 The victims of this violence were overwhelmingly African American, as in the Colfax Massacre of 1873.After federal suppression of the Klan in the early 1870s, white insurgent groups tried to avoid open conflict with federal forces.In 1874 in the Battle of Liberty Place, the White League entered New Orleans with 5,000 members and defeated the police and militia, to occupy federal offices for three days in an attempt to overturn the disputed government of William Pitt Kellogg, but retreated before federal troops reached the city.