Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide

by Tony Horwitz

When Hamilton spoke up about the need to reexamine and reinterpret the 1873 event, some whites agreed. They formed a biracial “heritage association” to research the violence and discuss how to present it. This effort included the use of ground-penetrating radar to discern the 1873 trench-works and mass grave by the courthouse, where bones had turned up during construction work. Hamilton had been optimistic about changing the sign, honoring the black dead, and possibly creating a museum. “I thought, times have finally changed and blacks and whites can come together over this,” he said. “Hear all sides and tell the facts instead of a lie.” But the effort stalled. Funds ran low, and property owners feared their land might be seized if human remains turned up. Others saw the historical work as a scheme by meddlers and “muckrakers” to foment discord. “Learning for the sake of learning is egg head, intellectual elitism,” a local white minister wrote in a letter to the editor, decrying the quest for understanding of this “ancient blight” on Colfax. “We don’t want any passer-by to come in and wreck the town’s racial and social progress.”