[54] Walker's men had encountered the felled trees across their path of advance, and though he threw forward a skirmish line, most of his men remained back at the barricades. Any information would be helpful. Helena is the birthplace of many notable people including prominent African Americans and Arkansas' former senior United States senator, Blanche Lincoln. The 1920 census lists my great-great-great-grandmother as a widow. [96], Most of the Confederates withdrew from the area the next morning,[97] falling back to Jacksonport,[59] although Walker's men remained behind to harass any Union troops that sallied forth from the city. Evidence shows that the mobs of whites slaughtered African Americans in and around Elaine. 1831-12-25 Louisiana & Arkansas are first states to observe Christmas as holiday. 100 years after hundreds of African Americans were reportedly killed in Elaine, Arkansas, a memorial is set to bring details of the tragedy to light Some observers say the number of people who. Selecting a player's name will bring up his statistics page and selecting a column title (Birthplace, Debut Year, Final Year) will allow you to re-sort the data. The Elaine Riot: Tragedy & Triumph. Price commanded the Confederate forces during the campaign, as Holmes had fallen ill.[100] Events during this campaign worsened the split between Marmaduke and Walker, and the former killed the latter in a duel on September 6. At least two historians, including myself, have settled on a reasonable estimate of 200, recognizing that the toll was most likely far greater. The obligations of the past weigh heavily upon the present. So sad. Holmes planned and executed three different failed attacks on the town. Dr. Woodruff is a historian and the author of American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta.. [46] Meanwhile, Fagan's men attacked the second Union line of works. 72201. [72] Many Confederates surrendered. Wingo has a significant record of complaints against him, and fatally shot a man while on duty in Garland County last summer. More controversial is the view that the military participated in the murder of blacks. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2020. [56] Historian Robert E. Shalhope wrote that the Confederate attacks were repulsed "perhaps less by the powerful Union entrenchments than by their own poorly co-ordinated attack". Helena is home to the longest running daily radio program in the U.S., King Biscuit Time. To be released, the men would have to plead guilty to second-degree murder and a sentence of five years from the date they were first incarcerated in the Arkansas State Penitentiary. Update (July 30): HELENA-WEST HELENA, AR - A man found shot to death on a city street earlier this week has now been identified. The committee met with Gov. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. On the third try, the Confederates managed to overrun Battery C, but the men from the 33rd Missouri had time to spike one cannon and take supplies necessary for firing before the Confederates captured the guns. Online at https://archive.org/details/TheArkansasRaceRiot (accessed August 16, 2022). Delta Cultural Center, Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. 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. Encyclopedia of Arkansas More atrocities were later reported, including cutting souvenirs from black bodies and . Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. 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. Major support provided through a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. South of Price, Fagan was to attack Battery D on Hindman's Hill, while Marmaduke, supported by Walker, was to attack from the north, take Rightor's Hill, and then use the hill as an artillery position to fire on Batteries A and B. The trials began the next week, with John Elvis Miller leading the prosecution. 5. Voogd, Jan. Race Riots and Resistance: The Red Summer of 1919. Fort Curtis was not directly attacked at the Battle of Helena since the Confederacy focused its attacks on the outlying batteries. [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. Omissions? [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. Facebook/Historic Arkansas Facts and Photos. The violence occurred not only in the more familiar urban centers of Chicago and Washington, but also in the hinterlands of Omaha; Charleston, S.C.; Longview, Tex. To Those Known and Unknown: The Elaine Massacre Memorial. Arkansas Times, August 2019, pp. [71] Both Price and Holmes were issuing orders independently,[72] and Holmes' orders were making things worse for the Confederates. Robert Palmer noted that in the mid-1930s Helena was "the blues capital of the Delta". In the last nine months, Elaine's last grocery store and restaurant closed. When a tribute gift is given the honoree will receive a letter acknowledging your generosity and a bookplate will be placed in a book. For every 100 females, there were 83.3 males. When my father arrived at the address that was on the letter, a lady answered the door, but she said his uncle didnt live there. Anthony, Steven. Union, Reaction, and Riot: The Biography of a Rural Race Riot. The white leaders put forward their view that black residents had been about to revolt. As they ran from the posse, the Colemans saw his neighbor, Jim Miller, and his family burned alive in their house. Males had a median income of $27,203 versus $17,250 for females. Police say detectives have interviewed several people who might have been with . Marking a Tragedy. