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May 29, 2018 · Benjamin Ryan Tillman >Benjamin Ryan Tillman (1847-1918), an American statesman for the South [1] >and a demagogue, was known as "Pitchfork Ben." His political campaigns on >behalf of poor whites gave direction to a new generation of Southern >activists who reorganized post-Reconstruction politic
BENJAMIN RYAN TILLMAN was born near Trenton, South Carolina. He left school in 1864 to join the Confederate Army but was incapacitated by a serious illness that caused the loss of his left eye. He went on to farm on a large estate for nearly twenty years and helped launch the farmers’ movement, which pressed […]
Benjamin Ryan Tillman was a politician of the Democratic Party who served as governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and as a United States Senator from 1895 until his death in 1918. A white supremacist who opposed civil rights for black Americans, Tillman led a paramilitary group of Red Shirts during South Carolina's violent 1876 election. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, he defended ...
Benjamin Tillman (1847–1918) A Democratic senator for South Carolina during the War of 1898, Benjamin Tillman was one of the most vocal and powerful members of a substantial racist faction of the Anti-Imperialist League (AIL). He helped engineer the disenfranchisement of African Americans in his state through gerrymandering and championed ...
Dec 30, 2023 · Benjamin Ryan Tillman, Jr. ( 11 August 1847 – 3 July 1918) was a politician of the Democratic Party who was Governor of South Carolina from 1890 to 1894, and a United States Senator from 1895 until his death. A white supremacist who often spoke out against black people, Tillman led a paramilitary group of Red Shirts during South Carolina's ...
“Their Own Hotheadedness”: Senator Benjamin R.“Pitchfork Ben” Tillman Justifies Violence Against Southern Blacks. In this March 23, 1900, speech before the U.S. Senate, Senator Benjamin R. “Pitchfork Ben” Tillman of South Carolina defended the actions of his white constituents who had murdered several black citizens of his home state.
Ben Tillman was an unabashed and self-proclaimed "white supremacist" who led South Carolina's notorious Red Shirts, a paramilitary gang that murdered black people on small and large scales. Before his election, he participated in the Hamburg Massacre, using his role in the riot to vault his political career.
