White Democrats, led by police, attacked a convention of Black and white Republicans in New Orleans. More than 40 persons were killed, and at least 150 were wounded. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan, Military commander of the state, said, “It was not riot; it was an absolute massacre…which the mayor and the police of the city were complicit in. The attack on the Republican convention was a violent response to the political power shift taking place in the post-Civil War South. This incident, known as the New Orleans Massacre, occurred during the Reconstruction era when Southern whites were resisting the social and political advances of African Americans and their allies. The massacre is considered one of the most brutal instances of racial violence during this time.