As they surrounded his house, another man inside, Charlie Robinson, tried to run away. These are the same people who dont understand why African Americans choose Black Lives Matter as a valid starting point. The fear is instilled by people who continue to voice the hatred of slave owners of 257 years ago and they dont see it as the source of belligerent race rations. Attorney Jacob Fink, who was appointed to represent Frank Hicks, admitted to the jury that he had not interviewed any witnesses. Courageously, she dressed up as a sharecropper and went to Arkansas. 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. 0:00. [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. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2020. With the success of the Russian Revolution, stopping the spread of international communism was seen as the duty of all loyal Americans. Here are some tips. The union had contracted with lawyer Ulysses S. Bratton, whose son, Ocier, was at this meeting. 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). E. M. Allen, a planter and real estate developer who became the spokesman for Phillips Countys white power structure, told the Helena World on October 7, The present trouble with the Negroes in Phillips County is not a race riot. Additional support provided by the Arkansas General Assembly. Since Prentiss was aware of a coming attack, the Confederates would not have the advantage of surprise. Waskow, Arthur I. Black people were thus blamed, sentenced and jailed for their own massacre. Holmes noted that the defenses of Helena were stronger than he expected, but carried on with the attack anyway. The Malco theater in Helena has served as both a place to see a movie and as a movie location in Arkansas. Paul Hall was one of the twelve men who were slated to be electrocuted, and I believe he was my relative. 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]. The Arkansas Democrat sent . We Have Just Begun: Black Organizing and White Response in the Arkansas Delta, 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Autumn 1999): 265284. News also reached the Union forces at Helena of a major Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. The Elaine Lynchings: A Visit to Elaine, Arkansas, 100 Years After Brough issued a stay of the executions to permit an appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court after the motions were denied. In fact, local police were complicit in the killing of untold numbers of African-Americans. Gov. Major League Baseball Players Born in Arkansas Hundreds of black citizens were killed in Elaine, Ark., a century ago this week. That was 97 years ago but little has changed in the hearts of people. The Forgotten History of America's Worst Racial Massacre - New York Times Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020. On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation. 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. HELENA-WEST HELENA -- Hard on the banks of the Mississippi River, the World still turns, one page at a time. Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and a Story of Reconciliation. My anger comes from this being hidden/erased from history like the lives that were taken that day. Despite dawn beginning to be visible in the sky, Price misunderstood Holmes' order to attack at daylight and held back his troops, until Holmes came over to explain his orders. J. In 1811 the steamboat New Orleans called there, opening a prosperous era of river traffic. Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. [66] Many men from the 7th Missouri Infantry Regiment (Lewis') were captured at this time. Local officials and businessmen conducted their own investigation of what had transpired in the Elaine area. Dunaway, L. S. What A Preacher Saw Through a Keyhole in Arkansas. Take a look at these 10 abandoned places in Arkansas. [52] The two Union cavalry regiments were holding a position behind a levee. The Battle of Helena was fought on July 4, 1863, near Helena, Arkansas, during the American Civil War. The convictions were again affirmed. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. In Phillips County, this struggle directly challenged planter dominance. 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). If you can, provide 1-2 sources of information backing up this correction. This article is about the Civil War battle. Online at https://arktimes.com/news/cover-stories/2019/08/02/to-those-known-and-unknown (accessed August 16, 2022). [20]. The Elaine Race Riot. Masters thesis, George Peabody College for Teachers (now Peabody College of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University), 1927. The main attack broke through Battery C, but Union troops fended off the attackers and sealed the breach. The trials were a joke. Union media later greatly embellished the role played by the regiment in the fighting. 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. [74] Holmes ordered Parsons to attack Battery D to support Fagan, but as Parsons' men were too badly disorganized at the time, McRae was given the order to attack. The official narrative presented a picture at odds with reality. During the trials, Murphy became ill, and Jones became the principal counsel. The per capita income for Helena is $13,028. Ms. Wells Barnett provided hard evidence of the massacre, but it took the Supreme Court to expose the truth to national attention. Without Clayton's men first being driven from behind the levee, Rightor's Hill could not be taken. