Elaine – September 30, 1919

Some people say that the Elaine Massacre in Elaine, Arkansas, was the deadliest massacre of black folks in American history, even surpassing Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which estimates as high as 300 African Americans were killed. Robert Whitaker, a Pulitzer Prize nominee estimated that more than 800 African Americans were killed in Elaine in his book entitled ” In the Laps of God.” It started on September 30, 1919…

Where’s The Lie?

Arkansas and racism go together like rice and gravy. Racism goes deep down into the bones and sinew of the Arkansas racist… making their eyes bulge and their Adams apple stick out. The Karens have thick hairy mustaches and large biceps so that they are able to pull a body from the standing position to the upper branches of the tree tallest tree they can find in a matter of seconds…
Okay… that’s not very nice of me… but I had to put some stank on this mess because they “VIOLATED!!” So immediately after the Civil War, most lynching centered around miscegenation, back sass or being disrespectful. Now back sass and being disrespectful are kinda like the same things, but not quite…
Massa: “Boy go jump over that tall fence and run down to the pasture with that ornery long horned bull in it and fill this little teacup with some cool spring water so I can give it to my cat, Miss Lillybelle… she looks a little parched…”
Blackman: “Dang Massa…” (That’s back sass…)
Massa: “Boy go jump over that tall fence and run down to the pasture with that ornery long horned bull in it and fill this little teacup with some cool spring water so I can give it to my cat, Miss Lillybelle… she looks a little parched…”
Blackman: “WHAT??!!!” (That’s disrespectful…)
It’s a thin rope… I mean thin line… between back sass and disrespect. Anywho, this race riot was different in that black folks were trying to organize for better living conditions and higher pay. So, the event took place in Phillips County, part of the Arkansas Delta. Before the war the delta was full of cotton plantations and blacks outnumbered whites in this part of Arkansas three to one. In Elaine and the surrounding area, the ratio was even greater, it was ten to one. After the war, many blacks stayed on and became sharecroppers for their former enslavers. It was a dismal proposition from the beginning. I mean after the war, all most of us had was property of the United States stamped on our foreheads instead of property of Massa Earl. No land, no money, and no food. There wasn’t a plan on what to do with us after the war, so many of us stayed at the same plantation and worked for money or a place to live. Now some may call Reconstruction the plan, but Reconstruction wasn’t for us, it was for the South. We just took advantage of it… but on April 9, 1865, right after General Lee signed the Confederate army’s surrender…
Massa: “Now boy you are free, and you welcome to stay. I can pay you peanuts if you keep on working for me… or you can go, and I’ll tell the sheriff, Colonel William “The Hatchet” Rollingheads of the 7th Alabama, you stole a hundred dollars that I was saving for the Confederate Veterans Fund and you’ll be swinging like that Confederate flag in the front yard from the highest tree we can find… well a part of you will be swinging up there… it’s your choice…”
Blackman: “Can you…”
Massa: (Clears throat…) “Ahem…”
Blackman: “Massa,” can you throw in that old one room shed?
Massa: We’ll work something out…
What they worked out was sharecropping. Sharecropping was where they cut both of them off and sold them back to you. Okay, I’m talking figuratively, but it wasn’t far from the truth. In practice, sharecropping was when the landowner let you rent out a portion of his land in return for some of the crops you grew. About one third of all sharecroppers were black and the rest were poor whites. Now in reality it sounds like a good deal, but the devil was in the details, especially if you were black. Being a former slave meant that you didn’t own anything after being freed except the clothes on your back and I heard that some former slave owners said you didn’t own that either… Now I ain’t saying they made you give them back, but a lot of folks say that there sure enough was a lot of bare trees when folks left those plantations. So yeah, there’s that and… okay I’m joking… Anywho, so you didn’t have anything to start out with. Now right after the war, General William Tecumseh Sherman, issued Special Order #15. It granted us 40 acres and a mule. Some of us even got it, however after Lincoln’s assassination, President Andrew Johnson rescinded the order and returned the property to its former owners.
Massa: Boy you know that crop of watermelons you grew is mine now… don’t cha?
So having nothing to barter with except your labor, put you at a distinct disadvantage. The landowners rented you the land you farmed and the house you lived in. They sold you the seeds you planted, and the farm tools you used to plant the seeds with… and when harvest time came, you had to give them a portion of the crops to pay back the money they fronted you. What you owed was never enough, so you ended up borrowing again for next year’s crops.
Massa: Henry, I wasn’t able to get enough money off those watermelons you grew to get back the money you owe me… So, I want you, your wife and those twelve pickaninny’s off my land by sundown!! (Massa was lying… but that’s another story…)
Henry: Suh!!!
Massa: (clears throat) Ahem…
Henry: Massa!!!
Massa: That’s better… what is it, Henry?
Henry: Well Massa… I’m fixing to take my shirt and shoes off and tie a rag around my head to keep the sweat out my eyes… and then Ima whip “YO VERY AZZ” right where you standing… and I ain’t gonna be able to leave at sundown… cause I ain’t gonna be finished by then…
(So that’s what Henry wanted to say… but…)
Massa: Well, nigra what is it?!!
Henry: Massa, I’ll give you half of my crops next season if you let me, my wife and chillun stay…
Massa: Well, boy you know that’s gonna be a lot of money you owe me… but you always been a good one… your no-good azz can stay… now go fetch me some spring water for my cat Miss Lillybelle… she looks a little parched…
Henry: Naw… faque this…
Massa: Boy!! What are you doing!!? Put yo shirt back on…!!
It was under these types of circumstances that precipitated the Elaine Massacre of 1919.

