The killings and lies flowing into and out from Colfax showed, again, there was no bottom to the belligerents’ vengeance. Extremists’ attacks on Black ministers and churches in the summer of 1874 illustrate again how widespread atrocities were. In August, armed men surrounded a Black church in Lee County, Alabama, during a religious service and fired a volley inside, killing four worshipping people. Armed and mounted white men in Lafayette County, Arkansas, grabbed a preacher from his church after he performed the Sunday service and shot him dead in front of his stunned congregation.
