The Phoenix Election riot beginning on November 8, 1898 was a riot and mass lynching by white South Carolinians in the name of Redemption in Greenwood County, South Carolina. Over a dozen prominent black leaders were murdered and hundreds were injured by a white mob. U.S. Senator Benjamin Tillman spoke in the area a year later, and was quoted as saying, "If you want to uproot the snake [of black voting] and kill it, go and kill the Tolberts."