workingclasshistory:

On this day, 30 September 1919, the Elaine massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in US history, began in Arkansas. Around 100 Black workers, mostly sharecroppers employed by white plantation owners, attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church to try to organise for better pay. The union placed armed guards outside the church to protect it from attack. The exact cause of the incident is disputed, but a shootout broke out which left a white sheriff’s deputy injured and a white railroad security officer dead. In the aftermath, up to 1000 armed white racists descended on the town and began murdering Black people, while US troops locked up hundreds of African Americans in makeshift stockades, torturing many. They remained locked up until they could be questioned by their white employers, who could then get them released. Authorities completely denied the massacre took place, and instead charged 122 African Americans with various crimes, 12 of whom were swiftly convicted and sentenced to death by electric chair. This sentence was later reduced on appeal, but 77 Black people ended up serving often lengthy prison sentences. The exact number of victims is unknown, but estimates of African Americans killed ranges from 100 up to several hundred. None of the white perpetrators of the massacre were charged with any crime, despite some admitting to participating in torture. This is a short history of the horrific events: https://libcom.org/history/elaine-massacre-1919-grif-stockley
Pictured: some of the mob https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1223348561183625/?type=3