WATCH- The Elaine Massacre: A Teach-In
Catch the replay of this teach-in about one of the bloodiest race riots in U.S. history.
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The Elaine Massacre occurred from September 30-October 2, 1919 after Black sharecroppers met at church to strategize about how to get fair prices for the cotton they picked.
White law enforcement officials pulled up outside of the church where the meeting took place and a shootout ensued. By the end, one officer was wounded and the other lay dead.
Word went out to the white community of a “Negro insurrection.” In response, white people formed armed posses and went looking for Black people.
The exact number of Black people lynched during this massacre may never be known, but estimates range near 200.
As significant as this tragic event is, few people know about it today.
Maybe it’s because these were poor, rural Black sharecroppers and not wealthy, urban people. Maybe it’s due to the deliberate conspiracy of silence by the white community who suppressed honest public dialogue about it.
Maybe it’s due to the danger and risk Black people faced if they spoke up about the murders. Maybe it’s also due to the trauma and the pain of the entire debacle.
In this teach-in, I discuss what happened over those fateful days in 1919. I also speak about the court cases that ensued and how Moore v. Dempsey helped lay the groundwork for the legal attacks against the Jim Crow regime during the Civil Rights movement.
I also introduce the Valley of Dry Bones documentary that I am helping to produce along with Nolan Dean of Cherry Street Productions.
If you care about U.S. history, our nation’s racial past and its legacy, labor organizing, and civil rights, you won’t want to miss “The Elaine Massacre: A Teach-In.”
Please feel free to share with others, and consider making a donation to support the making of this documentary film project (on all donation platforms: @csfilmfoundation).
What did you think of this teach-in? Let me know HERE.
This was sobering.
Sobering for the history.
Sobering for the lives that were destroyed by violence.
Sobering for our inability to reconcile with our past, much less remember it.
We need to be reminded of the facts of our history so that we can--in hope--do better.
Thank you for all the work and research that went into producing this.
I was working as a white college student intern on the White River National Wildlife Refuge in 1969, the 50th anniversary of the Elaine Massacre and on several occasions traveled through the area alone as part of my duties and I recall some of my older local coworkers warning me about those people around Elaine being a tough bunch and to watch myself. At the time I shrugged this off, but it always seemed a bit strange, until about 50 years later I read "In the Laps of Gods" and was fascinated with what I discovered about the stories that are not spoken about in our history books. Reading "In the Laps of Gods" in part lead me to become active in an Equal Justice Initiative community remembrance coalition in my local community in Georgia. I have realatives living in the Delta (Crittenden County).