And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. Praying at the dedication of the Elaine Massacre Memorial. Their initial task was to appeal the sentences given to the Elaine Twelve and ask for a new trial based on errors committed by the trial court. Helena-West Helena Police investigate a deadly Friday night - FOX16 New York: Anchor Books, 1967. For the American Civil War battle of the same name, see, U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Helena, Arkansas, "H. Glenn Mosenthin, "Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad", "Helena Harbor celebrates return of rail service to Phillips County - Talk Business & Politics", "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990", "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2014", "CENSUS 2000 Block Map: WEST HELENA city", "State's last black Catholic school to close", "Saxophonist Red Holloway Dead at 84 Chicago tenor was prolific leader and sideman for six decades", "Helena, a city and the county-seat of Phillips county, Arkansas, U.S.A.", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helena,_Arkansas&oldid=1151874553, Arkansas populated places on the Mississippi River, Populated places in Phillips County, Arkansas, 1833 establishments in Arkansas Territory, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox settlement with unknown parameters, Pages using US Census population needing update, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, S.T.A.R.S. Although the exact number is unknown, estimates of the number of African Americans killed by whites have ranged into the hundreds; five white people lost their lives. Throughout the day at least 1,000 white vigilantes came from all over the state and from Mississippi to join plantation owners, their managers, sheriffs, deputies and the veterans to put down what they called an uprising. Here are some tips. Additional support provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1970. Over 7,500 Confederate troops led by Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes attempted to capture Helena in hopes of relieving some of the pressure on the Confederate army besieged in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Ms. Wells Barnett provided hard evidence of the massacre, but it took the Supreme Court to expose the truth to national attention. ed. A willow tree memorializing the African American lives lost in a 1919 massacre in Elaine, Arkansas, in one of the deadliest racial conflicts in U.S. history, was chopped down this week . Founded in 1871, the Helena World is one of Arkansas' oldest newspapers. The first time you log in to our catalog you will need to create an account. I am wondering if any group, agency, or government entity ever developed a list of the 100 or 237 black lynchings in 1919 in the Elaine area during that evil time in black history. [14], Late on July 3, Fagan sent a patrol commanded by Colonel William H. Brooks to secure the junction of the two roads leading to Little Rock. New York: Pegasus Books, 2020. Jones began to raise money in the black community in Little Rock for the defense of the Elaine Twelve, as the convicted men came to be known. Since Prentiss was aware of a coming attack, the Confederates would not have the advantage of surprise. Brough once again stayed their executions until the Arkansas Supreme Court could again review the cases. The obligations of the past weigh heavily upon the present. Marmaduke followed up the bombardment with an attack against Battery A, but fog that had concealed the advance dissipated and the attack was repulsed by the 29th Iowa, who mounted a counterattack. But World War I brought changes to the Delta, as it did in Northern urban centers. [72] Many Confederates surrendered. State police say Officer Wallace was shot around 6:11 p.m. Thursday outside the Delta Inn on U.S. Highway 49 in Helena-West Helena. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2020. [53] Bledsoe's two guns were driven off, but neither side could defeat the other. Johnson, J. Chester. [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. (2000) 6,323; (2010) 12,282. The governor, who was reported as saying he was going to Elaine to obtain correct information, accepted the authority of the committee in return for its commitment that no lynchings would take place in Helena (Phillips County). To be released, the men would have to plead guilty to second-degree murder and a sentence of five years from the date they were first incarcerated in the Arkansas State Penitentiary. Downtown Helena - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go - Tripadvisor To Those Known and Unknown: The Elaine Massacre Memorial. Arkansas Times, August 2019, pp. A rural town confronts its buried history of mass killings of black 10 Abandoned Places in Arkansas Being Reclaimed by Nature - OnlyInYourState [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. [91][c] Holmes accused McRae of "misbehavior before the enemy", and in his report placed part of the blame for the failure on McRae, but McRae was cleared by