[6] A white militia was led against freedmen by Christopher Columbus Nash, who claimed to have been elected sheriff on a Fusionist/Democratic slate.

Freedmen were defending Republican officials at the county courthouse and had gathered there as tensions rose in a post-election dispute.

The event is significant because blacks, who comprised the majority in the parish, organized to defend themselves and their political rights and were mass murdered.

The riot arose from the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872, finally determined in the favor of the Republican William Pitt Kellogg by the federal government.

On April 13, 1921, the white citizens of Colfax unveiled a 12-foot (3.7 m) marble obelisk that read, "In Loving Remembrance, Erected to the Memory of the Heroes, Stephen Decatur Parish, James West Hadnot, Sidney Harris.

"[10] In 1950 the state commerce department erected a historical marker identifying the site of the "Colfax Riot"; it says that the militia's victory "marked the end of carpetbag misrule in the South."

Because of similar insurgent paramilitary violence in other areas of the state, especially during campaigns and elections, federal troops remained in Louisiana until 1877, when they were removed on orders of U.S. President Rutherford B.

The association is raising funds to restore a bank in Colfax near the former courthouse site to use as a museum, archives and interpretive center.

[citation needed] Colfax is located in western Grant Parish at 31°31′11″N 92°42′30″W / 31.51972°N 92.70833°W / 31.51972; -92.70833 (31.519783, -92.708446),[12] on the northeast side of the Red River, and has an elevation of 95 feet (29.0 m) above sea level.

[18] In 2016, Brown sponsored a bill to ban open burning of hazardous waste in Louisiana.