In 1871, under President Ulysses S. Grant, Black militias in South Carolina stood shoulder to shoulder with U.S. troops to dismantle Ku Klux Klan terror. Led by men like Prince Rivers, Robert Smalls, and Jim Williams, these disciplined defense units proved that when granted the means, freedmen could protect their communities — not through charity, but through courage and organization. Their stand remains one of America’s most overlooked triumphs of Reconstruction.
