0:36. 10. Local officials and businessmen conducted their own investigation of what had transpired in the Elaine area. [51] His dismounted cavalrymen were pushed back by the 29th Iowa and part of the 36th Iowa Infantry Regiment, and his flank was threatened by the 5th Kansas Cavalry Regiment and the 1st Indiana Cavalry Regiment, which were commanded by Powell Clayton. With labor conflicts escalating throughout the country at the end of World War I, government and business interpreted the demands of labor increasingly as the work of foreign ideologies, such as Bolshevism, that threatened the foundation of the American economy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. As many as several hundred African Americans and five white men were killed. 5. Find directions to Helena, browse local businesses, landmarks, get current traffic estimates, road conditions, and more. Helena, city, seat (1830) of Phillips county, eastern Arkansas, U.S., port of the Mississippi River, about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Memphis, Tennessee, and adjacent to the city of West Helena. When a tribute gift is given the honoree will receive a letter acknowledging your generosity and a bookplate will be placed in a book. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. There, in the early fall of 1919, a different struggle for democracy was taking place. Helena is the birthplace of many notable people including prominent African Americans and Arkansas' former senior United States senator, Blanche Lincoln. https://www.britannica.com/place/Helena-Arkansas, The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture - Helena-West Helena. [37] The felled trees slowed Fagan's main attack,[38] which was on the Upper Little Rock Road,[39] and forced the Confederates to leave their supply wagons and cannons behind. This neglect by the government came in the face of people who merely sought to exercise their basic rights to secure a lawyer to defend their property. Soon, word spread that blacks were attacking whites in Elaine. When I was a little girl, I remember my father, Willie Hall, receiving a letter from his uncle, Richard Hall, who was his fathers brother. [1] The American Civil War began on April 12, when Confederate troops bombarded Fort Sumter. On September 10, Union troops took Little Rock. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Union guns concentrated on this attack and inflicted heavy casualties on it. The town was at the center of a rapidly changing lumber and plantation economy known for harsh working conditions. The city was a Union supply depot during the American Civil War, and the Battle of Helena (July 4, 1863) was a futile attempt by the Confederates to capture it. [90] Casualties were heaviest among the 33rd Iowa and the 33rd Missouri, while the 2nd Arkansas Infantry Regiment (African Descent) saw the first combat wounds suffered by African American soldiers in Arkansas during the war. Take a look at these 10 abandoned places in Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2020. ArkansasReview: A Journal of Delta Studies32 (August 2001). [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. The wife of Frank Moore had hidden for four weeks. When he returned home, 150 men came to ransack his house, seizing his union meeting minutes and his Masonic lodge books. [50] Price's command consisted of the brigades of Brigadier Generals Dandridge McRae and Mosby Monroe Parsons, and was led by the 9th Missouri Sharpshooter Battalion and a company of Arkansans local to the Helena area. [15] Moving through swamps resulted in the loss of many accompanying animals and wagons. [22] Although Prentiss was in command of the general district around Helena, the garrison itself was operationally commanded by Brigadier General Frederick Salomon, the commander of the division. In Phillips County, this struggle directly challenged planter dominance. [45], Price's attack had been delayed. He also told how soldiers brought a suspected union leader to his company store for interrogation, poured kerosene over his body and tossed a match. Fort Curtis was not directly attacked at the Battle of Helena since the Confederacy focused its attacks on the outlying batteries. With the success of the Russian Revolution, stopping the spread of international communism was seen as the duty of all loyal Americans. http://visualizingtheredsummer.com/ (accessed August 16, 2022). Charles H. Brough of Arkansas and a World War I veteran, Col. Issac Jencks, personally escorted 583 soldiers, including a machine gun battalion, from Camp Pike in Little Rock, the state capital, to Elaine. [59], Holmes lost 1,636 of the 7,646 men he had taken into the battle: 173 killed, 687 wounded, and 776 missing. [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. The commander of Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi, Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, was forwarded in June the dispatch that Johnston had received, and delegated making the decision whether to attack Helena to Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes, the Confederate commander of the District of Arkansas. The following morning, Gov. ; and in the plantation region of the Arkansas Delta. Details remain difficult to verify. She had been driven from her home in Memphis to Chicago because of her activism. For additional information: Anthony, Steven. McWhirter, Cameron. The murders, thefts, violence and terror continued long after the troops had gone and the convicted men had been released. The racial makeup of Helena is 67.93% Black or African American, 30.59% White, 0.13% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.17% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. [65] Carried by momentum, some of Price's infantry charged down the hill towards Helena itself, but were driven off. [24] Each of the four batteries was located on a high point of Crowley's Ridge. [99], Helena was reinforced and in mid-August, Union forces began a campaign against Little Rock, with Helena as the staging ground. A jury convicted 12 black men in the murders of three white men, even though two of the deaths had occurred from white people accidentally shooting each other in a frenzy. He lost 121 acres of cotton and corn. The white citizens of the county deserve unstinting praise for their actions in preventing mob violence., From this point forward, two versions of what occurred at Elaine exist. By early morning Oct. 1, the sheriff sent white veterans from the American Legion post to suppress what he deemed an insurrection. