He asked for military units to protect a black school in 1869.
As a result, he received threats and intimidation from members of the Ku Klux Klan.
[3][4] Barnes was one of those who testified to a select committee of congress about widespread intimidation and horrific attacks in African Americans in the Southern States.
[5][6] He told the congressional investigating committee, "It has got to be quite a common thing.
to hear a man say, 'They rode around my house last night, and they played the mischief there; my wife was molested, my daughter badly treated, and they played the wild generally with my family.