The topic was well covered in an interesting and informative manner, I learned a great deal about a period in American history you won't learn in school. The book was well written, interesting and thought provoking. However it was slanted. When the republicans maneuvered to remove democrats from office, they were trying to be just, regardless of the legality of their moves (ie trying to impeach the governor, overturning election results, etc.) whereas the democrats involved in the same actions were crucified. Granted by modern standards, the republicans were more politically correct, but the legality of many of the moves was just as suspect and not truly treated as such. History always has a side, and is written to communicate that side, this is fine, but it must be recognized.

This riveting account of a terrible and unknown (until now) part of American history is every bit as riveting as fiction by John Grisham except that it is meticulously researched, and more important...true.
Filmaker Errol Morris says that "there is no truth for you and truth for me, there is only THE truth," and Chuck Lane tells us the sad truth about the murders at Colfax Louisiana and as importantly the disregard for the most central value of a free society, a rule of law not a rule of man.
Readers will learn about the rich and vivid history pf Louisiana, still a frontier for many people who came to find their fortune from the original American colonies.
I cannot recommend a legal history of the United States that is more important for those of us who labor in the law and hope to seek justice through the power of the law.
From their graves the murdered at Colfax are given voice by Charles Lane.

I'm an avid history buff and a pretty demanding critic, and I found "The Day Freedom Died" absolutely riveting. I read it on vacation this week and couldn't put it down. Charles Lane has basically unearthed a little-known event -- the brutal slaughter of many dozens of freedmen in Colfax, Louisiana, on or around Easter Sunday 1873, by former Confederates (now Klansmen) desperately seeking to hold back Reconstruction and to prevent blacks and radical Republican whites from gaining local power -- and made it come to life. This achievement is a tribute both to Lane's meticulous and definitive primary-source research and his fast-moving journalistic storytelling. His rendering of the shocking events of Easter Sunday 1873 itself was incredibly dramatic (also so sad). Lane paints stunningly detailed, nuanced, and evocative portraits of the important players in the drama. And he helpfully and clearly puts the events in Louisiana in the context of Reconstruction generally. As a practicing lawyer, former prosecutor, and a fan of legal history, I particularly appreciated that Lane goes way beyond merely reconstructing the massacre itself to discuss its legal aftermath. The second half of the book recounts the federal government's attempt to prosecute the Colfax killers, and how that attempt ultimately, tragically faltered at the Supreme Court, which rendered a decision that effectively gutted the statute aimed at empowering federal prosecutors to prosecute Klan killings. Lane (the Washington Post's longtime Supreme Court correspondent) is uniquely positioned to render such analysis, and he does it beautifully. There are wonderful portraits here of the trial lawyers and the Supreme Court Justices who were key to the Colfax decision, and also a thoughtful analysis of the pertinent constitutional law issues and the Court's resolution of them. Although tackling a narrower slice of legal history, "The Day Freedom Died" reminded me throughout of Richard Kluger's phenomenal book, "Simple Justice." If you are an American history buff and particularly if you are drawn to either Reconstruction or legal history, you'll love this book.

Full disclosure: I'm a college friend of Charles Lane's. But even if I were not, I would still "approve of this message"!

Chuck Lane's "The Day Freedom Died" is the best kind of popular history: thoroughly researched, well-written, and makes for a quick read. As the events of the Colfax Massacre shift from historical happenstance to a law-and-order whodunit to a legal case to a Supreme Court decision, Lane shifts tenses and tones effectively without losing the reader. He effectively conveys the mood of the times and the way that the story of the Colfax Massacre tied into the overall tenor of Reconstruction, and the injustice of its ending.

Perhaps the most disconcerting thing about the book is its language: Lane writes in modern language, but uses the words "Negro" and "colored" throughout the text in accordance with the usage of the times, as he writes in an author's note at the beginning. The choice is jarring for the first few pages, but defensible in the context of the story about the betrayal of Southern African-Americans by an alliance of Southern whites with Northern whites.

The title of the book tells you that what you're about to read ought to make you mad. The day that freedom died and Reconstruction was betrayed is one that should be remembered, and one that should engender outrage. Lane tells the story well and lets the facts speak for themselves. Which they do, loudly, long after the victims were silenced.

(Full disclosure: Chuck Lane is a colleague and a friend.)