Red Shirts (United States)

Red Shirts
Red Shirts at a polling place in Old Hundred, North Carolina, on Election Day, November 8, 1898
Leaders	Benjamin Tillman Ellison D. Smith Josephus Daniels Claude Kitchin
Dates of operation	1875–1900s
Allegiance	Democratic Party (Redeemers)
Motives	White supremacy
Headquarters	South Carolina
Active regions	Southern U.S. (especially The Carolinas)
Ideology	White supremacy Anti-Reconstruction
Allies	Redeemers, Ku Klux Klan, White League
Opponents	Republican Party, African Americans
Battles and wars	Hamburg massacre Wilmington insurrection of 1898

The Red Shirts or Redshirts of the Southern United States were white supremacist^[1][2][3] paramilitary terrorist groups that were active in the late 19th century in the last years of, and after the end of, the Reconstruction era of the United States. Red Shirt groups originated in Mississippi in 1875, when anti-Reconstruction private terror units adopted red shirts to make themselves more visible and threatening to Southern Republicans, both whites and freedmen. Similar groups in the Carolinas also adopted red shirts.

Among the most prominent Red Shirts were the supporters of Democratic Party candidate Wade Hampton during the campaigns for the South Carolina gubernatorial elections of 1876 and 1878.^[4] The Red Shirts were one of several paramilitary organizations, such as the White League in Louisiana, arising from the continuing efforts of white Democrats to regain political power in the South in the 1870s. These groups acted as "the military arm of the Democratic Party".^[5]

While sometimes engaging in violent acts of terrorism, the Red Shirts, the White League, rifle clubs, and similar groups in the late nineteenth century worked openly and were better organized than the underground terrorist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. They used organization, intimidation and force to achieve political purposes of restoring the Democrats to power, overturning Republicans, and repressing civil and voting rights of freedmen.^[6] During the 1876, 1898, and 1900 campaigns in North Carolina, the Red Shirts played prominent roles in intimidating non-Democratic Party voters.