1859-02-28 Arkansas legislature requires free blacks to choose exile or slavery. 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. Updated: Aug. 19, 2020 at 8:40 AM PDT. Smith, C. Calvin, ed. The population density was 710.7 inhabitants per square mile (274.4/km2). Voogd, Jan. Race Riots and Resistance: The Red Summer of 1919. A local schoolteacher saw 28 black people killed, their bodies thrown into a pit and burned, and 16 African Americans killed, their bodies hanging from a bridge outside of Helena., A Memphis reporter described events on Oct. 2 after the troops had arrived. Major funding provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. [13], Helena, Arkansas is home to historic buildings such as the Sidney H. Horner House and the Centennial Baptist Church. 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. The research below is a comprehensive historical analysis of every major league baseball player born in Arkansas. At 11 p.m., a band of white men shot into the church. By contrast, 16 white males were lynched during the same time. The Confederates withdrew on July 4 of 1863. Holmes planned and executed three different failed attacks on the town. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Some of the refugees were killed, some were taken prisoner, and the camp was burned by the Confederates at some point during the battle. According to Christ, Prentiss lost 220 of the 4,129 men he took into battle: 57 killed, 127 wounded, and 36 missing. The assaults failed, and Vicksburg fell the same day. At least two historians, including myself, have settled on a reasonable estimate of 200, recognizing that the toll was most likely far greater. 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 Battle of Helena was fought on July 4, 1863, near Helena, Arkansas, during the American Civil War. 0.73% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. Though accounts of who fired the first shots are in sharp conflict, a shootout in front of the church on the night of September 30, 1919, between the armed black guards around the church and three individuals whose vehicle was parked in front of the church resulted in the death of W. A. Adkins, a white security officer for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, and the wounding of Charles Pratt, Phillips Countys white deputy sheriff. [53] Bledsoe's two guns were driven off, but neither side could defeat the other. Research Materials for Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919. 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. Elaine: A Premeditated Massacre. MA thesis, Southern New Hampshire University, 2022. Hundreds of black citizens were killed in Elaine, Ark., a century ago this week. 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. Donations made to the CALS Foundation are tax-deductible for United States federal income tax purposes. St. Francis National Forest is immediately to the north. With labor conflicts escalating throughout the country at the end of World War I, government and business interpreted the demands of labor increasingly as the work of foreign ideologies, such as Bolshevism, that threatened the foundation of the American economy. 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. [29] Remembering the surprise suffered by men under his command in the earlier Battle of Shiloh, Prentiss ordered reveille blown daily at 2 am. How could anyone treat people with such horrendous disregard and violence? On October 31, 1919, the Phillips County grand jury charged 122 African Americans with crimes stemming from the racial disturbances. Differing interpretations of Holmes' order to attack at daylight resulted in Brigadier General James F. Fagan's troops attacking Battery D unsupported, and Major General Sterling Price's attack against the Union center was made after Fagan's had largely fizzled out. The committees narrative appeared in newspapers all over the country. He made no motion for a change of venue, nor did he challenge a single prospective juror, taking the first twelve called. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. (Students Tapping Academic Resources for Success) Academy (alternative school), This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 19:58. 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. On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. The white leaders put forward their view that black residents had been about to revolt. Upset about unfair low wages, they enlisted the help. I have been trying to close a chapter in my family history. The re-trials of the Ware defendants began on May 3, 1920. American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta. On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. 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. A Union counterattack retook the hill and captured many prisoners,[79] with over 350 prisoners taken on Graveyard Hill alone. Stopford, Annie. Major support provided through a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. [45], Price's attack had been delayed. Advancing his men through ravines and over hills, Price decided that his artillery would have to be left behind, although picked men from his batteries were to accompany the infantry to man the Union pieces that the attack expected to capture. [46] Obstructions on the line of approach also disorganized Price's ranks. The 1920 census lists my great-great-great-grandmother as a widow. https://ualrexhibits.org/elaine/ (accessed August 16, 2022). Though some local white residents of Phillips County still contend that white people at the time acted appropriately to prevent a slaughter in the Elaine area in 1919, the modern view of most historians of this crisis is that white mobs unjustifiably killed an undetermined number of African Americans. Calls went out to the governor for federal troops. The trials began the next week, with John Elvis Miller leading the prosecution. Stockley, Grif, Brian K. Mitchell, and Guy Lancaster. Helena was defended by about 4,100 Union troops led by Major General Benjamin Prentiss, manning one fort and four batteries. 