March of the Redshirts: "We Are Everywhere!"

<h1>"The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery."-W.E.B. DuBois.</h1> You'll have to take my word that the men in the picture above were wearing red shirts. The photo was taken on November 8, 1898, a mid-term Election Day. Democrats would pick up several seats in the House of Representatives, particularly in the South, when the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Shirts_(United_States)#:~:text=The%20Red%20Shirts%20or%20Redshirts,era%20of%20the%20United%20States" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Redshirts</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">KKK</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_League#:~:text=The%20White%20League%2C%20also%20known,supported%20by%20the%20Democratic%20Party" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">White Leagues</a> used violence and threats to keep Black voters from the polls. I won't hold it against you if you have never heard of the Redshirts, or the White Leagues, for that matter. American history doesn't specialize in telling the whole story of its racist past. The Redshirts were a paramilitary organization (think Oath Keepers) that originated in Mississippi in 1875 to end Reconstruction. Rather than hiding behind hoods and robes like the KKK, they wore bright red shirts to make themselves known. Their red shirts were a response to a speech by orator Oliver Hazard Perry Morton in which he condemned Democrats who fought for the South and whipped up support for Republicans, reminding them of the bloody shirts of Union soldiers. During what was then America's closest Presidential election in 1876, Colonel Robert Ingersoll took the bloody shirt analogy further: <a href="https://medium.com/the-polis/march-of-the-redshirts-we-are-everywhere-a184859e0d4e">Click Here</a>