In 1876, BENJAMIN RYAN TILLMAN led a white paramilitary group, called the Red Shirts, that massacred Black militiamen in the town of Hamburg, South Carolina, and used violence to suppress Black votes. Tillman was elected governor of South Carolina in 1890 and became a U.S. senator four years later. During his twenty-three years in the Senate, he supported white supremacy, lynching, and the use of anti-Black terror to win elections.
