Three black men were stopped by police

Three black soldiers walk down a street in Memphis the day after their battalion is mustered out. The sky is gray and rain has been pouring all day. Four white police officers meet them coming up the other side of the street and the soldiers move to let them pass. The police officers block their path and the two groups exchange words. Finally, one of the soldiers dashes into the street and an officer follows and tackles him. All seven men are angry, and shouting at each other. The officers draw their firearms. The soldiers begin to back away in an attempt to deescalate the situation, but one of them decides to taunt the officers. One takes the bait, and breaks the handle of his gun over the soldier’s head. No shots are exchanged, and the incident ends shortly after.

Without a few more details, it would be very difficult to place this moment in time. This could be a conflict between black men and police officers that happened recently, or it could have taken place fifty years ago. This particular event took place on April 30^th of 1866, and it is the beginning of a riot known best as the Memphis Massacre. One of the bloodiest events in Memphis history, forty-eight people were killed, seventy-five were injured, and one hundred and seven buildings including schools and churches were burned down. Of the men and women that died, only two were white. One man was a police officer that shot himself in the leg as he drew his revolver to fire into a crowd of drunk, black soldiers. The other was a white man attempting to save the life of a black man in a bar. He vouched for the character of the man, who was a neighbor and a friend, and another white man shot him in the back.

The mobs that killed, raped, and generally attacked black people all over Memphis were a mix of city officials and civilians that were angry black people had freedoms in the city. The city recorder was even there, and he made a grand speech to a mob that any white man tried in the city courts for violence would we free to go. These white men were angry that the era of black men and women being submissive was over, and that is why tensions were rising up until the attack. However, exactly a hundred and fifty years has passed, and it is important to ask why these tensions are still present, and whether they are still rising.