On this date in 1868, Arkansas Governor Powell Clayton declared martial law in ten counties and mobilized the state militia due to a Ku Klux Klan crisis. During the summer and fall of 1868, white unrest grew in most of the southern states due to the newly created state governments enacted under the radical Reconstruction Acts. Resentful of Republican control and the extension of rights to blacks, white southerners turned to violence to impose their will. In Arkansas, racial violence continued to escalate as whites attempted to keep blacks from voting and exercising their newly guaranteed rights.

In response to outrages attributed to the Ku Klux Klan, Governor Powell Clayton secretly organized a state militia and declared martial law in many of the counties in Arkansas. His militia consisted largely of the governor’s “State Guards,’ which were very unpopular and composed partly of African Americans.