Reconstruction in America / Lynching of Reuben Dennis

Reconstruction in America, also, Lynching of Reuben Dennis. Community Remembrance Project. Reconstruction in America. The end of the U.S. Civil War and the emancipation of enslaved Black people ushered in the era of Reconstruction. America had an opportunity to drastically change the experience of formerly enslaved Black people through federal enforcement. However, even before federal protection ended in 1877. thousands of Black people were victims of racially- and politically-motivated massacres. murders, and lynchings by White mobs who were shielded from prosecution. Initially, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Congressional efforts to protect formerly enslaved Black people from violence and disenfranchisement. Congress abandoned the promise of assistance to formerly enslaved Black people. By ceding political control back to Confederate veterans, federal officials allowed White southerners opposed to racial equality to re-establish white supremacy through intimidation and racial violence. Over 2,000 Black men, women and children were victims of racial terror lynching in the period of Reconstruction. Events of racial terror violence have been documented in at least 37 Kentucky counties during this era. The violence of Reconstruction and premature withdrawal of federal troops facilitated a post-emancipation reality for African Americans defined by White mobs enacting racialized violence with impunity for decades. It was during Reconstruction that a century-long era of racial hierarchy. lynching, and white supremacy was established. , Lynching of Reuben Dennis. In the early hours of February 15. 1878, at least three White men shot and killed a Black man named Reuben Dennis. The men abducted Mr. Dennis from the Shelbyville home of a Black man named Alfred Rucker, forced him at gunpoint to a nearby field, and fatally shot him. Mr. Dennis was lynched three months after being fined and released on charges of striking a White man. Though the reported facts suggested that Mr. Dennis had acted in self-defense. he was quickly arrested and arraigned on assault charges. In the racial caste system of this era, White lives and White property had heightened value compared to the lives of Black people. In an unusual development for the era, Mr. Dennis was convicted, but received a $25 fine rather than prison time. The mob raided the Rucker's home and terrorized the family. Racial terrorism sought to maintain white supremacy by instilling fear in the entire Black community through brutal violence that was often unpredictable and life-threatening to any Black person in a mob's path. Beyond questioning the terrified Rucker family and asking the governor to offer a reward for information, records indicate that officials made very little effort to conduct their own investigation into who killed Mr. Dennis. Like most documented lynching victims, Mr. Dennis was killed by a White mob who never faced prosecution.