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). [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. [4] Beginning in late April, Union (United States) forces followed up on the victory at Pea Ridge by moving into Arkansas, threatening the state capital of Little Rock, and occupying the Mississippi River town of Helena on July 12. In Phillips County, this struggle directly challenged planter dominance. The perpetrators suppressed coverage of the events, and the victims, terrified black families, had no one to turn for help. The obligations of the past weigh heavily upon the present. [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. 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. Because Price had not yet attacked, Fagan's men came under fire from both Battery D and Battery C.[49] Fagan's Confederates broke through the second Union line, then a third and fourth, but then halted at about 7:00 am, their attack spent. [58] Each wasted time waiting for the other to advance. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [36] Brooks' Confederates also encountered a camp of African-American refugees. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. [75] Price then ordered Parsons to attack Battery D, but was informed that McRae had already been ordered to do that. Soon, word spread that blacks were attacking whites in Elaine. 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. Walter White, of the N.A.A.C.P., reported first that more than 100 African-Americans were killed, later changing it to 250. The Battle of Helena was fought on July 4, 1863, near Helena, Arkansas, during the American Civil War. More controversial is the view that the military participated in the murder of blacks. One idea was an attack on Helena. [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. The Elaine massacre occurred on September 30-October 2, 1919 at Hoop Spur in the vicinity of Elaine in rural Phillips County, Arkansas. There were 2,710 housing units at an average density of 304.6 per square mile (117.6/km2). Union media later greatly embellished the role played by the regiment in the fighting. 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). [8] He thought the attack would be too costly, and instead suggested placing an artillery battery along the Mississippi river to intercept Union shipping. The median age was 32 years. In June 1863, Confederate Commander Theophilus Holmes sought to take pressure off of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by attacking the Union-held town of Helena, Arkansas. A., Jr.The Elaine Race Riots of 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 19 (Summer 1960): 142150. (WMC) - Areas of Eastern Arkansas are sending more violent offenders to federal court. These records cover murders, rapes, burglaries, arson, motor vehicle theft, assaults, and crimes of a sexual nature. [24][28] Prentiss also cancelled a planned celebration of the Fourth of July as a precaution,[19] and ordered the roads into town barricaded with felled trees. Others had their charges dismissed or ultimately were not prosecuted. Encyclopedia of Arkansas If you can, provide 1-2 sources of information backing up this correction. Roberts, Michael. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [47] Price's advance was led by the 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion, who sighted the Union positions on Graveyard Hill. Fort Curtis was built in August 1862 by Union soldiers and freed slaves in Helena. [18] The Confederate columns finally united on July 3,[19] and that day began the final movement towards Helena. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. What a travesty of justice. [32] Their plans were also hampered by poor reconnaissance. Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Collins, Ann V. All Hell Broke Loose: American Race Riots from the Progressive Era through World War II. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. [70] Fagan's lines had been badly thinned by not only Union fire but also heat and exhaustion. [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. Online at https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2040/ (accessed November 9, 2022). [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. 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]. 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. Edgar Hoover and the Red Summer of 1919. Journal of American Studies 28 (April 1994): 3959. Union, Reaction, and Riot: The Biography of a Rural Race Riot. Brough issued a stay of the executions to permit an appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court after the motions were denied. [20]. Magnolia Inn LR. 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. HELENA WEST HELENA, Ark. Robert Palmer noted that in the mid-1930s Helena was "the blues capital of the Delta". So sad. Inc. town, 1833; city, 1856. [78] Including the men of the 37th Arkansas, about 250 Confederates surrendered in Fagan's sector. In 1925, Sharpe Dunaway, an employee of the Arkansas Gazette, alleged that soldiers in Elaine had committed one murder after another with all the calm deliberation in the world, either too heartless to realize the enormity of their crimes, or too drunk on moonshine to give a continental darn.. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 6,323. Late in the evening of Sept. 30, black sharecropper families gathered in the Hoop Spur church near Elaine. [48] They were now in front of Battery D.[50], Marmaduke has his own problems in his sector on the line. By days end, countless black women, men and children had been slaughtered. We Have Just Begun: Black Organizing and White Response in the Arkansas Delta, 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Autumn 1999): 265284. Helena Confederate Cemetery 20 Cemeteries By VictoriaElizabethK The cemetery is understandably peaceful but to walk amongst the stones, it is very moving to see how many of the dead. [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. They scorched and burned homes with families inside, slaughtered and tortured others. 