a subsequent court-martial. Online at https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2544/ (accessed November 9, 2022). On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. On the other hand, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in New York, which had sent Field Secretary Walter White to investigate the events in Elaine, contested such allegations from the outset. As racialized violence spread in both Northern and Southern cities during the Red Summer of 1919, Delta planters were paying close attention. There were 2,710 housing units at an average density of 304.6 per square mile (117.6/km2). Stopford, Annie. Some of the refugees were killed, some were taken prisoner, and the camp was burned by the Confederates at some point during the battle. Late in the evening of Sept. 30, black sharecropper families gathered in the Hoop Spur church near Elaine. For the next year, it served as a command post for the Union since it was centrally located on the Mississippi River. The Arkansas Race Riot. N.p. [96], Most of the Confederates withdrew from the area the next morning,[97] falling back to Jacksonport,[59] although Walker's men remained behind to harass any Union troops that sallied forth from the city. [8] He thought the attack would be too costly, and instead suggested placing an artillery battery along the Mississippi river to intercept Union shipping. They seek redress, not in the form of apologies, but in recognition of the harm done, and of the way generations continue to suffer the consequences. The CALS Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. [32] Their plans were also hampered by poor reconnaissance. Grif Stockley Many denied the massacre had occurred, leaving accounts of the slaughter to witnesses, reports from Wells Barnett, and stories passed down through families of the victims. Later in the year, Union troops used Helena as a staging ground for their successful campaign to capture Little Rock, Arkansas. [80] Between 10:30 and 11:00 am, Fagan received orders to retreat from before Battery D. Part of the 37th Arkansas Infantry Regiment was trapped during the retreat and was captured. Scipio A. Jones. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 31 (Autumn 1972): 201219. Joseph Bledsoe's Missouri Battery was brought up to provide artillery support, and two of its guns opened on the Union positions. We Have Just Begun: Black Organizing and White Response in the Arkansas Delta, 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Autumn 1999): 265284. [75] Price then ordered Parsons to attack Battery D, but was informed that McRae had already been ordered to do that. [59], Holmes lost 1,636 of the 7,646 men he had taken into the battle: 173 killed, 687 wounded, and 776 missing. They ushered her out the door." Helena-West Helena Police confirmed they were called to the Walmart Thursday just after noon to a report of a subject having a. Watson was but one of 97 Black people lynched in Arkansas in the decade spanning 1891 to 1900 93 males and 4 females. In a final act of disrespect, they tied her dress over her head and left her body on the side of the road for several days. Wormser, Richard, director. Ark. pharmacist arrested after 'violent episode' at Walmart - WREG.com Seventy-nine-year-old Ed Coleman had remained at home with his wife when people fleeing Hoop Spur came to his house and warned them to leave. He also told how soldiers brought a suspected union leader to his company store for interrogation, poured kerosene over his body and tossed a match. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Finally, on January 14, 1925, Governor Thomas McRae ordered the release of the Moore defendants by granting them indefinite furloughs after they had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. [4] After, a loss of rail service in early 2015, a successful effort was launched by the Helena-West Helena/Phillips County Port Authority to have freight service restored. My mother said she believed his uncle Richard was there, but he was afraid to come outside for fear someone would be there to take him back to Arkansas. 1E, 6E. (Students Tapping Academic Resources for Success) Academy (alternative school), This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 19:58. The racial makeup of Helena is 67.93% Black or African American, 30.59% White, 0.13% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.17% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Police say that Borum was . Elaine was probably the largest massacre of black people in post-Civil War history, yet no federal investigation was ever conducted. Even at the age of seventy-nine, Murphy, a former Confederate officer and Arkansas attorney general, was considered one of the best trial attorneys in Arkansas. 1831-12-25 Louisiana & Arkansas are first states to observe Christmas as holiday. Little Rock: Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, 2002. One African-American, William Pickens, described the region as the American Congo. Elaine, though an isolated plantation region, was part of the broader social upheaval following World War I that came in the form of massive strikes and racial confrontations, both at home and abroad. In Phillips County, this struggle directly challenged planter dominance. