Workers also had to buy food, clothing, household wares, tools, seed and fertilizer at the plantation commissary, which charged exorbitant interest rates. The City of Helena is located in Phillips County in the State of Arkansas. Details remain difficult to verify. Neuman, Scott. Late in the evening of Sept. 30, black sharecropper families gathered in the Hoop Spur church near Elaine. This article is about the U.S. city. Hundreds of black citizens were killed in Elaine, Ark., a century ago this week. He made no motion for a change of venue, nor did he challenge a single prospective juror, taking the first twelve called. A defensive position known as Fort Curtis already existed to the west of Helena, but four new batteries, named with the letters A, B, C, and D, were ordered built. - Police in Helena-West Helena are investigating a deadly shooting that happened on Friday night. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Two Narratives: How a 1919 Massacre Tore Elaine, Ark., Apart. Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, November 15, 2021. https://lynching.cnsmaryland.org/2021/11/14/two-narratives-how-a-1919-massacre-tore-elaine-ark-apart/ (accessed August 16, 2022). This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. The sharecroppers who gathered at a small church in Elaine, Arkansas, in the late hours of September 30, 1919, knew the risk they were taking. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. (WMC) - Areas of Eastern Arkansas are sending more violent offenders to federal court. There were 1,636 Confederate casualties and 205 Union casualties.[6]. [55] Walker's men spent the rest of the morning primarily skirmishing with Clayton's cavalry and firing at long range. Taylor, Kieran. My anger comes from this being hidden/erased from history like the lives that were taken that day. Ferguson, Bessie. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2022. 1831-12-25 Louisiana & Arkansas are first states to observe Christmas as holiday. The findings blamed outside agitators for stirring up ignorant sharecroppers. After troops arrived in Elaine on the morning of October 2, 1919, the white mobs began to depart the area and return to their homes. [9] Further vacillation by Holmes ended when Confederate cavalry reported on June 14 that the garrison at Helena had been weakened. Troops and vigilantes, he noted, went into the canebrakes in search of negro desperadoes, leaving dead bodies lying in the road a few miles outside of the city. Volunteers rush to aid animals at closed Ark. shelter - WREG.com The commander of Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi, Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, was forwarded in June the dispatch that Johnston had received, and delegated making the decision whether to attack Helena to Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes, the Confederate commander of the District of Arkansas. Local officials and businessmen conducted their own investigation of what had transpired in the Elaine area. [29] Remembering the surprise suffered by men under his command in the earlier Battle of Shiloh, Prentiss ordered reveille blown daily at 2 am. The wife of Frank Moore had hidden for four weeks. Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and a Story of Reconciliation. Colonel Jencks sent all of the white women and children to Helena by train, ordered the immediate disarming of everyone and authorized the killing of black insurgents who failed to disarm. He lost 121 acres of cotton and corn. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.5 males. Elaine was probably the largest massacre of black people in post-Civil War history, yet no federal investigation was ever conducted. Police say that Borum was . Local authorities blocked press coverage. Arkansas has a rich history of movie theaters, many that hold a spot on the National Register of Historic Places and are still in operation today. During the trials, Murphy became ill, and Jones became the principal counsel. Calls went out to the governor for federal troops. The Elaine Lynchings: A Visit to Elaine, Arkansas, 100 Years After When she came back to her neighborhood, a plantation manager, Billy Archdale, told her if she did not leave, he would kill her, burn her up, and no one would know where she was. Most of those who survived found their homes emptied of possessions that appeared in white peoples homes. Federal Troops and the Elaine Massacres: A Colloquy. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 61 (Autumn 2002): 272283. [34] To protect Fagan's flank, Brooks' men were sent up the Lower Little Rock Road at around 1:30 am;[35] the detachment opened the battle in the early dawn by clashing with Union pickets. [1] The American Civil War began on April 12, when Confederate troops bombarded Fort Sumter. J. One of the convicted 12 wrote to her from prison, requesting help. The purpose of the meeting, one of several by black sharecroppers in the Elaine area during the previous months, was to obtain better payments for their cotton crops from the white plantation owners who dominated the area during the Jim Crow era. She was able to go one way. America cannot address the inequality, poverty, inadequate education, the racially biased criminal justice system, and the limited life chances of black people that define contemporary society until the nation confronts and acknowledges this history. At the same time, the New York offices of the NAACP, upon the advice of Arkansas attorney Ulysses S. Bratton, hired the Little Rock law firm of George Murphy, a former attorney general and candidate for governor, as counsel for the twelve men. Little Rock: Butler Center Books, 2018. