An event in Black History that I bet few know about happened 100 years ago.

[sinkingfeeling]

This occurred in Phillips County, Arkansas, near the small town of Elaine, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, 1919. White mobs killed somewhere between 100 and 237 black men, women, and children, maybe more.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=newssearch&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiYn7me7q7gAhUnsFQKHSb-C70QzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurweb.com%2F2019%2F02%2F2019-marks-100th-anniv-of-elaine-phillips-massacres-that-claimed-over-200-black-lives%2F&psig=AOvVaw3JWpYAqDKF58xLlpfcHGlo&ust=1549808911634235

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_race_riot

Arkansas is holding a faith-based truth telling hearing on the event.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=newssearch&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiYn7me7q7gAhUnsFQKHSb-C70QzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwreg.com%2F2019%2F02%2F08%2Farkansas-delta-town-finding-the-truth-about-1919-massacre-that-killed-200%2F&psig=AOvVaw3JWpYAqDKF58xLlpfcHGlo&ust=1549808911634235

I've been in Arkansas since 1992 and this is the first I've heard about this massacre.

[marble falls]

1. It happened here in Central Texas, too. Really hard to find any trace of it in the records ...

but literally over night several towns around me including my own drove all African American families out to Austin.

[Anon-C]

3. Is the incident you are referring to the Longview Race Riots?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longview_race_riot

All part of the "Red Summer"...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Summer

[marble falls]

5. No, we're about 200 miles south and west of Dallas. This went on all over Texas at about ...

the same time.

It kinda smacks of an organized race cleansing.

[lark]

2. Its so sickening that this was happening all over America, makes me cry.

As a country we have not gotten much better when brown children are put in cages, frozen, drugged, stolen and not tracked and let die for the sin of legally applying for asylum.

[iluvtennis]

16. Well said - ditto.

[Heartstrings]

4. They are indeed still fighting the Civil War down there....

Our family moved from central Wisconsin to Hot Springs Village, Ar in 1985. Smack dab in the middle of the beautiful Ouachita Mountains, this gated community had a population of about 3,000-4,000 people, mostly retirees from TX, IL and WI. We were the youngins, and constituted the work force. My husband worked on one of the golf courses and I worked for a dentist. Our 2 children went to a K-12 school outside the gates with a combined attendance of about 600 children from inside and outside the gates. It was often said "you're a Yankee if you come down to visit, you're a damn Yankee if you stay"....beautiful area, man made lakes, polished golf courses some designed by Ault, Clark and Associates, quiet with that Southern hospitality thrown in....

I digress....at that time the main 2 lane highway into Hot Springs was "scenic" Hwy 5, (there was a longer route going through miles and miles of Weyerhaeuser woods. My kids learned what a "clear cut" and a "billet hauler", etc. were from going that route). As you approach the gate of HSV (Hot Springs Village) on Hwy 5, and because you're in the mountains, you have a rather steep incline. Word was there was a sign at the top of that particular area stating "No n*****s allowed after dark".....it had been removed by "damn Yankees" about 5 years previously when the Village was gaining momentum.

I had never heard of this massacre either, does it surprise me? Truthfully, no....and it sickens me.

[marble falls]

6. Amazing how much black history gets blacked out. There's still "sunset" towns in Texas.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Yes, I've been down Hwy 5 and it's beautiful. Most of Arkansas is.

Springdale, just north of me, was a 'sundown town' as well.

[SunSeeker]

8. These massacres happened in the midwest too. It is horrifying. nt

[randr]

9. We are still fighting the same enemy

The bigotry and hatred of those times crept under the carpet due to exposure in movies and other medias. Now that the lsos has unleashed the rabid animals we need to expose each and every instance, much like the "me too" movement, and chase the rats out of hiding.
Darkness is only the absence of light.

[The Conductor]

10. Not just there...

1919 was also the big race riot in Chicago, another truly stupid event. And also East St. Louis that same year, I believe.

[leanforward]

11. I'm truly sorry to hear this and it was hushed up.

A lot of my heritage is from southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas. This is one story I've never heard.