The Fraiser Family (1898)

By Any Means

So, on the night of September 30, 1919, a group of about 100 African Americans gathered outside of Elaine. They were mostly sharecroppers who were working white landowner’s farms. The meeting was organized by the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The union was founded by a black man named Robert Hill and its purpose was to obtain better payments for their cotton crops. They had chapters in about 20 counties in and around Elaine and this particular meeting was being held at a church in Hoop Spur (Phillips County), about three miles north of Elaine. Now, around this time, we were just coming out of the Red Summer, when racists were losing their minds all over the country because of the migration of blacks leaving the South to escape Jim Crow and the influx of Black Americans soldiers returning from fighting in WWI, who weren’t even about to take that racist shat no more after spilling their blood on the battlefields of Europe. Not only were the racist losing their minds, but ordinary white folks were concerned about blacks taking their jobs and available housing. Add in the fact that a lot of them also thought that the black resistance to racism was the product of communist agitators and the shat got really bad… really fast. Now there was only one thing that a racist in 1919 hated more than a black man, and that was a communist black man… well there was the black man and white women thing… but a black communist was close… The success of the Russian Revolution in 1917 meant that the spread of communism had to be stopped by any means necessary. To racist, unions represented a communist plot to undermine capitalism. So, Robert Hill represented a black man running a communist organization, questioning white supremacy and undermining the Constitution of the United States. They wanted Hill. An old farmer was hired to make sure the tallest tree they could find in Elaine stayed healthy with a strong trunk and long thick branches at the top in case Hill was spotted… Racist: “Please let Hill be there… please…” Anyone associated with Hill and his union were in danger of losing the breath of life. The folks at the Hoop Spur meeting knew that and took appropriate precautions. They hired three armed men to stand guard outside of the church during the meeting to prevent people from disrupting it and to stop intelligence gathering. Intelligence gathering is when racist stand outside taking license plate numbers, seeing who’s attending and who is in-charge. On that night, three white men were parked outside the church. In a series of unknown events, the guards and those men interactions would lead to one of the greatest race riots in American history.

School house used as a temporary stockade in Elaine (1919)

