 Most blacks joined the Republican Party, and several were elected in Pine Bluff to county offices and the state legislature for the first time in history.Several black-owned businesses were also opened, including banks, bars, barbershops, and other establishments.But in postwar violence in 1866, an altercation with whites ensued at a refugee camp, and 24 black men, women and children were found hanging from trees in one of the worst mass lynchings in U.S. history.