional amendment that had been proposed by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Earlier drafts of this amendment had failed, but the one that the committee reported to Congress on April 30th, 1866, was largely the same as today's 14th amendment. Debates over the newly drafted amendment started a few days after the massacre ended. On May 10th, during debates in the House, Representative Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania referenced the massacre in a speech about the amendment's third provision, which barred
30:37 Tracy V. Wilson? anyone who had, quote, "engaged in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States from holding civil or military office." Speaking to representatives who thought this language was too strong, Stevens said, quote, "Let not those friends of secession sing to me their siren song of peace and goodwill until they can stop my ears to the screams and groans of the dying victims at Memphis. I hold in my hand an elaborate account from a man whom I know to be of the highest respectability in the country, every word of which I believe. This account of that foul transaction only reached me last night.
31:18 Tracy V. Wilson? It is more horrible in its atrocity, although not to the same extent than the massacre in Jamaica. Tell me Tennessee or any other state is loyal of whom such things are proved."
31:30 Holly Frey? On May 14th, as the debates continued, Stevens motioned for the House to send a committee to Memphis to investigate what had happened. The resulting House Select Committee was made up of two Republicans, Elihu Washburn of Illinois and John Brumall of Pennsylvania, and one Democrat, George Shanklin of Kentucky. They arrived in Memphis on May 22nd. They interviewed 170 victims and witnesses, as well as officials who had been ostensibly in charge in Memphis during the massacre, including Major General Stoneman and Mayor John Park.
32:07 Tracy V. Wilson? The resulting report, which is not the Freedmen's Bureau report that we have read from earlier, that was a much shorter report. The resulting congressional report was about 400 pages long and was printed through the government printing office. It detailed the initial altercation on April 30th, the incidents that happened afterward, and the decisions made by civil and military leaders. It reported on the destruction of the schools, churches, businesses, and homes, and on the murders, sexual assaults, and rapes. It also detailed incidents of white residents trying to shelter and protect black people. Most often, these were landlords and employers who were trying to protect people who lived on their property or worked for them.
32:51 Tracy V. Wilson? Although at least 40 of the known perpetrators served in the Confederate Army, the people who were interviewed really focused on the fact that they were Irish, not on their status as former Confederates.
33:04 Holly Frey? In his testimony, General Stoneman tried to dispel ideas that were circulating about the soldier's conduct having justified the massacre. He acknowledged that some had behaved lawlessly on the night of May the 1st and said that was inexcusable, but he said that overall their conduct compared very favorably to that of white troops in similar circumstances. Other officers also testified to the black troops' general good conduct and said that none of them had tried to mistreat or attack the white population in any way. Captain Thomas J. Dornan said, quote, "I never saw any riotous act among them, and one thing I will say for them, that there is no number of white soldiers that I ever
33:46 Holly Frey? saw that could be held in such subjection as they were when their houses were being burned as theirs were. I could not have expected it, never could have believed it could be done."
33:58 Tracy V. Wilson? The congressional report also included the oral testimonies of the people who were interviewed. These testimonies included those of five black women who bravely testified about having been raped. Those were Lucy Tibbs, Harriet Armour, Frances Thompson, Lucy Smith, and Rebecca Ann Bloom. Lucy Smith was Frances Thompson's 16-year-old housemate. Both of them testified that men had come to their house. Frances had said there were six men and Lucy said there were seven. Both of them said that men had demanded food, so they had fed them. They both testified that after the men were done eating, they raped Smith and Thompson both so badly that they had to get medical treatment and stay in bed for about two weeks
34:42 Tracy V. Wilson? afterward. Lucy thought that the men had been particularly violent toward them because they had pictures of union officers in the house, including one of Union General Joseph Hooker.
