Curbing African American Freedom: Testimony of Robert Gleed, Mississippi Politician
Reconstruction was a particularly violent period in American History. Following Confederate defeat, violence, both rhetorical and real, swept across the region, state of Alabama, the Alabama-Mississippi line, and Tuscaloosa County. Incidents of night-riding and Klan activities targeted African American politicians, such as Robert Gleed who was elected to the Mississippi state legislature in 1869.
The Ku Klux Klan hearings afforded a public forum for the Mississippi state legislator of Senate District 18 to share their personal traumatic experiences in order to effect reform. On November 10, 1871, Gleed testified before the Congressional investigators in Columbus, Mississippi. His 11-page testimony reveals the role of Tuscaloosa newspapers in encouraging racial violence against individuals who supported Reconstruction policy.
A pdf version of his 1871 testimony before the Ku Klux Klan hearings is available here.
Source: United States Congress, Report of the Joint Select Committee Appointed to Inquire Into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States: Mississippi, Volumes II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1872), 718-728.
The Ku Klux Klan hearings afforded a public forum for the Mississippi state legislator of Senate District 18 to share their personal traumatic experiences in order to effect reform. On November 10, 1871, Gleed testified before the Congressional investigators in Columbus, Mississippi. His 11-page testimony reveals the role of Tuscaloosa newspapers in encouraging racial violence against individuals who supported Reconstruction policy.
A pdf version of his 1871 testimony before the Ku Klux Klan hearings is available here.
Source: United States Congress, Report of the Joint Select Committee Appointed to Inquire Into the Condition of Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States: Mississippi, Volumes II (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1872), 718-728.
