Here are some tips. 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. [50] Price's command consisted of the brigades of Brigadier Generals Dandridge McRae and Mosby Monroe Parsons, and was led by the 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion and a company of Arkansans local to the Helena area. What is certain is that the massacre cast a long shadow for decades, with fear of reprisals silencing those who witnessed and survived the terror. The Malco theater in Helena has served as both a place to see a movie and as a movie location in Arkansas. I have been trying to close a chapter in my family history. 2431. Helena-West Helena School District operates schools in what was Helena. By November 5, 1919, the first twelve black men given trials had been convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Facebook/Historic Arkansas Facts and Photos. On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. According to the United States Census Bureau, Helena had a total area of 8.9 square miles (23km2), all land. [67] A critical moment in the battle had arrived: if the Confederates could get enough artillery onto Graveyard Hill, they could shell the Union forces into submission. These are the same people who dont understand why African Americans choose Black Lives Matter as a valid starting point. The trials began the next week, with John Elvis Miller leading the prosecution. Low Villains and Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in the Elaine Riots. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Autumn 1999): 285313. The obligations of the past weigh heavily upon the present. [93][94] The battle also destroyed any positive relationships remaining between Holmes and Price,[95] with the former believing that the latter should have reinforced Fagan. Helena is the birthplace of many notable people including prominent African Americans and Arkansas' former senior United States senator, Blanche Lincoln. 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. Smith, C. Calvin, ed. He returned to Little Rock the next day and told a press conference, The situation at Elaine has been well handled and is absolutely under control. Fort Curtis was built in August 1862 by Union soldiers and freed slaves in Helena. [68], Fagan's men resumed the attack upon hearing the fighting on Graveyard Hill, and drove the 43rd Indiana and part of the 33rd Iowa from the final Union line in front of Battery D, but were unable to take the Battery itself,[69] having been hit by crossfire while maneuvering through a ravine. Gov. Colonel Jenckss report of his mission supported this view, claiming only two black people and one of his corporals had died. [90] Casualties were heaviest among the 33rd Iowa and the 33rd Missouri, while the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent) saw the first combat wounds suffered by African American soldiers in Arkansas during the war. McWhirter, Cameron. Workers also had to buy food, clothing, household wares, tools, seed and fertilizer at the plantation commissary, which charged exorbitant interest rates. [45], Price's attack had been delayed. The convictions were again affirmed. [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 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. [99], Helena was reinforced and in mid-August, Union forces began a campaign against Little Rock, with Helena as the staging ground. According to police, deputies were dispatched to the 1000 block of Cherry Street in regard to a shots fired complaint when they discovered 50-year-old Cornelius Borum on the front porch. Krugler, David F. 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back. [1] The American Civil War began on April 12, when Confederate troops bombarded Fort Sumter. There is no danger of any lynching. Dillard, Tom. In their view a deliberately planned insurrection had occurred, where black sharecroppers had intended to murder the plantation owners to seize the land. 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. [4] Fort Curtis was not directly attacked at the Battle of Helena since the Confederacy focused its attacks on the outlying batteries. 1E, 6E. Omissions? Additional support provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council. The twelve men were: Frank Moore, Frank Hicks, Ed Hicks, Joe Knox, Paul Hall, Ed Coleman, Alfred Banks, Ed Ware, William Wordlaw, Albert Giles, Joe Fox, and John Martin. Since Prentiss was aware of a coming attack, the Confederates would not have the advantage of surprise. Stockley, Grif, Brian K. Mitchell, and Guy Lancaster. The information you have provided is great for families that lost people and is greatly needed. 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. Johnson, J. Chester. 0:36. 0:00. Cortner, Richard C. A Mob Intent on Death: The NAACP and the Arkansas Riot Cases. Encyclopedia of Arkansas - Police in Helena-West Helena are investigating a deadly shooting that happened on Friday night. The population density was 710.7 inhabitants per square mile (274.4/km2). 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. [97] Vicksburg had surrendered on July 4, and the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana fell within a week. All the white people had to do was stay away from the church while the meeting was going on. The main attack broke through Battery C, but Union troops fended off the attackers and sealed the breach. Black guards returned the fire, killing a white agent of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The Battle of Helena was fought on July 4, 1863, near Helena, Arkansas, during the American Civil War. Helena is home to the longest running daily radio program in the U.S., King Biscuit Time. Mulder, Brandon. 