MS SR120

Recognizes and honors the lives of all who were lost in the Clinton Massacre on September 4, 1875, and the subsequent violence in the days and weeks that followed, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the tragedy

Documents that the violence began when a Republican political rally at Clinton was disrupted by Democratic attendees from Raymond, resulting in at least 5 African American deaths that day, including 2 children, and an estimated 30-50 additional deaths during the subsequent weeks

References the 1876 Boutwell Report by a U.S. Senate investigative committee that concluded the riots were part of a coordinated Democratic plan to suppress Republican meetings and inaugurate an era of terror throughout Mississippi

Details specific accounts of violence including the murder of William P. Haffa, a Republican Justice of the Peace, and Square Hodge, an African American man, with testimony showing local neighbors participated in identifying and targeting victims

Notes that the Clinton Massacre marked the beginning of the Mississippi Plan, a strategy by the Democratic Party to regain political control through violence, and effectively ended Reconstruction in Mississippi