Although the Enforcement Acts helped suppress the Klan at this time, the Meridian riot marked a turning point in Mississippi violence.

By 1875 other white paramilitary groups arose; the Red Shirts suppressed black voting by intimidation, and their efforts led to a Democratic Party victory in state elections.

[2] The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) arose as independent chapters, part of the postwar insurgency related to the struggle for power in the South.

[4] In Livingston, Price had been the leader of the local Loyal League, an organization established to help former slaves transition to freedom.

To try to force freedmen to return to Alabama and possibly stop the migration of others, Adam Kennard, deputy sheriff of Livingston (also described as a bounty hunter), was sent to arrest the men who went with Price to Meridian.

[7] One night when Kennard was sleeping, Price and a band of about six freedmen in disguise took him from the house, carried him outside the city limits, and beat him.

[8] Price was prosecuted under a statute of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, intended to stop the KKK's widespread violence.

It classified committing an act of violence in disguise as a federal crime (related to the KKK practice of wearing masks and costumes to hide individual identities).

[7] The root of the riots, were attributed to the ceaseless raids of KKK, in essence forcing the freedmen to leave the Sumter County farms, taking refuge in the nearby Meridian area (located just 40 miles (64 km) southwest of the Livingston).

According to Michael Newton, Adam Kennard was not a white sheriff, rather a former slave, who was deputized and dispatched to by the farmers, along with some KKK members to retrieve the departed farm hands.

[9][10] Referencing the trial's cross examination, the Weekly Clarion, reports that Kennard was a "colored man who was Ku Klux Klaned by the Radicals…"[11][12]The Daily Dispatch of Richmond, wrote: The riots of last year were the result of bad teachings by bad men of both parties, who wanted strife.

During this time, several prominent city employees told Mayor Sturgis of their concern that if Price were tried, there was a risk of mass unrest.

The Republican James L. Alcorn won, carrying Lauderdale County by a large majority on the basis of voting by freedmen.

Given the unrest in Meridian, Mayor Sturgis requested federal troops, since no local officials were willing to prosecute the Alabamians or other whites in the city.

Sturgis began his own legal proceedings against some of the whites in the city, leading to greater opposition and renewed effort to have him removed.

[21] When Sturgis's advisers returned to the city on Friday, March 3, 1871, they brought Aaron Moore, a Republican member of the Mississippi Legislature from Lauderdale County.

A local store owner overheard a conversation predicting that crowds of people – both black and white – would be out on the streets that night.

Dr. L. D. Belk, acting deputy sheriff, chased Tyler and asked men to gather arms and help in the pursuit.

[37] Tyler was found wounded in a ditch between the courthouse and Sam Parker's shop by a black laborer Joe Sharp.

[40] Reportedly the two men grew tired and threw Clopton from the second story window, saying they "could not waste their time on a wounded Negro murderer.

[43] The white mob burned down Moore's house along with a Baptist church nearby, which had been donated by the United States government to serve as a school for blacks.

The letter was reprinted widely in the North, and fueled the debate over toughening the restrictions in the Ku Klux Klan Law under consideration.

[31] News of the riot angered the Radical Republicans in Congress, and hastened the passage of the law, known as the Enforcement Act.

Many black witnesses had credible information as to who shot whom, but most were too afraid to testify, as they feared losing their jobs, rights, or their lives.

The only person convicted of actions related to the riot was an Alabama KKK man charged with raping a black woman.

[48] The Meridian riot highlighted the fact that blacks in the South were poorly armed, economically dependent on whites for jobs, and new to freedom; they had difficulty resisting violent attacks without federal help.

[44] By the mid-1870s, as war memories faded, Northern whites became tired of supporting the expensive programs to try to suppress the violence in the South and more inclined to let the states handle their own problems.

[44] By 1875 in Mississippi, paramilitary insurgent groups, such as the Red Shirts and rifle leagues, described as "the military arm of the Democratic Party"[52] had arisen in the Klan's place.

With control reestablished at the state government level, conservative Democrats passed electoral laws and constitutional amendments to restrict voting by freedmen and poor whites, resulting in their disfranchisement for decades.

[53] The next few decades after the Meridian Riot saw a rise in lynchings and violence against blacks across the South, which accompanied their loss of civil rights and the fight for white supremacy.