About the Exhibit
"Elaine Race Massacre: Red Summer in Arkansas" explores the events and consequences of the Elaine Race Massacre, the deadliest racial conflict in Arkansas history. The exhibit is an interactive experience based on historical resources, including photographs from the town of Elaine, Phillips County, and Arkansas, essays from scholars around the state written for a broad audience, as well as educational resources based on Arkansas state curriculum standards.
DISCLAIMER: This virtual exhibit is an introductory, rather than exhaustive, approach to the 1919 Elaine Massacre. Please explore the many resources linked in the exhibit for a more in-depth look at this important event.
Overview: The Elaine Race Massacre
by Dr. Brian Mitchell
The Elaine Race Massacre began on September 30, 1919 and lasted until October 7, 1919. The catalyst for the massacre was the formation of a local chapter of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (PFHUA) in Phillips County. The PFHUA was established in Winchester, a small community located in Drew County, Arkansas, by a local sharecropper named Robert Lee Hill in 1918. The union’s goals were to help members obtain fair wages and treatment within the sharecropping system. The black farmers who joined the union believed that by combining their financial resources, they could afford to hire legal representation and sue their plantation owners for stolen wages and spurious accounting of their debts.
Shortly after the Elaine chapter’s formation, so-called “good negroes” informed plantation owners of the union and its intentions. On September 30, 1919, as the union members met at the Hoops Spur church, a few miles from Elaine, the meeting was interrupted by the arrival of a group of law enforcement officers and a black trustee from Helena’s jail. The officers would contend that their arrival at the church during a meeting was a matter of fate and maintained that they stopped due to mechanical problems with their car. There are several conflicting narratives as to which group, the officers or the sharecroppers, fired the first shot. What is known is that one of the officers was killed, W. A. Adkins, and another wounded, Charles W. Pratt, in the incident. The trustee, “Kidd” Collins, escaped the shootout unharmed and made his way to Elaine where he reported the shooting. Local telegraph operators contacted law enforcement in neighboring towns and the governor’s office. Within hours, mobs of hundreds of white men poured into the county to suppress the alleged black revolt that had been reported to them. The governor contacted the Department of War and asked if United States’ soldiers could be used to put down the alleged revolution. The Secretary of War directed more than 500 soldiers to go to Elaine.