Recollections of George Washington Albright, Holly Springs, Mississippi

I helped to organize the Negro volunteer militia, which was needed to keep the common people on top and fight off the organized attacks of the landlords and former slaveowners. We drilled frequently—and how the rich folks hated to see us, armed and ready to defend ourselves and our elected government!

Our militia helped fight off the Klan which was organized by the old slaveowners to try to make us slaves again in all but name.

I had a couple of narrow escapes from the Klan myself. When I began to teach school, the plantation owners said: “That Albright is a dangerous nigger. He’s a detriment to the state.” One day I got a warning from a friend that I’d better sleep away from home. I took the hint. Sure enough, that night the Klan came to the house and asked for me. My sister said she didn’t know where I was.

Let me tell you also the story of a friend of mine by the name of Zeke House. Zeke House was a Negro Mail-carrier. One day, while he was carrying the mail from Holly Springs to Waterford, the Klan seized him and murdered him in the woods, and left him in a ditch. We found his body days later. That was in 1874.

Another friend of mine, Charles Caldwell, who was a captain of the Negro militia and a member of the Mississippi Senate, was murdered by the Klan also.

The rich people regained control over Mississippi with the help of the Klan.