Talk:Meridian race riot of 1871

Good work!
You've done a great job and it is an important event to write about, as it demonstrates many of the racial, economic and social tensions of the time. Suggestions:
 * Include the total numbers of residents and ethnic breakdown for Meridian and the county in 1870, if you can find them. Likely to be more available at county level from the 1870 federal census. It would give some perspective to demographic tensions. Most white men in the South were military veterans and remained armed; and many freedmen had acquired arms as well.
 * Expand the article with more information about labor contracts and how they worked; situation with agriculture in AL and MS (Du Bois had material on this in the pages you referred to)
 * Add something about relation of Livingston and Meridian in time/distance/status?
 * Marcy said Kennard was a bounty hunter. Is this sourced elsewhere? If so, it might be useful to explain. Parkwells (talk) 19:13, 17 December 2010 (UTC)Parkwells (talk) 17:26, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Lead section
I'm sure the article could use a little expanding, but I believe recent edits have expanded it in the wrong place. There is currently more information in the lead (which is unsourced btw) about the effects of the riot than there is in the "Effects" section. Much of this should be incorporated into the article text rather than the lead, and a short summary should be left up top. Remember, the lead is supposed to be a summary of what's already in the article. Everything in the lead should be found in the article text as well.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 20:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Will do, got carried away. As someone who likes visuals, I think having a map to show Meridian in Lauderdale Co, and the county in the state would be useful - also relates to the migrants from AL.Parkwells (talk) 21:44, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Spelling of mayor
Cagin spells it "Sturges" - do you have other sources for Sturgis? I know 19th c. spelling was loose and names often appear in variations.Parkwells (talk) 22:13, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I've seen it Sturgis and Sturges. I personally have no preference, but I went with Sturgis because the main source that I used (McGehee) spelled it with an I. Upon looking over all the other sources, though, most of them (including the offline one that I used) spell it Sturges. Your call.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:20, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * List of mayors of Meridian, Mississippi uses "Sturges" as well. That's from another offline source.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:24, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Sounds good to me.Parkwells (talk) 22:51, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Edit conflict
Sorry to conflict today; was trying to get the lead to focus on major issues. I may have confused it more, as I thought Price would have been arrested under the Enforcement Act of 1870, but you later cited his arrest under part of the 1866 act, and said the riot influenced the passage of the Enforcement Act of 1871 (I thought there were two related laws in 1870 and 1871 called the Enforcement Acts.) Will try to find out and not mess up your material.Parkwells (talk) 17:29, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * He may have very well been arrested under the Enforcement Act of 1870 instead of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.. The actual name of the act isn't anywhere in the sources that I can find. I've only seen it referred to as the "Ku Klux Klan Act". I was unaware of the Enforcement Acts when I was writing this, so the last act I could find before 1871 was the 1866 one. Feel free to read through the sources – especially McGehee – to see if you can get a better idea of it.--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 17:38, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Move reverted
See Talk:Tulsa race riot. Whatever the merits may be of such a move, it is pretty clearly contentious and should be discussed, consulting history-related sources as necessary. Stevie is the man! Talk • Work 20:16, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
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Renaming "Meridian massacre"
I hope no one has a problem with this. "Race riot" suggests there were two sides to it, and suggests black responsibility. Anti-civil riots people called things race riots. It was exclusively white against black, and enough dead to justify the massacre term. See Coushatta massacre, Camilla massacre, Colfax massacre, Opelousas massacre, Hamburg massacre, New Orleans massacre of 1866. I think the events in Meridian put it in the same category. deisenbe (talk) 12:02, 26 February 2019 (UTC)