On July 30, 1866, during the turbulent Reconstruction era after the Civil War, white resistance to African American citizenship turned violent in New Orleans when a white mob killed dozens of African Americans gathering to support a political meeting.

The New Orleans Massacre, also called the New Orleans Riot, happened at the New Orleans Mechanic’s Institute, where 25 state delegates were reconvening the 1864 Louisiana Constitutional Convention. The state’s new constitution already abolished slavery, but the state legislature passed laws limiting the rights of people freed from slavery. The Radical Republicans wanted to redo the Constitution so that freedmen would gain voting rights. Another aim was to eliminate the Black Codes and disenfranchise former Confederates.

Two of New Orleans’ foremost leaders—Mayor John T. Monroe, a Confederate sympathizer, and Sheriff Harry T. Hays, a former Confederate general—strongly opposed the new constitutional convention. After a political rally on July 27, Hays gathered a posse of white officers, mostly ex-Confederates, to disrupt the convention, which began at noon on July 30.

As the delegates filed into the building, a crowd of protesters gathered outside the Mechanic’s Institute. Meanwhile, about 200 unarmed Black people, mostly Union veterans, approached the building in a parade form to show support. As they came to the building, bystanders harassed the marchers and isolated scuffles broke out.

Source:

history.com and youtube.com