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. [25] Trees were felled in front of the Union lines, although it is unclear if they were simply left where they fell as an obstruction or were converted into abatis. Rate and review titles you borrow and share your opinions on them. The Edwardian Inn is located on land occupied by Union forces during the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[14]. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. [30] The Confederates had support from the local white populace. Federal Troops and the Elaine Massacres: A Colloquy. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 61 (Autumn 2002): 272283. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2022. By late November, Jones was working with Murphys firm to save the Elaine Twelve. Sandy Diggs or Toby Diggs was the name father and son, Im trying to find what happened to them. Corrections? 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. Colonel Jenckss report of his mission supported this view, claiming only two black people and one of his corporals had died. Enraged citizens fired at the bodies of the dead negroes as they rode out of Helena toward Elaine.. Fort Curtis 12 Points of Interest & Landmarks By Altekameraden Local officials and businessmen conducted their own investigation of what had transpired in the Elaine area. Pop. Brough, who had ridden on the train with the troops and accompanied them on a march to the Hoop Spur area. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Woodruff, Nan Elizabeth. Although the United States was on the winning side of World War I, supporters of American capitalism found in communism a new menace to their security. Confident that a single regiment could hold off Walker, Salomon pulled the 1st Indiana Cavalry towards Fort Curtis and a new line was formed in that vicinity using the Indiana cavalrymen and parts of the 33rd Iowa, 33rd Missouri, and 35th Missouri. [97] Vicksburg had surrendered on July 4, and the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana fell within a week. One of the convicted 12 wrote to her from prison, requesting help. I know for a fact my fathers people were involved in the Elaine Riot. He made an agreement with Price, who was much more popular with the general public, that he would publicly support the decision of the attack in the case of a failure. In previous months, racial conflict had occurred in numerous cities in America, including Washington DC; Chicago, Illinois; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Indianapolis, Indiana. In Moore v. Dempsey, the court in 1923 overturned the convictions of six of the Elaine 12, arguing that the confessions had been secured through torture. Major support provided through a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. The Malco theater in Helena has served as both a place to see a movie and as a movie location in Arkansas. The Elaine Riot of 1919: Race, Class, and Labor in the Arkansas Delta. PhD diss., University of WisconsinMilwaukee, 2019. Workers also had to buy food, clothing, household wares, tools, seed and fertilizer at the plantation commissary, which charged exorbitant interest rates. Pierce, Michael, and Calvin White, eds. Details remain difficult to verify. (Union leader Robert Lee Hill was hidden by friends during the violence and later escaped to Kansas.) These 15 Photos Of Arkansas In The 1960s Are Mesmerizing (WMC) - Areas of Eastern Arkansas are sending more violent offenders to federal court. Krugler, David F. 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back. The official narrative presented a picture at odds with reality. From Race Riot to Sit-in: 1919 to the 1960s. 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. The conflict began on the night of September 30, 1919, when approximately 100 African Americans, mostly sharecroppers on the plantations of white landowners, attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church in Hoop Spur (Phillips County), three miles north of Elaine. Ms. Wells Barnett gathered testimonies that described the sheer horror of the massacre from those who endured and lived to tell their stories. Thrown into this highly combustible mix was the return to the United States of black soldiers who often exhibited a less submissive attitude within the Jim Crow society around them. Carrying an ax with their guns, they then moved to another home, where they murdered yet another union member, Frances Hall. [Editors note: A professor at UA Little Rock is working to compile such a list.]. In their view a deliberately planned insurrection had occurred, where black sharecroppers had intended to murder the plantation owners to seize the land. Robert Palmer noted that in the mid-1930s Helena was "the blues capital of the Delta".
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