Kirk–Holden war facts for kids

The Kirk–Holden war was a police operation taken against the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization by the government in the state of North Carolina in the United States in 1870. The Klan was using murder and intimidation to prevent recently freed slaves and members of the Republican Party from exercising their right to vote in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Following an increase in Klan activity in North Carolina—including the murder of a black town commissioner in Alamance County and the murder of a Republican state senator in Caswell County—Republican Governor of North Carolina William W. Holden declared both areas to be in a state of insurrection. In accordance with the Shoffner Act, Holden ordered a militia be raised to restore order in the counties and arrest Klansmen suspected of violence. This resulted in the creation of the 1st and 2nd North Carolina Troops, which Holden placed under the overall command of Colonel George Washington Kirk.

In July 1870, Kirk oversaw the deployment of the 2nd North Carolina Troops in Alamance and Caswell counties, while the 1st North Carolina Troops garrisoned the city of Raleigh. A total of 82 men in Alamance and 19 in Caswell were detained on suspicion of Klan-related activity, including a former member of the United States Congress and the sheriffs of both counties, and Klan activity in both counties promptly ceased. No one was killed during the campaign, though the militiamen at times showed poor discipline and used foul language. Kirk's second-in-command also exceeded his orders and sent men to arrest a newspaper editor in Orange County, which was not declared to be in insurrection. Holden initially refused to have the men brought to regular courts under writs of habeas corpus, planning to try them by military tribunal, but eventually gave way to pressure from Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court Richmond Mumford Pearson and United States District Court Judge George Washington Brooks. As a result, 49 men were indicted in court for crimes, but all were ultimately acquitted and released by late August.

The militiamen were also deployed to guard polling stations during North Carolina's legislative elections on August 4, but Holden's use of the militia as well as other complaints about Republican corruption and Klan intimidation led the Conservatives and Democrats to take a majority of seats in the North Carolina General Assembly. Holden ordered the militia to disband on September 21, and on November 10 he declared that there was no longer a state of insurrection in Alamance and Caswell counties. Conservative and Democratic-leaning newspapers heavily criticized his actions and his political opponents coined the name "Kirk–Holden war" to describe the affair. The General Assembly subsequently filed articles of impeachment against Holden in December and ultimately removed him from office in March 1871. Holden was the first governor in the United States to be removed in such fashion, and his campaign against the Klan and impeachment crippled the image of the Republican Party in North Carolina for many years. The General Assembly repealed the Shoffner Act and passed another law designed to grant amnesty to Klansmen.