34:53 Holly Frey? The committee's members came to very different conclusions, and those conclusions fell along political lines. Its Republican members concluded that what happened in Memphis was not a riot, it was a massacre. They paraphrased General Stoneman as saying the black population of Memphis, quote, "had nothing to do with it after the first day, except to be killed and abused." Conversely, Democrat George Shanklin put more of the blame on the black community for instigating the violence and Tennessee's disenfranchisement law for barring most of the city's property owners and businessmen from voting, leaving people from, quote, "the more inferior classes of society to be elected," quote, "against the consent of
35:37 Holly Frey? the masses of the better population of the city." Shanklin also cited the, quote, "antagonistic interest and feelings of hostility that exist between the laboring classes of foreign population and the Negro race."
35:51 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah, just to be clear, the black population had not instigated the violence. He was blaming them here for things that they had not done. As the Select Committee was conducting its interviews, Harper's Weekly printed a front page article about the massacre. It was illustrated with a depiction of a mob burning down a freedmen's schoolhouse and one of a group of houses in flames with black families trying to flee as men brandished weapons and fired at them. Harper's described this incident as, quote, "a disgrace to civilization." But it also framed the, quote, "lower class of white citizens" and the Third United States colored infantry
36:36 Tracy V. Wilson? as equally responsible for the original incident on the first day. But after that point, Harper's described the mob as indiscriminately killing people who were simply going about their days, doing their jobs, or trying to get to safety. This article also made a comparison between what happened in Memphis and the 1863 New York draft riots, which were similarly carried out by a predominantly Irish mob.
37:03 Holly Frey? The House Select Committee left Memphis for Washington, D.C. on June 6th. And by that point, the massacre had become a national news story beyond the reporting Tracy just talked about in Harper's Weekly. On June 13, the House voted to propose that the 14th Amendment be ratified, and it was sent to the states for ratification on June 16, 1866. The massacre has been credited with giving this a sense of urgency since the 14th Amendment's first section includes, quote, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States, nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,
37:48 Holly Frey? nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
37:54 Tracy V. Wilson? On July 24, 1866, perhaps surprisingly, considering that it had just been the site of a racist massacre two months before, Tennessee was readmitted to the Union. Although the House Committee, the Freedmen's Bureau, and the military all investigated the massacre, no charges were ever filed against any of the perpetrators. Almost all of Memphis's elected officials were replaced in the 1866 election, and the police and firefighting forces also turned over almost completely. Tennessee also passed the Metropolitan Police Bill in 1866, which gave the governor the authority to appoint commissioners to oversee the police in four cities.
38:39 Tracy V. Wilson? One of those was Memphis. This basically took control of the police force out of Memphis's direct hands. This law was repealed in 1869.
38:51 Holly Frey? While there were virtually no consequences for the perpetrators beyond being voted out of office, the Memphis massacre and the investigations and news reporting around it are credited with galvanizing radical Republicans and voters. As a quick recap, Black activists, radical Republican legislators, and others had been pushing President Abraham Lincoln on the need for rights and protections for Black people and for strict requirements before Confederate states could be readmitted to the Union. That was happening for years before his assassination in 1865. His successor, Vice President Andrew Johnson, who had served as military governor of Tennessee,
39:32 Holly Frey? was more lenient toward the rebelling states and former Confederate leaders. His less ambitious plan became known as Presidential Reconstruction.
39:42 Tracy V. Wilson? But in the elections that took place the November after this massacre, Republicans won majorities in both the Senate and the House, and that began the era known as Congressional Reconstruction or Radical Reconstruction. Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which organized the rebelling states, or the formerly rebelling states, into military districts, except for Tennessee, which had already been readmitted, and then required those states to pass new constitutions that had to be approved by Congress. Those constitutions had to include suffrage for all men, regardless of race, and the states had to approve the 14th Amendment to be readmitted.
40:24 Tracy V. Wilson? The Memphis massacre and another massacre that took place in New Orleans in July of 1866 are seen as providing obvious evidence that the black population had to have equal rights and equal protections under the laws. This also connects to the ratification of the 14th Amendment by the states. It was ratified on July 9th, 1868.
