Red Shirts (Southern United States)

Red Shirts (Southern United States)

The Red Shirts or Redshirts of the Southern United States were white paramilitary groups that were active in the late 19th century after the end of the Reconstruction era of the United States. They first appeared in Mississippi in 1875, when Democratic Party private militia units adopted red shirts to make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern Republicans, both white and freedmen. Similar groups in other states also adopted Red Shirts.

Among the most prominent Red Shirts were the supporters of Democratic Party candidate Wade Hampton during the campaigns for the South Carolina gubernatorial elections of 1876 and 1878. The Red Shirts were one of several paramilitary organizations, such as the White League in Louisiana, arising in the continuing efforts of white Democrats to regain political power in the South in the 1870s. These groups acted as "the military arm of the Democratic Party."

While sometimes engaging in terrorism, in contrast to secret vigilante groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, the Red Shirts, the White League and similar groups in the late nineteenth century worked openly and were better organized: they had one goal, the restoration of the Democrats to power by getting rid of Republicans, which usually meant repressing civil rights and voting by the freedmen. During the 1876, 1898 and 1900 campaigns in North Carolina, the Red Shirts played prominent roles in intimidating non-Democratic voters.