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. Watson was but one of 97 Black people lynched in Arkansas in the decade spanning 1891 to 1900 93 males and 4 females. Fort Curtis 12 Points of Interest & Landmarks By Altekameraden Waskow, Arthur I. Attorney Jacob Fink, who was appointed to represent Frank Hicks, admitted to the jury that he had not interviewed any witnesses. Delta Cultural Center, Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. [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. New York: Anchor Books, 1967. This picture of the Magnolia Inn on Roosevelt Road in Little Rock was taken in 1969. American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta. People often say they believe in God and that he doesnt make mistakes, yet they refuse to acknowledge we are all created equal by him. [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. 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. [40] At 4:05 am, Fagan's skirmishers sighted the Union position, and with the day dawning, Fagan attacked with three infantry regiments. They described the wholesale massacre of hundreds of unarmed and defenseless black people, and the torture used to secure confessions. The few who made it close to Fort Curtis were easily repulsed. The Forgotten History of Americas Worst Racial Massacre, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/opinion/elaine-massacre-1919-arkansas.html. Colonel Isaac Jenks, commander of the U.S. troops at Elaine, recorded the number of African Americans killed by U.S. troops as only two. 100 years after hundreds of African Americans were reportedly killed in Elaine, Arkansas, a memorial is set to bring details of the tragedy to light Some observers say the number of people who. The economy, traditionally based on cotton and lumber, became increasingly industrialized after World War II, especially at West Helena (founded 1909, incorporated 1917). Additional support provided by the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation Inc. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. It was a system intended to keep black people in debt and dependent upon planters. The white power structure in Phillips County formed a Committee of Seven, made of influential planters, businessmen, and elected officials, to investigate the cause of the disturbances. Brough responded by gaining permission from the Department of War to send more than 500 battle-tested troops from Camp Pike, outside of Little Rock (Pulaski County). Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2020. He made no motion for a change of venue, nor did he challenge a single prospective juror, taking the first twelve called. The Confederates withdrew on July 4 of 1863. Pierce, Michael, and Calvin White, eds. The official narrative presented a picture at odds with reality. More controversial is the view that the military participated in the murder of blacks. Ellis, Mark. No one even took the time to confirm the number of kills, as if these people were as worthless as termites. [15] Moving through swamps resulted in the loss of many accompanying animals and wagons. Lancaster, Guy, ed. 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. In contrast, the correspondent for the Memphis Press on October 2, 1919, wrote, Many Negroes are reported killed by the soldiers. Other anecdotal information suggests that U.S. troops also engaged in torture of African Americans to make them confess and give information. . The white leaders put forward their view that black residents had been about to revolt. In the interim, Jones had secured the release of the other Elaine defendants. Scipio A. Jones. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 31 (Autumn 1972): 201219. A steel gondola car was hauled back and forth on the railroad track, he said, adding, the men inside firing from the shelter of the steel walls of the car, shooting black people. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. When a tribute gift is given the honoree will receive a letter acknowledging your generosity and a bookplate will be placed in a book. In previous months, racial conflict had occurred in numerous cities in America, including Washington DC; Chicago, Illinois; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Indianapolis, Indiana. It was effectively an invasion. Rogers, O. What a travesty of justice. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.5 males. Through a partnership with local government and the federal government more than 20 crimes committed in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas have landed federal charges over the last two years. If we dont teach ALL AMERICAN HISTORY we miss a opportunity to learn about our part, examine our present, and plan and prepare for our future as, ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. [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. Sneed, Arkansas: A ghost town in Jackson County, Arkansas, Sneed was abandoned in 1929 following an F5 tornado. 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. According to several accounts from white witnesses, both vigilantes and the troops committed acts of barbarism. Men and women migrated to Northern factories or joined the military, creating a labor shortage in the cotton fields and lumber mills. Grif Stockley The Elaine Race Riot. Masters thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers (now Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University), 1927. The Elaine, Arkansas, Race Riots, 1919. Special Issue. [55] Walker's men spent the rest of the morning primarily skirmishing with Clayton's cavalry and firing at long range. Updated: Aug. 19, 2020 at 8:40 AM PDT. 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). [38] Either at 3:30 am[29] or shortly after 4:00 am, Fort Curtis fired a warning shot, alerting the Union defenders to the Confederate approach. Arkansas Residents Make a Case for Reparations 100 Years after the Elaine Massacre. American Prospect, September 30, 2019. https://prospect.org/justice/arkansas-reparations-elaine-race-massacre/ (accessed August 16, 2022). On September 29, 2019, a memorial to those who died during the massacre was dedicated in downtown Helena-West Helena. Arkansas governor Charles Hillman Brough told a St. Louis, Missouri, audience during the war that there existed no twilight zone in American patriotism and called Wisconsin senator Robert LaFollete, who opposed the war, a Bolshevik leader. Elaine: A Premeditated Massacre. MA thesis, Southern New Hampshire University, 2022. