26. The Sheriff Wanted To Capture Suspects In The Killing
Again, nobody knows who first fired shots outside of the church where the union meeting was happening. We can certainly make assumptions about the motivation for two armed white supremacists making an appearance there, especially when it ended in a firefight.
The local sheriff immediately wanted to find the people who had killed the white men, presumably the African American union members who were meeting inside the church. But the violence quickly spread outside of the church, and before the night was over, rumors of a black uprising had spread beyond the borders of Phillips County.