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. One hundred years ago this week, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history unfolded in Elaine, Ark., a small town on the Mississippi. [64] The advance up the hill had also thrown the Confederates into disarray. South of Price, Fagan was to attack Battery D on Hindman's Hill, while Marmaduke, supported by Walker, was to attack from the north, take Rightor's Hill, and then use the hill as an artillery position to fire on Batteries A and B. [56] Historian Robert E. Shalhope wrote that the Confederate attacks were repulsed "perhaps less by the powerful Union entrenchments than by their own poorly co-ordinated attack". According to the United States Census Bureau, Helena had a total area of 8.9 square miles (23km2), all land. Whitaker, Robert. Flood of 1927 - Encyclopedia of Arkansas The trials were a joke. The median income for a household in Helena is $18,662, and the median income for a family was $21,534. At least two historians, including myself, have settled on a reasonable estimate of 200, recognizing that the toll was most likely far greater. Telephone lines to Elaine were cut. Phillips County Arrest, Court, and Public Records | StateRecords.org These 15 Photos Of Arkansas In The 1960s Are Mesmerizing [82] Either around the time that Battery C fell to Price's attack[83] or as Fagan's withdrawal was ending, Brooks placed a 6-pounder field gun on a hilltop and began to fire on the Union positions, but Battery K, 1st Missouri Light Artillery and Tyler drove it off. Hostility toward him was so great from local white residents that, out of fear for his life, he was said to sleep at a different black familys house every night during the trials. They came to discuss membership in an organization called the Progressive Farmers and Household Union, which would help them secure a fair price for the cotton they picked and to buy land. Sneed, Arkansas: A ghost town in Jackson County, Arkansas, Sneed was abandoned in 1929 following an F5 tornado. As racialized violence spread in both Northern and Southern cities during the Red Summer of 1919, Delta planters were paying close attention. The county was named for Sylvanus Phillips, and the settlement was renamed (1821) for his daughter. The Elaine Riot: Tragedy & Triumph. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. The main attack broke through Battery C, but Union troops fended off the attackers and sealed the breach. Elaine massacre - Wikipedia 10 Abandoned Places in Arkansas Being Reclaimed by Nature - OnlyInYourState [99], Helena was reinforced and in mid-August, Union forces began a campaign against Little Rock, with Helena as the staging ground. [Editors note: A professor at UA Little Rock is working to compile such a list.]. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. [62] Price's Missouri sharpshooters found positions from which they could pick off the gunners in Battery C.[63], Price's first attack was repulsed, as was a second. Black guards returned the fire, killing a white agent of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [74] Holmes ordered Parsons to attack Battery D to support Fagan, but as Parsons' men were too badly disorganized at the time, McRae was given the order to attack. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. [60] The failure of the attacks on Batteries A and D allowed those positions to fire on Price's men, and Tyler and Fort Curtis added artillery fire as well;[61] Tyler had moved to a different location that allowed for better fire on Graveyard Hill after suppressing Brooks' men. If you can, provide 1-2 sources of information backing up this correction. The descendants of the wealthier white perpetrators, they insist, have profited, and continue to do so, from the suffering and loss that their families endured in 1919. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [37] The felled trees slowed Fagan's main attack,[38] which was on the Upper Little Rock Road,[39] and forced the Confederates to leave their supply wagons and cannons behind. For the next five years, the cases of the Elaine Twelve were mired in litigation as Murphy and Jones fought to save the men from death. The Malco theater in Helena has served as both a place to see a movie and as a movie location in Arkansas. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.28. [45], Price's attack had been delayed. The Elaine Massacre was by far the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history and possibly the bloodiest racial conflict in the history of the United States. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Once there, Holmes provided further orders for the advance: Walker was to screen Fagan's movement to Helena with part of his command, while Price continued on to Helena from Switzer's. Additional support provided by the Arkansas Community Foundation. A memorial to those killed in the Elaine massacre of 1919 was dedicated on Sunday. Consequently, plantation owners and lumber mills had to pay higher wages to have the cotton picked or timber milled. THE 5 BEST Things to Do in Helena - Tripadvisor More atrocities were later reported, including cutting souvenirs from black bodies and . Details remain difficult to verify. Dr. Woodruff is a historian and the author of American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta.. [84] Marmaduke received orders to withdraw at about 11:00 am, but being angry at Walker over Walker's failure to support his attack and believing that Walker faced only a small force, decided against informing Walker of his retreat. [46] Meanwhile, Fagan's men attacked the second Union line of works. Scipio A. Jones. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 31 (Autumn 1972): 201219. [66] Many men from the 7th Missouri Infantry Regiment (Lewis') were captured at this time. [8] He thought the attack would be too costly, and instead suggested placing an artillery battery along the Mississippi river to intercept Union shipping. Salomon would make many of the decisions in the upcoming battle. The Underlying Causes of the Elaine Riot of 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 20 (Spring 1961): 95104. The Nevada County Depot in Prescott was photographed circa 1960 with the Reader Railroad engine in the foreground. [87] Almost all of the Confederate losses were from the brigades of Fagan, Parsons, and McRae, who took 32 percent of their attacking forces as casualties. [42] The Confederates came under fire from the 29th Iowa Infantry Regiment, which had been sent to reinforce the position at Rightor's Hill, and became disorganized. The Massacre of Black Sharecroppers That Led the Supreme Court to Curb Ultimately, the Ware defendants were freed by the Arkansas Supreme Court after two terms of court had passed, and the state of Arkansas made no move to re-try the men. Descendant of Arkansas Elaine Massacre Victims Push for Restorative Justice. Facing South, October 7, 2020. https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/10/descendants-arkansas-elaine-massacre-victims-push-restorative-justice (accessed August 16, 2022).
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