Country Roads

So, there were conflicting reports about what happened that night outside of the Hoop Spur meeting, but whatever happened, ended with the deaths of two white men. In a shootout between the three armed black guards and the white men in the vehicle, W. A. Adkins, a white security officer for the Missouri-Pacific Railroad was killed in a hail of bullets and Charles Pratt, a Phillips County’s white deputy sheriff was wounded. They say Pratt was shot in the azz several times running away from those angry nigra’s who were chasing him, and shooting at everything that moved, but I really don’t know… because like they say… there were conflicting reports. Anywho, the next day the County Sheriff sent out a group of men to hang those… I mean arrest those thought to be involved in the shooting. So, the posse went out and became a little apprehensive about arresting a group of black men because like I said, in Elaine, white folks were outnumbered ten to one by black folks. It was like a nigra going to South Dakota and smacking the local Grand Dragon across the lips with an Ebony magazine with a picture of Jesse Jackson on it. The odds of someone saying, “He’s in a better place now…” goes up substantially. Anyway, the word went out that there was an insurrection in Elaine and more than 1000 armed white folks converged on the area, some coming from as far away as Mississippi. In addition, Phillips County authorities sent several telegrams asking the Governor to send in federal troops. The governor contacted the Department of War, and they sent 500 battled hardened troops from Camp Pike. The Department of War changed its name to the Department of Defense in the late 40s, partly because the newly formed United Nations had outlawed wars of aggression in its charter and partly because of PR reasons. Anywho, after the troops arrived, the white folks who had come from all over to stop the insurrection went back home. The troops arrested several hundred African Americans and placed them in makeshift stockades for questioning and to be vouched for by their employers. Wait!! What!!? Vouched for by their employers? Yep…
Colonel: Suh, do you know this nigra right here and does he belong to the union or is he good one?
Employer: I can’t recall… I have so many nigra’s working for me… boy are you the one that owes me all of your crops from next year?
Black Man: No Suh! I don’t…
Employer: No Colonel… I don’t know this boy…
Colonel: Okay Sargent, take him out and shoot him as an insurrectionist… burn his house down…
Black Man: NO!! Wait a minute… Yes suh, I’m the man that owes you all his crops for next year…
Employer: I’m sorry… I didn’t hear you… what was that??
Black Man: I said.. yes Suh, I’m the man that owes you all of his crops for the next “two” years…
Employer: Colonel, he does look a little familiar… but I’m still not sure… better safe than…
Black Man: Five years…
Employer: Now I remember you… Colonel, he’s a good one… you can let him go…
Okay, I don’t know if that’s how it went down… but who’s to say. I do know that in the historical record some of those men had to be vouched for by the landowner.
Now, Robert Hill was at the meeting in Hoop Spur that night, but friends hid him, and he was able to escape the violence and flee to Kansas. So, remember when I said the white folks who were there before the troops arrived began to leave? Those were the folks that committed the genocide. As they left, they started shooting every black person they came into contact with. The killing went on for three days. Now don’t get me wrong… after the first day black folks started shooting back. At one point that shat was just as bad as Iraq. By the third day the troops had disarmed both groups and restored order. The official toll in Elaine was eleven blacks killed and five whites. Other estimates say as many as 300 blacks were killed in Elaine. I’m leaning toward the higher figure because why would they have to build several stockades to question a few people. So, where did Robert Whitaker the author of “In the Laps of God,” get the eight hundred dead blacks’ figures from? Well, it’s because history is only citing the causalities from Elaine and the surround area. Remember, over a thousand white folks converged on Elaine from all over Arkansas, some coming from as far away as Mississippi. On their way back home, they were killing black folks too. Black folks were being killed all across Arkansas in those three days and maybe some as far away as Mississippi by the returning racist mob. They are just hiding that fact, so they don’t hold the distinction of being the location of the greatest black massacre in American history. Now, in addition to black folks being hunted down and killed by the racist mob, don’t think that the federal troops didn’t have a hand in the killings. Officially, the record states that only two blacks were killed by the federal troops. I guess that’s because they shot them down in front of the church and people was watching. However, witnesses say dozens of blacks were killed by federal troops and they also tortured blacks into confessions for their roles in the shooting of white folks during the massacre… and that brings us to our next part…

The Elaine 12

The Nightriders

Out of the several hundred black folks they held in temporary stockades in Elaine, two hundred and eighty-five were taken to the jail in Helena, the county seat of Phillips County. I’m not gonna even mention that the jail was only built to hold forty-eight prisoners… anywho… on October 31, 1919, one hundred and twenty-one black folks were charged with crimes ranging from murder to nightriding. Nightriding is an Arkansas legal term to describe extralegal vigilante justice under cover of darkness or disguise. Sounds familiar right? I don’t even know how they could charge a black man with nightriding without a smile on their face. By November 5, 1919, the first twelve black men given trials had been convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. Seeing they were ready to fry everybody, sixty-five others quickly entered plea-bargains and accepted sentences of up to twenty-one years for second-degree murder. Others had their charges dismissed or ultimately were not prosecuted.