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. Males had a median income of $27,203 versus $17,250 for females. Praying at the dedication of the Elaine Massacre Memorial. When Abraham Lincoln, the newly elected President of the United States, called for 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion, this proved the catalyst for the southern state of Arkansas to secede and join the Confederacy. [70] Fagan's lines had been badly thinned by not only Union fire but also heat and exhaustion. Founded in 1871, the Helena World is one of Arkansas' oldest newspapers. [6] In late May, with Union troops heavily pressuring Vicksburg, Confederate authorities sent a message to General Joseph E. Johnston suggesting that forces from the Trans-Mississippi Department be used to relieve the pressure on Vicksburg. Later in the year, Union troops used Helena as a staging ground for their successful campaign to capture Little Rock, Arkansas. [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. [21], The Union troops in Helena were commanded by Major General Benjamin Prentiss and consisted of the Thirteenth Division of the XIII Corps. [97] Vicksburg had surrendered on July 4, and the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana fell within a week. Corrections? While its deepest roots lay in the states commitment to white supremacy, the events in and around Elaine (Phillips County)stemmed from tense race relations and growing concerns about labor unions. Others had their charges dismissed or ultimately were not prosecuted. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. With the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi were cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. The cases of the Elaine Twelve were litigated on two separate tracks. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. 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. The. [81] The Union troops had taken advantage of the severe disorganization and scattering of the Confederate forces to take the prisoners. Confederate infantry deserted in large numbers, their morale shattered. It is a deliberately planned insurrection of the Negroes against the whites directed by an organization known as the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America, established for the purpose of banding Negroes together for the killing of white people.. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2022. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. Animal rescue groups from across the country are converging on the Humane Society of the Delta in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, faced with the challenge of evaluating . Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal Troops and the Elaine Massacres: A Colloquy. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 61 (Autumn 2002): 272283. Donations made to the CALS Foundation are tax-deductible for United States federal income tax purposes. [59], Holmes lost 1,636 of the 7,646 men he had taken into the battle: 173 killed, 687 wounded, and 776 missing. (Union leader Robert Lee Hill was hidden by friends during the violence and later escaped to Kansas.) Update: Name Released of Man Found Shot to Death on Helena-West Helena Ferguson, Bessie. Taylor, Kieran. 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. Soon, word spread that blacks were attacking whites in Elaine. I have been trying to close a chapter in my family history. Robert Palmer noted that in the mid-1930s Helena was "the blues capital of the Delta". Brough, requesting that U.S. troops be sent to Elaine. Helena-West Helena School District operates schools in what was Helena. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. After troops arrived in Elaine on the morning of October 2, 1919, the white mobs began to depart the area and return to their homes. The Arkansas Gazette reported at least fifteen black bodies in Helena's streets and it's outskirts. Sneed, Arkansas: A ghost town in Jackson County, Arkansas, Sneed was abandoned in 1929 following an F5 tornado. 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. 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. Calls went out to the governor for federal troops. On September 10, Union troops took Little Rock. [40] At 4:05 am, Fagan's skirmishers sighted the Union position, and with the day dawning, Fagan attacked with three infantry regiments. This neglect by the government came in the face of people who merely sought to exercise their basic rights to secure a lawyer to defend their property. Wikipedia On April 10, 1929, an F5 tornado struck northern Jackson County. The converging attack would be difficult, and the generals interpreted Holmes' order to begin the attack at "daylight" differently. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. [75] Price then ordered Parsons to attack Battery D, but was informed that McRae had already been ordered to do that. The Moore defendants were granted a new hearing after the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Moore v. Dempsey, ruled that the original proceedings in Helena had been a mask, and that the state of Arkansas had not provided a corrective process that would have allowed the defendants to vindicate their constitutional right to due process of law on appeal. [13], Helena, Arkansas is home to historic buildings such as the Sidney H. Horner House and the Centennial Baptist Church. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Wingo has a significant record of complaints against him, and fatally shot a man while on duty in Garland County last summer. [1] The American Civil War began on April 12, when Confederate troops bombarded Fort Sumter. Dillard, Tom. 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. The Elaine Riot: Tragedy & Triumph. Watson was but one of 97 Black people lynched in Arkansas in the decade spanning 1891 to 1900 93 males and 4 females. [48] The 43rd Indiana Infantry Regiment had been facing Fagan's Confederates, and was reinforced by parts of the 33rd Iowa Infantry Regiment and the 35th Missouri Infantry Regiment, under orders from Salomon.