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Instead of pursuing a new hearing in federal court, in March 1923, Scipio Jones entered into negotiations to have the Moore defendants released. The descendants of the massacre have begun to organize to make their stories heard. [23] Prentiss originally dismissed rumors of a Confederate attack, but by late June gave more credence to the reports. 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). Helena is the eastern portion of HelenaWest Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. Union media later greatly embellished the role played by the regiment in the fighting. https://ualrexhibits.org/elaine/ (accessed August 16, 2022). So sad. Price was to attack the Union center, focusing on Battery C on Graveyard Hill. At least two historians, including myself, have settled on a reasonable estimate of 200, recognizing that the toll was most likely far greater. From 1906 to 1946, Helena was a terminal point on the former Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, which provided passenger and freight service to Joplin, Missouri. [11] Holmes would accompany the attack. Late in the evening of Sept. 30, black sharecropper families gathered in the Hoop Spur church near Elaine. During the 1910 census, my great-great-great-grandfather was listed. Smith, a 1980 graduate of Helena-West Helena Central High School, graduated from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1984. Little Rock: Parke-Harper Publishing Company, 1925. Holmes and Price arrived on the hill, and finding that the Union guns could not be used, ordered Tilden's Missouri Battery and Marshall's Arkansas Battery to begin to come up. [24] The Union garrison would face the coming attack with 4,129 men. Helena, city, seat (1830) of Phillips county, eastern Arkansas, U.S., port of the Mississippi River, about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Memphis, Tennessee, and adjacent to the city of West Helena. [64] The advance up the hill had also thrown the Confederates into disarray. [7], On June 9, Holmes learned that the strength of the Union forces in Helena was about 3,000 or 4,000 men, and decided against an attack. The Elaine massacre was among the worst instances of racial violence in American history, and it took place in a region, the Delta, that defined itself by its violence and oppression. Helena, AR 72342 Phone: (870) 338-5555 Phillips County Criminal Records Phillips County records their criminal activity in the form of criminal records. Race relations in this area of Arkansas are currently quite strained for a number of reasons, including the events of 1919. If Elaine residents need something, they must drive to Helena, 30 minutes away - past silver metal silos with angled tops, modest one-story houses, John Deere tractors and the Lake View community, where a number of trailers and motor homes are parked along Old . Taylor, Kieran. Local authorities blocked press coverage. [75] Price then ordered Parsons to attack Battery D, but was informed that McRae had already been ordered to do that. 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. Historian Robert Kerby describes the Confederate plan as "a model of brutal irresponsibility". A shooting incident that occurred at a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union escalated into mob violence on the part of the white people in Elaineand surrounding areas. On September 29, 2019, a memorial to those who died during the massacre was dedicated in downtown Helena-West Helena. Whayne, Jeannie M. Black Farmers in the Red Autumn: A Review Essay. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 68 (Autumn 2009): 327336. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [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. Charles H. Brough of Arkansas and a World War I veteran, Col. Issac Jencks, personally escorted 583 soldiers, including a machine gun battalion, from Camp Pike in Little Rock, the state capital, to Elaine. During this Red Scare, the threat of Bolshevism seemed to be everywhere: not only in the labor strikes led by the radical Industrial Workers of the World but also in the cotton fields of Arkansas. For the next year, it served as a command post for the Union since it was centrally located on the Mississippi River. Major funding provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. There, in the early fall of 1919, a different struggle for democracy was taking place. Dr. Woodruff is a historian and the author of American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta.. [30] The Confederates had support from the local white populace. White attorneys from Helena were appointed by Circuit Judge J. M. Jackson to represent the first twelve black men to go to trial. On the third try, the Confederates managed to overrun Battery C, but the men from the 33rd Missouri had time to spike one cannon and take supplies necessary for firing before the Confederates captured the guns. In Phillips County, this struggle directly challenged planter dominance. [51] His dismounted cavalrymen were pushed back by the 29th Iowa and part of the 36th Iowa Infantry Regiment, and his flank was threatened by the 5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and the 1st Indiana Cavalry Regiment, which were commanded by Powell Clayton. According to Christ, Prentiss lost 220 of the 4,129 men he took into battle: 57 killed, 127 wounded, and 36 missing. [Editors note: A professor at UA Little Rock is working to compile such a list.]. Americans have yet to reckon with this horrible past. (WMC) - Areas of Eastern Arkansas are sending more violent offenders to federal court. He began moving towards Jacksonport and met Major General Sterling Price and Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke on June 18. Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta: Essays to Mark the Centennial of the Elaine Massacre. New York: Peter Lang, 2008. Evidence shows that the mobs of whites slaughtered African Americans in and around Elaine. 