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, September 29, 2019, pp. 2023 Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Honor or memorial gifts are an everlasting way to pay tribute to someone who has touched your life. [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. In Moore v. Dempsey, the court in 1923 overturned the convictions of six of the Elaine 12, arguing that the confessions had been secured through torture. Major funding provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Further Reading: Richard C. Courtner, A Mob Intent on Death: The N.A.A.C.P. The population density was 710.7 inhabitants per square mile (274.4/km2). The economy, traditionally based on cotton and lumber, became increasingly industrialized after World War II, especially at West Helena (founded 1909, incorporated 1917). Taylor, Kieran. 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 assaults failed, and Vicksburg fell the same day. A., Jr.The Elaine Race Riots of 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 19 (Summer 1960): 142150. [8], Helena is located at 343134N 90365W / 34.52611N 90.60139W / 34.52611; -90.60139 (34.526223, 90.601377).[9]. [59] The cannons in Battery C were manned by men from the 33rd Missouri Infantry Regiment, and they, along with a portion of the 33rd Iowa, poured a deadly fire into Parsons' men, while Battery B fired at McRae's brigade. [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. (WMC) - Areas of Eastern Arkansas are sending more violent offenders to federal court. Livingston, Kelly, and Madison Peek. 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. [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. On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. A defensive position known as Fort Curtis already existed to the west of Helena, but four new batteries, named with the letters A, B, C, and D, were ordered built. The Confederates charged Fort Curtis in their last attack, but the heavy artillery inside kept the attack from reaching the fort. I know for a fact my fathers people were involved in the Elaine Riot. Black people were thus blamed, sentenced and jailed for their own massacre. White wrote in the Chicago Daily News on October 19, 1919, that the belief there had been an insurrection was only a figment of the imagination of Arkansas whites and not based on fact. He said, White men in Helena told me that more than one hundred Negroes were killed. Famed journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett secretly interviewed some of the prisoners in Helena, from which she produced the pamphlet The Arkansas Race Riot. This work also challenged allegations of an insurrection and documented the torture and other depredations the prisoners had suffered. Stockley, Grif, Brian K. Mitchell, and Guy Lancaster. [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. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. 1861-02-12 State troops seize US munitions in . [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. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012. The wife of Frank Moore had hidden for four weeks. [59], Holmes lost 1,636 of the 7,646 men he had taken into the battle: 173 killed, 687 wounded, and 776 missing. Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. This was murder on the part of the white population. Inc. town, 1833; city, 1856. Joseph Bledsoe's Missouri Battery was brought up to provide artillery support, and two of its guns opened on the Union positions. and the Arkansas Riot Cases; Ida Wells Barnett, The Elaine Race Riot; Guy Lancaster, The Elaine Massacre and Arkansas: A Century of Atrocity and Resistance, 1819-1919; Grif Stockley, Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Arkansas Race Massacre., Nan Elizabeth Woodruff us an emeritus professor of African American studies and modern United States history at Pennsylvania State University and the author of American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta.. [20]. American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta. New York: Anchor Books, 1967. Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1970. Anatomy of Four Race Riots: Racial Conflict in Knoxville, Elaine (Arkansas), Tulsa and Chicago, 19191921. On October 31, 1919, the Phillips County grand jury charged 122 African Americans with crimes stemming from the racial disturbances. 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. #7 of 8 things to do in Helena Historic Sites Write a review About Suggested duration 2-3 hours Suggest edits to improve what we show. [17] Price's advance continued to be slowed by the terrain and weather, to the annoyance of Holmes, who rightly believed that the delay had prevented any remaining chance of the movement being a surprise. The re-trials of the Ware defendants began on May 3, 1920. McRae sent about 200 men to attack the battery, but they were unsuccessful. The median age was 32 years. From 1906 to 1946, Helena was a terminal point on the former Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, which provided passenger and freight service to Joplin, Missouri. Courageously, she dressed up as a sharecropper and went to Arkansas. The Elaine Riot of 1919: Race, Class, and Labor in the Arkansas Delta. PhD diss., University of WisconsinMilwaukee, 2019. Ms. Wells Barnett gathered testimonies that described the sheer horror of the massacre from those who endured and lived to tell their stories. [25] Prentiss' men had advantages over the Confederates through their defenses, batteries, and naval support. New York: Pegasus Books, 2020. Butts, J. W., and Dorothy James. Give a donation in someones name to mark a special occasion, honor a friend or colleague or remember a beloved family member. Pascal, Olivia. Brough issued a stay of the executions to permit an appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court after the motions were denied.