Colfax Riot

In 1950 the state's Department of Commerce and Industry put up a sign calling the Easter Sunday killings of April 13, 1873 a riot that ended carpetbag misrule. Historians call it the Colfax massacre: a white paramilitary force burned the courthouse, then shot Black men who had surrendered. Estimates of the Black dead run from 62 to 150 or more, and two or three white men died. White residents had already raised an obelisk to the white dead in 1921. Louisiana took the 1950 sign down on May 15, 2021.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colfax Massacre Memorial — 0.4 mi
  The 2023 granite memorial in Colfax to the Black men killed at the Grant Parish courthouse on April 13, 1873, which carries 57 names and replaced a state marker that called the massacre a riot.
• Melrose Plantation — 16 mi
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 16 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.
• Kisatchie National Forest: Longleaf Vista — 17 mi
  A free ridge-top overlook and 1.5-mile loop above the 8,700-acre Kisatchie Hills Wilderness on the Longleaf Trail Scenic Byway, in the forest Caroline Dormon helped win in 1930.

More markers nearby

• Grant Parish and Town of Colfax — 0.4 mi
• Battle of Calhoun's Landing — 0.9 mi
• Village of Dry Prong — 12 mi
• Bayou Folk Museum — 12 mi