10. 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. Bearden, Russell E. "Arkansas' Worst Disaster: The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927." Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies 34 (August 2003): 79-97. [5], By early 1863, holding Helena provided the Union with significant advantages, such as serving as a supply depot for the ongoing Vicksburg campaign, providing a marshalling point for a future advance against Little Rock, and securing northeastern Arkansas. My sadness comes from the senseless murder of human beingsso many that there isnt an exact number, which is wrong on so many levels. In June 1863, Confederate Commander Theophilus Holmes sought to take pressure off of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by attacking the Union-held town of Helena, Arkansas. Brough, requesting that U.S. troops be sent to Elaine. The findings blamed outside agitators for stirring up ignorant sharecroppers. Online at https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2544/ (accessed November 9, 2022). And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30-October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. But World War I brought changes to the Delta, as it did in Northern urban centers. Anyone can read what you share. Price's men fell back and abandoned Graveyard Hill. Upset about unfair low wages, they enlisted the help. [41] Fagan's charge took the first line of Union defenses, but his men started taking fire from Batteries C and D. Minutes after Fagan's men became engaged, Marmaduke's men on the north end of the Confederate line entered the action, driving Union skirmishers back towards Battery A. 5. 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. [36] Brooks' Confederates also encountered a camp of African-American refugees. The cases of the Elaine Twelve were litigated on two separate tracks. Elaine Race Massacre: Red Summer in Arkansas. In 2 U.S. Cities Haunted by Race Massacres, Facing the Past Is Painful and Divisive. NPR, December 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/1137090651/elaine-massacre-tulsa-race-riot (accessed December 12, 2022). [58] Each wasted time waiting for the other to advance. For historic sites related to the battle, see. The next morning, the Phillips County sheriff sent out a posse to arrest those suspected of being involved in the shooting. On October 31, 1919, the Phillips County grand jury charged 122 African Americans with crimes stemming from the racial disturbances. Within days of the initial shoot-out, 285 African Americans were taken from the temporary stockades to the jail in Helena, the county seat, although the jail had space for only forty-eight. Then the real massacre began: For the next five days, Colonel Jencks and his troops, assisted by vigilantes, hunted black people over a 200-mile radius. Many families described how they had run into the woods for safety from bloodthirsty mobs, hoping to surrender themselves to the federal troops for safety. [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. Stockley, Grif, and Jeannie M. Whayne. UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture. The re-trials of the Ware defendants began on May 3, 1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. [101] The Helena Confederate Cemetery includes burials of Confederate soldiers killed during the battle, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places,[102] as are the remains of the Union batteries.[103]. The violence even claimed those who had nothing to do with the union efforts, such as brothers David Augustine Elihue Johnston, Gibson Allen Johnston, Lewis Harrison (L. H.) Johnston, and Leroy Johnston, who were returning to Helena from a hunting trip when they were attacked and killed on October 2. Ms. Wells Barnett gathered testimonies that described the sheer horror of the massacre from those who endured and lived to tell their stories. [8], Helena is located at 343134N 90365W / 34.52611N 90.60139W / 34.52611; -90.60139 (34.526223, 90.601377).[9]. [69] Believing a full-fledged attack to be a suicide charge, McRae had his men simply fire on the rifle pits in hopes of diverting attention away from Fagan's command. The Nevada County Depot in Prescott was photographed circa 1960 with the Reader Railroad engine in the foreground. After hiding for two days in the woods, the Colemans returned home to find dead bodies of women and children scattered about their community. Helena is the seat of Phillips Community College of the University of Arkansas (1965). Wormser, Richard, director. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. They scorched and burned homes with families inside, slaughtered and tortured others. Mitchell, Brian K. Soldiers and Veterans at the Elaine Massacre. In The War at Home: Perspectives on the Arkansas Experience during World War I, edited by Mark K. Christ. As of the census[12] of 2000, there were 6,323 people, 2,312 households, and 1,542 families residing in Helena. They now verified that the planters had gone to the Hoop Spur church to destroy the union and that the posse had killed their own men, instead of the black people who had been accused. The Arkansas Gazette reported at least fifteen black bodies in Helena's streets and it's outskirts. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. 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. 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. Leaders of the Hoop Spur union had placed armed guards around the church to prevent disruption of their meeting and intelligence gathering by white opponents. Elaine sits in Phillips County, on one of the many bends in the Mississippi, roughly 95 miles southwest of Memphis. 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. Jackson: University and College Press of Mississippi, 1972. 2023 Encyclopedia of Arkansas. 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]. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. [72] Many Confederates surrendered.
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