Elaine massacre

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The massacre of Elaine , also known as the race riots of Elaine ( English Elaine Race Riot ) known was a pogrom in the African-American population in Elaine in the American state of Arkansas , the eyewitness called to the 200 fatalities. It occurred from September 30th to October 2nd, 1919 and was the culmination of the racial riots of the " Red Summer ". The trigger was a gathering of cotton pickers and tenant farmers for the purpose of establishing a union. In addition to racist motives on the part of the white perpetrators, the then rampant First Red Fear of a communist overthrow in America also played a role in the violence .

prehistory

In America in 1919, conflicts between the “races” that erupted in 25 cities and towns, including Washington, DC , Chicago , Knoxville , Indianapolis , Omaha and Longview , during the “Red Summer” from April to October, were mixed with labor disputes , which were often interpreted as Bolshevik actions against the background of the First Red Fear in business and politics . In addition, there were African-American soldiers who returned from the First World War and had experienced equal treatment in France. In their homeland they now hoped for an improvement in their living situation. Often they were no longer willing to submit to the rigid Jim Crow legislation and racial segregation , as they did before the war .

procedure

Governor Charles Hillman Brough (1916)

On the night of September 30th, around a hundred cotton pickers and tenant farmers who wanted to organize themselves in the Progressive Farmers and Household Union (PFHUA) and demand higher wages from the mostly white landowners gathered in a church in nearby Elaine in Hoops Spur in Phillips County . In a shootout between three white men who parked her car in front of the church, and African American security forces came a white man killed and another deputy County - Sheriff Charles Pratt, was wounded. On the morning of the next day, the sheriff dispatched a contingent to Elaine to arrest the suspects. Although they met little resistance, they feared the fact that there were ten times more African-Americans than whites in this city. Whites from the surrounding counties and Mississippi soon poured into Phillips County and eventually formed a violent mob of 500 to 1000 armed men who hunted down African American citizens in Elaine and the surrounding area. Their motivation was not only a fight against an alleged "uprising" by blacks based on racism and white supremacy , but also the First Red Fear of a communist overthrow in America, with which the formation of trade unions was associated. That same day, the county government sent a telegram to Governor Charles Hillman Brough asking for forces to be dispatched . After approval by the Department of Defense , he dispatched 500 combat experienced soldiers from Camp Pike near Little Rock , who reached Elaine the next day.

After the military arrived, accompanied by the governor, the white mob dispersed and returned to their homes. That morning, however, they had lynched the four Johnston brothers who had not attended the union meeting but were returning from a hunting trip. The soldiers quartered hundreds of African-Americans in makeshift stockade works, where they were questioned and had to wait until their white employers vouched for them. There are reports that soldiers from Camp Pike also participated in the massacre, which had happened in similar events in the past. The Memphis Press printed corresponding reports on October 2nd . Colonel Isaac Jenks, the troop leader in Elaine, admitted the killing of two African Americans by his soldiers. The black union leader Robert Lee Hill, on the other hand, was hidden by friends and later fled to Kansas . The violence did not end completely until October 3, when the armed forces established a patrol service. Officials reported that at least 25 African Americans and 5 whites were killed in the racial unrest. Many observers are convinced that the number of victims was significantly higher, with up to 200 dead.

The legal processing of this event was shaped by the racist power structures of the southern states . A seven-person commission of inquiry was formed in the county on October 2nd, consisting entirely of white landowners, businessmen, and public officials. The committee found the recognition of the governor who was on site and had to assure Brough that it would prevent the lynchings from spreading to Helena . He then returned to Little Rock and announced at a press conference that the situation was under control and, thanks to the efforts of the county's white population, no more violence had emanated from the crowd. Meanwhile, 285 Afro-Americans were taken from the stockade factory to the prison in Helena, which only had room for 48 inmates. From that point on, two versions of what happened in Elaine existed. While the seven-member commission of inquiry attributed the violence to an African-American uprising against the whites, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had sent its own expert to analyze the situation, denied this description of what had happened, in particular that it was violent Attempted coup. The well-known journalist Ida Bell Wells secretly carried out several interviews with Afro-American prisoners in Helena, on the basis of which she prepared a leaflet about the massacre.

On October 31, 1919, 122 of the African Americans arrested were charged with racial unrest in the county court by the seven-person investigative commission. The charges ranged from murder to Night Riding , an anti-terrorism law originally directed against night-time raids by masked people on smallholders and historically based on the actions of the Ku Klux Klan that followed this pattern . District Judge JM Jackson assigned white lawyers from Helena as defense attorneys for the first twelve defendants. One of these lawyers admitted during the trial that he had not spoken to his client at all. The defense did not question the venue or the choice of jury . The twelve defendants were found guilty on November 5 and sentenced to death in an electric chair . As a result, 65 of the remaining defendants sought a plea bargain , accepting prison terms of up to 25 years for second degree murder .

