South Carolina - The First State to Secede From the Union

President Grant declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus within nine South Carolina counties in 1871. Federal forces immediately began rounding up KKK members and other instigators of racial violence. Many wealthy and well-connected clansmen fled into hiding, but by December of that year Attorney General Ackerman had successfully indicted 3,000 men and 3,000 members of the KKK. In the decades that followed, African Americans continued to be targeted throughout the South; racist policies sought to disenfranchise and segregate them.