And in Vicksburg, Mississippi, a white mob deposed a duly elected Black sheriff and massacred Black citizens who tried to reinstate him. Grant invoked the act to stop the violence and instate the candidate who won. In Arkansas the same year, two warring factions of Republicans had militias battling over who would take the governor’s seat after a narrow victory. Grant invoked those powers to prevent white supremacists in Louisiana, where a former Confederate soldier candidate lost the governor’s race, from violently preventing the rightful winner, a Reconstruction Republican, from taking office.

President Ulysses Grant invoked the newly amended Insurrection Act after the Civil War to quell political violence. In only one period in our history has a president used the Insurrection Act in the context of elections. Amended twice during and after the Civil War, it was intended to quell insurrection from states and protect the newly recognized constitutional rights of Black people from white supremacists. What is the Insurrection Act? Signed in 1807 by President Thomas Jefferson, the act allows a president to call up the military in times of serious crisis to keep the peace. The House January 6 committee, looking for direct evidence of Donald Trump’s involvement in insurrection, is considering changes to the Insurrection Act to prevent another January 6.

If trump declares martial law