Meanwhile, the NAACP fought against the death sentences under the leadership of lawyer and politician Scipio Africanus Jones and Edgar L. McHaney. To support the Elaine Twelve, Jones raised money in the Little Rock African American community. In defense, the NAACP hired 79-year-old George C. Murphy, a former candidate for governor who had served in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Despite his old age, Murphy was considered one of the best trial lawyers in the state. Those aides sought to avert the death penalty by appealing the District Court verdict on procedural misconduct and going to the Arkansas Supreme Court . Once the situation had calmed down, Rough ordered the executions to be suspended to allow an appeal. The litigation that followed lasted five years. For six of the defendants, the goods defendants , the NAACP and Murphy reached a new trial beginning May 3, 1920, when they could prove a procedural error in the Phillips County District Court. During the reopened trial in Helena, Murphy fell so seriously ill that Jones had to replace him in the defense leadership. The white population was so hostile to the black lawyer that he feared for his life and stayed in different accommodations every night. In the end, the district court upheld the first trial's verdicts in May 1920, and the matter returned to the Arkansas Supreme Court , which overturned the verdicts again in December 1920. This released the prisoners after the deadline in April 1923, when the state of Arkansas showed no intention to bring them back to court.

The first instance judgments against the six other "Twelve of Elaine", the Moore defendants , were upheld. Here the NAACP and its aides reached a hearing in the United States Supreme Court . In the case of Moore v. Dempsey , the Supreme Court ruled in February 1923 that the trial in the county court had been a "masquerade" and that the state of Arkansas had denied the defendants their constitutional right to appeal . Instead of starting a new trial in federal court, Jones entered negotiations to release the More defendants . He achieved in March 1923 that they were released five years after their imprisonment in exchange for a guilty plea for second degree murder . This happened on January 14, 1925, when Governor Thomas McRae granted them unlimited leave.

Although some citizens of Phillips County even today regard the actions of the whites in Elaine in 1919 as justified because it prevented worse things, most modern historians see this event as an unjustifiable massacre, the exact number of which remains unclear. The role of the military on October 2, 1919 and its possible involvement in the lynchings is discussed more controversially. The Elaine massacre continues to strain relations between whites and African Americans in this part of Arkansas. On September 29, 2019, one day before the centenary of the massacre began, a memorial was erected in the center of Helena-West Helena for the victims of the time. On November 5, 2019, the "Twelve of Elaine" received plaques on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock.

literature

  • Grif Stockley: Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Massacre of 1919. 2nd revised edition. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville 2020, ISBN 978-1-68226-136-1 .
  • Guy Lancaster: The Elaine Massacre and Arkansas: A Century of Atrocity and Resistance, 1819-1919. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Little Rock 2018, ISBN 978-1-945624-07-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. David F. Krugler: 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back Cambridge University Press, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-107-06179-8 , p. 4.
  2. Dominic J. Capeci, Jr .: Foreword: American Race Rioting in Historical Perspective. In: Walter C. Rucker, James N. Upton (Eds.): Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. S. xix-xliv; here: p. xxvi f.
  3. a b c d e f g h Grif Stockley: Elaine Massacre of 1919. In: encyclopediaofarkansas.net, November 5, 2019, accessed June 9, 2020.
  4. ^ A b Ann V. Collins: Red Summer Race Riots. In Leslie M Alexander, Walter C. Rucker Jr. (Eds.): Encyclopedia of African American History. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara 2010, ISBN 978-1-85109-769-2 , pp. 983-985; here: p. 984 .
  5. Dominic J. Capeci, Jr .: Foreword: American Race Rioting in Historical Perspective. In: Walter C. Rucker, James N. Upton (Eds.): Encyclopedia of American Race Riots. S. xix-xliv; here: p. xxvii.
  6. Jeanie Horn: Night Riders. In: encyclopediaofarkansas.net, November 13, 2013, accessed May 11, 2020.
    Jason McCollom: Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (PFHUA). In: encyclopediaofarkansas.net, May 30, 2018, accessed May 11, 2020.
  7. ^ A b Brian K. Mitchell, Alex Soulard, Kathryn Thompson: Ed Ware (1882–1929). In: encyclopediaofarkansas.net, May 9, 2019, accessed May 11, 2020.
  8. ^ Sara Riva: Moore v. Dempsey. In: encyclopediaofarkansas.net, May 30, 2018, accessed May 12, 2020.