Thread by @TheCivilWarDoc1

#OTD in 1871 the US Senate passed a resolution creating the Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Outrages in the Southern States. The select committee investigated white supremacist violence in North Carolina and was pivotal to the passing of the Second Enforcement act.

The select committee was made up of five Republicans and two Democrats and held hearings in Washington D.C. to investigate Klan violence in North Carolina during the Kirk-Holden War.

The two Democrats concluded that the racial violence in NC was carried out by Northern "carpetbaggers" while the five Republicans rightfully determined that the Klan “sought to carry out its purpose by murders, whippings, intimidations, and violence, against its opponents.”

The select committee's investigation influenced the passage of the Second Enforcement Act on 28 February which placed local and state elections under federal control in an attempt to protect Black voting rights in the South.

The House created its own select committee and a Joint Select Committee composed of members of the Senate and the House was created. The Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States was formally established on April 10, 1871.

The joint committee first met on April 20, the same day President Grant signed the Third Enforcement Act (Ku Klux Klan Act). Their investigation lasted 10 months, the proceedings of which were published in 13 volumes. 586 witnesses, including Black men and women testified.

Partly as a result of the joint committee report, President Grant created of the Department of Justice to help secure Black political and civil rights in the South.

#TheCivilWar #History #OnThisDay #onthisdayinhistory #TodayInHistory #Reconstruction #Congress #House #Senate

The published proceedings of the joint select committee can be found here:

onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metaboo…

The published proceedings of the Senate select committee here:

blackfreedom.proquest.com/wp-content/upl…