White Supremacist Massacres

Here is a list of some of the countless white supremacist massacres of African Americans in the history of the United States. Most of these massacres were designed to suppress voting rights, land ownership, economic advancement, education, freedom of the press, and/or labor rights of African Americans. While often referred to as “race riots,” they were massacres to maintain white supremacy. (Find more massacres including those of Native Americans, Latinx, and Asian Americans.) One of the best explanations about why it is important for students to learn this history is included in the article (and related lesson) by Linda Christensen, Burning Tulsa: The Legacy of Black Dispossession. A tweet thread by historian Stephen West shows how politicians fueled hate crimes during the Reconstruction era, with parallels today. Ursula Wolfe-Rocca writes about Red Summer of 1919, Remembering Red Summer — Which Textbooks Seem Eager to Forget. We also offer a list of massacres that includes these same events and massacres in other countries. While this list includes dozens of entries, it is by no means complete.