THE CAPITAL AREA 219 By 1874, however, white resistance to Reconstruction measures grew stronger and whites organized to end Republican rule. In Yazoo County, a local planter, Henry M. Dixon, organized Dixon’s Scouts in 1875 for the purpose of defending whites against rumors of African American violence. He led a confrontation at a Republican rally in Yazoo City in which gunfire erupted, leaving one man dead and several more wounded. Similar events followed in Clinton, where a group of whites interrupted a Republican rally and shots erupted. Though whites initiated the disruption, once the gunfire began rumors ofAfricanAmerican-led violence against whites spread quickly. The next morning armed whites arrived and massacred nearly thirtyAfricanAmerican residents. Terrified AfricanAmerican Jacksonians sought refuge in the vicinity of the executive mansion and a nearby courthouse. Clinton and Yazoo City were targeted by white Democrats as African American political strongholds to be captured in the push to take control from Republicans in the 1875 elections. Ten days prior to the November elections, Copiah County’s African American residents witnessed bands of whites roving rural areas in a show of intimidation to discourage African American voter turnout. Such intimidation along with rumors about African American violence and confusion about polling places all helped usher in a new era of white Democratic rule. Republican challenges were quelled, African American voters were disenfranchised, and whites once again assumed control of Mississippi’s power structure. EUDORA WELTY HOUSE The home of famous Mississippi author Eudora Welty for seventy-six years, this house was where she wrote the vast majority of her books and essays. The house was built by her parents in 1925 when Welty was sixteen years old. Welty donated the property to the state of Mississippi in 1986, leaving the house filled with books and various pieces of arts, all in their original places left by the Welty family. Welty won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973 and her writings have been translated into many different languages around the world. She was not only an acclaimed writer, but also a well-known photographer during the Great Depression. Focusing most of her stories and essays on life in Mississippi and familial relationships, Welty also authored two pieces standing against the racism she saw in Jackson. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE EUDORA WELTY HOUSE AND GARDEN