40:47 Holly Frey? At the top of the show, we said that the first known transgender person to testify before a congressional committee did so after the Memphis riots. To be clear, the word transgender is just a term that didn't exist in 1866, and it's not a concept that was part of the commonly held understanding of sex and gender in the US at the time. But there have always been people across cultures and throughout history whose gender or sexual orientation hasn't aligned with the standards and expectations of their culture. So we're using the broad definition of transgender here, meaning a person whose gender does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth.
41:30 Tracy V. Wilson? That was the case with Frances Thompson, who had been born in Maryland and enslaved from birth before eventually moving to Memphis and being freed. I'm not actually sure the order in which that happened, her move and her freedom. On July 11th, 1876, a decade after the massacre, she was arrested for suspicion of crossdressing. When she was questioned, she described herself as being, quote, "of double sex," or most likely "intersex" in modern parlance. She said she had been wearing dresses since she was a child. All of her friends and neighbors knew her to be a woman, and she said that had been the case for 27 years.
42:14 Tracy V. Wilson? In an article in the Memphis Daily Appeal, she described herself as, quote, "regarded always as a woman."
42:21 Holly Frey? After these allegations, Thompson was forced to undergo a physical examination by a panel of four doctors. They concluded that she was male.
42:32 Holly Frey? Afterwards, she was forced to wear men's clothing and a station housekeeper basically put her on exhibit at the jail. She was fined and sentenced to work on a chain gang despite the fact that she was physically disabled. She used a cane and said that she'd had cancer in her foot. Thompson contracted pneumonia while being forced to work on that chain gang and died in a hospital on November 1st, 1876.
42:58 Tracy V. Wilson? This is obviously a sad and dehumanizing thing to have happened to her. And news reporting around all of this was horrible. Articles implied or stated that Thompson was a sex worker. It's really not clear whether that was true since crossdressing was associated with sex work and she's also described as a cook and a domestic worker, sometimes in the same article. Regardless, the idea of sex work was used to discredit her. Articles also framed her as criminal and deviant. When she said she planned to leave Memphis after being released, police took photographs of her, one in a dress and one in a men's shirt, jacket and hat, so that they could
43:43 Tracy V. Wilson? distribute those photographs to other jurisdictions. A New York publication called The Day's Doings made illustrations from these photographs and published them. Newspapers also dug up other examples of people accused of crossdressing, especially other Black people accused of crossdressing, to hype up the idea that this was some kind of ongoing massive scourge.
44:09 Holly Frey? This happened as the period of Reconstruction was coming to an end. The former Confederate states had all been readmitted to the Union and there had been a brief window in which civil rights and legal protections for Black people had led to some first steps toward racial equality. But a backlash had followed, including the passage of discriminatory laws that relegated Black Americans to second-class citizenship.
44:36 Holly Frey? Reconstruction is considered to have ended in 1877 after a compromise to settle the outcome of the 1876 election included the removal of the last federal troops from the former Confederate states. The US was on the cusp of the period that has been described as the nadir of race relations.
44:56 Tracy V. Wilson? The news reporting around Frances Thompson's 1876 arrest and sentencing was connected to this. Newspapers all across the country either wrote or republished articles that led with her testimony before the select committee. And then they accused her of committing perjury during that testimony, saying that she was lying about having been raped. These reports called not just her testimony into question, but the whole investigation into the 1866 massacre and by extension congressional Republicans and the entire project of congressional reconstruction.
45:38 Holly Frey? By the early 20th century, the Memphis massacre and Frances Thompson had largely fallen out of public memory. That continued until the approach of the massacre's 150th anniversary in 2016. Among other things, the University of Memphis hosted a whole semester of workshops, talks by historians and other events culminating in a symposium on the massacre. This was to both encourage new research into the massacre and to spread awareness of its history.