What makes people go off the rail? The town of Elaine is west of Clarksdale, MS and the river.

I've lived around these United States and have always been most at ease in the larger demographic/economic areas. When I am back in the roots area it is readily apparent that there is a lack of racial warmth. Likewise, it's also readily apparent the lack of economic strength in those areas.

I'm aware of the racial history of the southern missouri. Just not on the scale of Elaine, AR.

[backtoblue]

12. K&R nt

[SweetieD]

13. There were several large white led mob massacres in 1919. There was also one in Springfield

Illinois in 1908. But 1919 was the worst year. It was known as the red summer.

The movie Birth of a Nation had been released a few years prior which I believe had something to do with the resurgence of antiblack racist mob violence.

[2naSalit]

14. Don't leave out the "colonial states"

this issue, in this country, has its origins there. I grew up many of these states, up and down the eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida. I remember seeing people of color in cotton fields in the 1960s as our family traveled between Florida and Maine. I then started to understand why people called me all the epithets one can imagine. But I digress...

There are many events in the history of the eastern states, all of them where such or similar events happened to some identified "other" who were singled out as being the root of whatever problems might exist among them.

We have a very dark past for a nation that holds itself up as a role model for the world. This is one lesson we need to learn, we're over five centuries overdue. As our country now requires a major reset in order to survive, this will be a key transition we will need to make.

[Honeycombe8]

15. Horrible. Can't say I'm surprised that happened in Arkansas.

I read the Wiki articles on it. It's noteworthy that this started out as an attempt of unionizing by black sharecroppers, who were being cheated by the white landowners. Before then, this state was all about Jim Crow laws, preventing black men from voting, however they could. Difficult for them to register, unable to pay the poll tax in order to vote, etc. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? (Now, in my state, you have to get a certified copy of your birth certificate in order to get a driver's license or vote. It's $15, if you get it in person.)

There were a few white heroes in that story. Granted, there were hundreds of evil rednecks, by comparison. But the S.Ct. came through, when people paid for some of the convicted blacks to appeal. And in the end, the white governor made arrangements with black representatives to release the few remaining ones from prison under cover of night, so they could be taken from the state and not lynched. This was so the next Governor, a KKK official, wouldn't be able to get involved.

A horrible incident.

Then, when this era passed, we enter the era of medical experimentation, and then environmental ruination, as areas of black people are used as dumping grounds for toxic substances. Nearby in Louisiana, an entire community of blacks lost their homes and some their lives, as the area was polluted with toxic substances and nothing done about it.

It's also very telling that some of the code words and practices used at that time are still being used: "socialism," "voting rights," "unionizing," laws creating barriers to voting.

[Lonestarblue]

17. Thank you for posting this.

And you’re right. I had never heard of these atrocities. They aren’t taught in school history books, which are mostly written by white writers who may or may not be particularly biased but are writing about the typical topics that are in all history books. As a former part of the education industry, I think we need a different approach to the teaching of history. Too much of this type of information is never covered. We need courses and text materials to spend time teaching students about events such as this, including an analysis of the motivations behind the events as well as the repercussions on the victims that can last for generations. Instead, history has become a recitation of those events and dates that are covered on standardized tests. I will refrain from talking about changes needed on testing because I might never stop!

[niyad]

18. I only learned about this massacre last year.

[smirkymonkey]

19. Just too horrible for words.

The best thing that can be done now is to make sure that this is not hidden or ignored. The truth of this massacre must go down as an essential part of taught history.

[Karadeniz]

20. Thanks so much for this info.

I wonder how many of the incidents referred to in this post are taught in high school.

[GulfCoast66]

21. I have heard of this incident. And I wonder if all the 1919 incidents were a result of WWI

Lots of black men coming back from Europe where the French had not treated them as second class citizens. Plus, the incredibly racist policies of Woodrow Wilson, a progressive of the day mind you, had taken hold.

Woodrow Wilson is the main reason that many liberal democrats, my father included, reacted with revulsion to the term progressive. There were others after him, but their racism paled in comparison to his.