We Got You Now Boy…

Judge: Mr. Jangle, you have entered a plea and confessed to nightriding. Clerk, please read Mr. Jangle his rights.
Clerk: Yes your honor… Mr. Jangle, you understand by accepting this plea, you give up your right to a jury trial by the twelve gawd fearing men that say you were shooting at them last month?
Jangle: Yes…
Clerk: You understand that the court can revoke this plea at any time and hang you from that chandelier right now?
Jangle: Yes…
Clerk: You understand that by taking this plea, you can still be charged with back sass right after you sign the agreement?
Jangle: Yes, I understand…
Clerk: You understand that we still gonna whip yo azz anyway whether you sign this plea or not?
Jangle: Yes…
Clerk: You understand that in your allocution, if you mention a white women, this plea will be withdrawn and you will be taken and hanged from the tallest tree we can find?
Jangle: Yes, I understand…
Clerk: You understand we ain’t playing about that?
Jangle: Yes…
Clerk: You understand we got you where we want you and that the sheriff could shoot you in the back for attempting to escape?
Jangle: Yes, I understand…
Clerk: You understand that in order for the Judge to sign this plea, you will have to rat out five other nigra’s?
Jangle: Yes, I understand…
Clerk: You understand that at our discretion we can put you in the same cell with the nigra’s you ratted out?
Jangle: Yes…
Clerk: You understand that once your 20 year sentence is over, upon release you have two hours to leave the state or you can be re-arrested and put back in the same cell with the nigra’s you ratted out?
Jangle: But it’s “three” hours to the state line!!
Clerk: What!?
Jangle: Yes, I understand…
Clerk: Your honor, the defendant has been read his rights…
Judge: Okay, we will set allocution for next Tuesday… Sheriff, take Mr. Jangle into custody and whoop it… then charge that nigra with back sass…
So yeah… some were charged with a crime usually reserved for Ku Klux Klan members. Anywho, the first twelve black men who went to court were convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the electric chair. They became known as the Elaine 12. Now back in the day, the NAACP wasn’t faquing around when it came to civil rights violations against African Americans. First the New York chapter of the NAACP got involved, then they brought in the Arkansas chapter, who hired one of the best white trial lawyers in Arkansas. He was paid from collections taken from black communities all over the United States. 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. Now get this, the white man they hired was named George Murphy. Murphy was a former Confederate officer and Arkansas attorney general! It’s not too farfetched to say, he was probably responsible for shooting more black people and putting more black people in jail, than black folks gathered at a Louisiana block party serving free crawdads… but he was their man. Another man by the name of Scipio Africanus Jones, also assisted Murphy with the case. Jone was also a well-known lawyer. So, with a name like that, there is no need to tell you what color he was, because if I do, Ima have to take your card from you… Anyway, these two men went to defending the Elaine 12. Now it’s also no need to say that both of these men were under penalty of death… winning this case could also mean losing the breath of life. So, after extensive litigation, they managed to secure a new trial for six of the men. These six men became known as the “Ware” defendants. The other six men, who became known as the “Moore” defendants, convictions were affirmed. That meant they were sent back to jail to wait while they dusted off Old Sparky.

Go On Home…

During the trials, Murphy became ill, and Jones became the principal litigator. At first, I thought that Murphy was trying to get out of defending black men who were accused of killing white men. But then I remembered that Murphy was 79 years old. That shat was probably extremely stressful on a man that age. I mean Mfers leaving bullets in your mailbox… big strong men with hairy chest following you around and waving at you with their fist… that shat can get hard on yo ticker… so I understand. Anyway, Jones became the principal litigator, and he was under constant threat. He slept at a different friend’s house every night during the trials because of the death threats. So, the “Ware defendants re-trial started on May 3, 1920, and once again their murder conviction was affirmed. However, this time the judge stayed the conviction until the Arkansas Supreme Court reviewed it. It was ultimately overturned after two sessions and the men were set free. As for the “Moore” defendants who were still in jail smelling the smoke from Old Sparky being fired up over and over again to make sure everything would be just right when the time came for the six men to put on the metal skull cap… well Jones got them a stay also. Their case went all the way up to the Supreme Court. In Moore v. Dempsey the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that the mob dominated trials deprived the defendants of their 14th Amendment right of due process. Due process just means everybody gets a fair trial using the same judicial process… and you thought I was joking about the people on the jury were the same people who accused the black men of shooting at them… huh? Anywho, the defense and the prosecution agreed that the defendants in the Moore and Ware case would be set free with time served. They had been in jail for five years. On November 11, 1925, their sentences were commuted by Governor T.C. McRae. They were released a few months later. Arkansas also released the other defendants who had been convicted of lesser charges and who were still imprisoned.
Racist: Ya’ll gone on home now… we gonna forget about this…
In September 2019, one hundred years after the event, an Elaine Massacre Memorial was unveiled. The memorial tree which had been planted in April 2019, had been cut down and the memorial tag stolen. Although the case was pursued as a hate crime, it remains unsolved to this day.
Well, that’s the story of the Elaine Massacre. Please join us next week for more black history and satire at Hill1News.

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