46:09 Tracy V. Wilson? A historical marker was also erected in 2016, and that's something that illustrates how debates over how to interpret this event have continued until today. The Tennessee Historical Marker Commission wanted the term "race riot" at the top of the marker, while Black historians, the NAACP and others felt that term was not reflective of what had actually happened and would give people who only looked at the heading the wrong idea about what had happened. The NAACP ultimately wound up putting up a marker privately in conjunction with the city, headed 1866 Memphis massacre, rather than going through the State Historical Marker Commission and having that "race riot" language on there.
46:55 Holly Frey? Sometimes you gotta go around instead of through.
46:58 Tracy V. Wilson? You do.
46:59 Holly Frey? Do you have listener mail for us?
47:01 Tracy V. Wilson? I do have listener mail. This listener mail is from Amelia, who wrote about an episode Holly wrote and one about one I wrote. Amelia wrote, "Hey Holly and Tracy, I live in metro Atlanta and recently returned from a trip to Philadelphia. So the Richard Peters podcast was well timed, and I enjoyed learning about his life and lasting impacts on the city of Atlanta. Could you imagine what the property he owned would be worth today? Ivy Hall, built by Richard's son, is a beautiful home, and I tried to get married there, but it didn't work out. We later got married in the Hay House in Macon. The Moms Mabley podcast reminded me of my trip to Mom's hometown of Brevard, North Carolina. Did you know the town is known
47:43 Tracy V. Wilson? for their white squirrels? All the downtown businesses promote the white squirrel with merchandise and signage and even have a big festival each year. I thought it was just a funny mascot until I saw one myself. Rumor has it, a white squirrel escaped from a carnival. I attached a picture of myself as a white squirrel with my aunts and a picture of the real squirrel. Thank you for your podcast. You've covered topics I have never thought to wonder about and topics I greatly enjoy, like embroidery. We also have a lot of fur babies, so I have no shortage of pet tax. I've attached a picture of Indy, my black German Shepherd Husky mix, who loves cold weather like me, and my cats, Juniper, the tuxedo orb, the Russian blue, and Helena, the blind tortie. They're pictured together,
48:27 Tracy V. Wilson? and we recently foster failed with Danny, a three-legged tortie who fits right in with our pack. We frequently find them all sleeping together in one big cat pile. Sincerely, Amelia." Thank you so much for this, Amelia. Um, I, when I read this, I was like, why have I never heard of this white squirrel situation in Brevard? Because I've been to Brevard a number of times. And then I realized that like, my going to Brevard was never to the downtown area of Brevard. It was to get to Pisgah National Forest and go hiking. So...
49:03 Holly Frey? There you go.
49:04 Tracy V. Wilson? Had no concept that there was a white squirrel. Trend is not the right word. There are real white squirrels that live there, and they're also kind of a theme. And then we have adorable animal pictures. They're always so good. So thank you so much, Amelia, for this email. If you would like to write to us, we're at [email protected] . If you would like to look at the show notes for all of our episodes, they are at our website, which is at missedinhistory.com. And you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts.
49:42 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
49:56 Speaker 06 Hey, it's Covino and Rich Davis from Covino and Rich. Buy smart, drive for less, and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest-lasting trucks. Combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. Built on reputation for quality and reliability, Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which can mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and great value tomorrow. Shop Toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.
50:30 Speaker 01 Cash Flow Crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover, seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
51:01 Speaker 06 If you're a fight fan and you haven't seen the BKFC app yet, you're missing the world's most exciting combat sport. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has changed the game. No gloves, no stalling, no boring rolling around on the ground. Just pure violence and pure entertainment. The BKFC app includes live events, past fights, original series, behind-the-scenes access, merch discounts, and more. Only $799 a month or $4999 a year. Get the BKFC app at BKFC.com. Hey, I'm Nile Rodgers. This fall, I'll be driving across the country, meeting some of today's
51:37 Speaker 01 coolest and most fascinating artists. We'll explore the stories before the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the moment where it all began. Experience Before the Moment, a Lincoln original series on the iHeart Radio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.
52:03 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
Previous Greeting Cards Next Behind the Scenes Minis: Greetings and Context Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated