Chapter 88
“It’s suicide to try.”
Having ransacked Main Street, the volatile mob proceeded to Ashland Estates, where they planned to burn the homes of the affluent Negroes. “Why should they live so good?” one man shouted. “A nigger is a nigger, no matter how much money he’s got,” another shouted. “They all deserve to die for what they did to Richard Goode,” a policeman dressed as a civilian said. “No white man should ever have his balls cut off.”
Napoleon, being white, easily mixed in with the mob and waited until they left Main Street before he called Bubbles to let him know the mob was on its way. The men of Ashland Estates knew they couldn’t defend Sable Parish or Main Street. They planned to give token resistance to the rioters, hoping they would be overconfident by the time they reached Ashland Estates, where fifteen hundred Negro men were waiting, armed to the teeth, along with a hundred or so white men who had families there. The plan was to let them in then close the door behind them, leaving no avenues of escape. The Negroes were outnumbered three to one, even with the Whites who joined them.
When Sadie told Santino Mancini, her benefactor and the father of her children about the coming riot, he started a chain of calls to all the white men who had families in Ashland Estates. Mancini called Sheriff Tate and the police for assistance, but got no satisfaction. That’s when they decided to use their considerable wealth and resources to defend their women and children, even at the risk of being found out by their wives. The white men stood shoulder to shoulder with the black men, determined to be victorious in this battle.
In the distance, they could see the headlights and torches. A moment or two later, they could hear the angry mob. Their approach was swift, completely unaware that they were in the crossfire of well-armed black men who were willing to die rather than see any more destruction of their property on that blistering night in August.
“That’s far enough!” Mancini shouted from behind a barricade of sand-filled sacks. The men of Ashland Estates decided to let a white man assume the position of leadership, hoping the mob would listen to him before more people were killed. “There’s been enough killing tonight. You all just go on back home and cool off!”
“We ain’t leavin’ ’til we burn this place to the ground,” Joseph King shouted. “And no nigger-lovin’ white man is gonna stop us. We got you outnumbered. No way you can stop us from coming in there.”
“Maybe not,” Mancini shouted. “But we’re prepared to die trying. Besides that, you all are surrounded. Look around you.” The black men came out of the shadows like ghosts. “It’s suicide to try. Now, go on back home and cool off!”
The mob heard numerous rifles and shotguns being cocked. They looked around and began to assess their chances of survival with all those rifles cocked and aimed at them.
“I see women and children in the crowd,” Mancini began again. “We don’t want to kill anybody, let alone women and children, but you leave us no choice, sir. I beg of you, leave this place in peace and don’t come back.”
The mob began to murmur among themselves, shaking their heads.
“They killed and mutilated a white man,” King said to the crowd, who had lost their desire to continue after seeing so many well-armed Negroes. “We can’t let them get away with that. If we let them get away with it, they’ll rape our wives and daughters next.”
“Isn’t that what you just did?” Lucas shouted. He was standing next to Bubbles with his rifle aimed at the leader.
The murmuring grew louder. A different voice from the crowd interjected, “I’m taking my family home. It ain’t worth it.” Another voice shouted the same thing—then another and another. Several had already turned to leave when Rahim Muhammad shot Joseph King in the forehead. Suddenly everybody was shooting; Blacks and Whites alike fell. So many bullets were fired that the air was filled with smoke and the smell of sulfur. When the hail of bullets finally ceased, amazingly only two hundred men, women, and children were dead, with two thousand wounded—but the homes in Ashland Estates were saved.