Although the constable arranged a ceasefire, after the freedmen gathered at the door of the store, some eighteen whites rushed and shot at them at close range.
Members generally operated in groups and often threatened intended victims at night, trying to suppress black political actions and sometimes economic enterprises.
But the immediate cause of violence was that Lamberth was told that Carter and his friend Whitlock Fields had "threatened" his Black mistress, warning her to stay away from his store.
[1] Given the armed preparation by the whites and their concerted group action against the freedmen, Walsh believed they were likely members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
[1] In addition to the riot, whites killed black people in other local incidents, and conducted campaigns of general harassment against freedmen and their sympathizers in the area.
[citation needed] Most of the violence were directed towards black people to intimidate them and break Republican support, though "carpetbagger" and "scalawag" whites were also targeted.