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. See this venue in scenes from the 2004 film, "Walk the Line . Wikipedia On April 10, 1929, an F5 tornado struck northern Jackson County. Helena was the county seat of Phillips County[3] until January 1, 2006, when it merged its government and city limits with neighboring West Helena. Courageously, she dressed up as a sharecropper and went to Arkansas. Police say detectives have interviewed several people who might have been with . In the last nine months, Elaine's last grocery store and restaurant closed. Instead of pursuing a new hearing in federal court, in March 1923, Scipio Jones entered into negotiations to have the Moore defendants released. [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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. On Oct. 7, Colonel Jencks declared the insurrection over and withdrew his troops. He began moving towards Jacksonport and met Major General Sterling Price and Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke on June 18. The trials were a joke. The official narrative presented a picture at odds with reality. Prentiss ordered the other three batteries to fire on Graveyard Hill, as well as Tyler, two cannons in reserve, and four cannons from Battery K, 1st Missouri Light Artillery emplaced on Lower Little Rock Road. That was 97 years ago but little has changed in the hearts of people. New York: Crown, 2008. They aimed to hire a lawyer to represent them with the landlords. Price's men fell back and abandoned Graveyard Hill. It is impossible to establish an accurate death toll. Workers also had to buy food, clothing, household wares, tools, seed and fertilizer at the plantation commissary, which charged exorbitant interest rates. To Those Known and Unknown: The Elaine Massacre Memorial. Arkansas Times, August 2019, pp. The Helena time zone is Central Daylight Time which is 6 hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). [25] Prentiss' men had advantages over the Confederates through their defenses, batteries, and naval support. Black guards returned the fire, killing a white agent of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Black sharecroppers were often exploited in their efforts to collect payment for their cotton crops. He was elderly and handicapped, and ran too slowly. [65] Carried by momentum, some of Price's infantry charged down the hill towards Helena itself, but were driven off. Since Prentiss was aware of a coming attack, the Confederates would not have the advantage of surprise. Union troops captured the city in July 1862, and had been using it as a base of operations. [40] At 4:05 am, Fagan's skirmishers sighted the Union position, and with the day dawning, Fagan attacked with three infantry regiments. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2020. 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. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. [30] The Confederates had support from the local white populace. [24] The Union garrison would face the coming attack with 4,129 men. 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. Elaine Race Massacre: Red Summer in Arkansas. As they surrounded his house, another man inside, Charlie Robinson, tried to run away. Facebook/Historic Arkansas Facts and Photos. For the next year, it served as a command post for the Union since it was centrally located on the Mississippi River. There were 1,636 Confederate casualties and 205 Union casualties.[6]. Online at https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/2544/ (accessed November 9, 2022). 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. Neuman, Scott. This was murder on the part of the white population. [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. 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. 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. The death toll was listed at 23, and many others were seriously injured. [44] Brooks' men became disorganized and did not reform until 8:00 am. The Elaine Race Riot. Masters thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers (now Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University), 1927. I first learned of the Elaine Massacre today, February 7, 2017, and I am both saddened and angered. Watson was but one of 97 Black people lynched in Arkansas in the decade spanning 1891 to 1900 93 males and 4 females. She was able to go one way. The convictions were again affirmed. 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. [43] Meanwhile, on the Lower Little Rock road, Brooks ran into trouble, taking fire from Battery K, 1st Missouri Light Artillery Regiment and Tyler. News also reached the Union forces at Helena of a major Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. By November 5, 1919, the first twelve black men given trials had been convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Salomon would make many of the decisions in the upcoming battle. [71] Both Price and Holmes were issuing orders independently,[72] and Holmes' orders were making things worse for the Confederates. 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. There she interviewed the 12 prisoners accused of murder, their wives, and many others, publishing her findings in a 1920 pamphlet. Paul Hall was one of the twelve men who were slated to be electrocuted, and I believe he was my relative. [88] The unit had not completed formation at the time of the battle and was poorly trained, so it had been positioned in an area where it was unlikely to be directly engaged. White attorneys from Helena were appointed by Circuit Judge J. M. Jackson to represent the first twelve black men to go to trial. Police say that Borum was . 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 racialized violence spread in both Northern and Southern cities during the Red Summer of 1919, Delta planters were paying close attention. The first time you log in to our catalog you will need to create an account. [13] Rains and high stream levels slowed Price's approach,[14] and though Marmaduke's men reached Switzer's on time, the infantry was delayed at the crossing of the Cache River.
Lansing Housing Commission,
Fyi Sky News Presenters Ruby,
How Many Pages Is 75,000 Words,
Kiro 7 Morning News Anchors,
Harrington Funeral Home Rockingham Nc,
Articles W