Equal Justice Initiative, Racial Violence During Reconstruction, 1865-1876

During the Reconstruction Era in U.S. History, the Black population faced horrific violence and brutality from Whites. Although there were documented reports of murders and assaults from observers at the time, there is no reliable and established number of victims. This can be attributed to a number of factors: lack of coverage in Southern newspapers to avoid painting the South in a bad light, Black victims' avoidance of reporting attacks or murders for fear of retaliation, and local legal systems turning a blind eye or being complicit in the brutality. Existing records of these acts of violence are mostly based on newspaper articles, summary records from the Freedmen’s Bureau, and testimonies from Congressional hearings. This map, created by the Equal Justice Initiative, visualizes each of the more than 2,000 documented cases of racial violence during the Reconstruction Era--a horrifying figure by itself, but even more horrifying when considering the countless victims that remain undocumented and lost to history. The map depicts the number of victims of racial violence per county between 1865 and 1876, as well as the number of Black people killed in mass lynchings. It also highlights that while the violence was concentrated mostly in the South, it also occurred in the North.