Shoffner Act [1]
Shoffner Act
The Shoffner Act, introduced by state senator T. M. Shoffner of Alamance County [3] and passed in 1870, empowered the governor to suspend habeas corpus and use militia to restore order in counties where Ku Klux Klan [4] terrorism raged out of control. Governor William W. Holden [5] invoked the act that year to suppress the Klan in Alamance and Caswell Counties [6], igniting the so-called Kirk-Holden War [7] and leading to Holden's impeachment and removal from office.
References:
J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Reconstruction in North Carolina (1914).
Allen W. Trelease, White Terror: The Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy and Southern Reconstruction (1971).
Additional Resources:
The Kirk-Holden War, ANCHOR: https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/kirk-holden-war [8]
Governor Holden speaks out against the Ku Klux Klan: https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/governor-holden-speaks-out [9]
Argument in the impeachment trial of W.W. Holden, governor of North Carolina: full stenographic reports revised and corrected. Available from https://digital.ncdcr.gov/Documents/Detail/argument-in-the-impeachment-trial-of-w.w.-holden-governor-of-north-carolina-full-stenographic-reports-revised-and-corrected/2148946 [10] (accessed August 3, 2012).
Image Credit:
Broadside published by the Randolph County Executive Committee of the Republican Party on June 1, 1870. North Carolina Collection, Call Number Cb329.1 N87r. Courtesy of UNC Libraries. Available from http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/nchistory/jun2006/notice.html [2] (accessed August 3, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Trelease, Allen W.