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. Hostility toward him was so great from local white residents that, out of fear for his life, he was said to sleep at a different black familys house every night during the trials. Additional support provided by the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation Inc. It was a system intended to keep black people in debt and dependent upon planters. The re-trials of the Ware defendants began on May 3, 1920. Helena is the eastern portion of HelenaWest Helena, Arkansas, a city in Phillips County, Arkansas. The median income for a household in Helena is $18,662, and the median income for a family was $21,534. [68], Fagan's men resumed the attack upon hearing the fighting on Graveyard Hill, and drove the 43rd Indiana and part of the 33rd Iowa from the final Union line in front of Battery D, but were unable to take the Battery itself,[69] having been hit by crossfire while maneuvering through a ravine. In 1811 the steamboat New Orleans called there, opening a prosperous era of river traffic. Since Prentiss was aware of a coming attack, the Confederates would not have the advantage of surprise. [81] The Union troops had taken advantage of the severe disorganization and scattering of the Confederate forces to take the prisoners. [8] He thought the attack would be too costly, and instead suggested placing an artillery battery along the Mississippi river to intercept Union shipping. [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. Some of the refugees were killed, some were taken prisoner, and the camp was burned by the Confederates at some point during the battle. [53] Bledsoe's two guns were driven off, but neither side could defeat the other. Collins, Ann V. All Hell Broke Loose: American Race Riots from the Progressive Era through World War II. Union, Reaction, and Riot: The Biography of a Rural Race Riot. Local authorities blocked press coverage. During the 1910 census, my great-great-great-grandfather was listed. [11] Holmes would accompany the attack. Instead, the troops either shot or arrested them. They stole Wares cow, two mules, one horse, a farm wagon, his Ford car and various household goods. Helena is home to the longest running daily radio program in the U.S., King Biscuit Time. [7], Helena built a reproduction of Fort Curtis in 2012 that is free to the public. The community, originally settled in 1797 and first called Monticello and then St. Francis, grew around a warehouse built for barge shipping. . This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Visualizing the Red Summer. [40] At 4:05 am, Fagan's skirmishers sighted the Union position, and with the day dawning, Fagan attacked with three infantry regiments. There were 1,636 Confederate casualties and 205 Union casualties.[6]. Emboldened by their war experience, African-American veterans returned to the Delta to demand the full rights of citizenship and justice, not only before the law but also in their labors. More atrocities were later reported, including cutting souvenirs from black bodies and . Men and women migrated to Northern factories or joined the military, creating a labor shortage in the cotton fields and lumber mills. [Editors note: A professor at UA Little Rock is working to compile such a list.]. As of the 2000 census, this portion of the city population was 6,323. Fort Curtis was built in August 1862 by Union soldiers and freed slaves in Helena. Stopford, Annie. 0.73% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. [69] Believing a full-fledged attack to be a suicide charge, McRae had his men simply fire on the rifle pits in hopes of diverting attention away from Fagan's command. The CALS Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. The fire from the artillery battery did little damage, but the gunboat's shots were more effective. Encyclopedia of Arkansas 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. Hundreds of black citizens were killed in Elaine, Ark., a century ago this week. 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. Crime fighting efforts in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas are getting a big boost from the federal government. One of the largest harbors on an inland waterway was completed in the 1990s, making Helena a hub of industrial development. [10], Once formed, the plan called for Price, with his 3,095 infantry, to move from Jacksonport to Cotton Plant on June 22, along with Marmaduke's 1,750 cavalry; that 1,339 infantry commanded by Brigadier General James F. Fagan would move from Little Rock to Clarendon, and that Brigadier General Lucius M. Walker would screen Helena with his 1,462 cavalry. My sadness comes from the senseless murder of human beingsso many that there isnt an exact number, which is wrong on so many levels. Union troops captured the city in July 1862, and had been using it as a base of operations. They still believe non-whites are a threat to their way of life. Through a partnership with local government and the federal government more than 20 crimes committed in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas have landed federal charges over the last two years. [62] Price's Missouri sharpshooters found positions from which they could pick off the gunners in Battery C.[63], Price's first attack was repulsed, as was a second. To Those Known and Unknown: The Elaine Massacre Memorial. Arkansas Times, August 2019, pp. There she interviewed the 12 prisoners accused of murder, their wives, and many others, publishing her findings in a 1920 pamphlet. In contrast, the correspondent for the Memphis Press on October 2, 1919, wrote, Many Negroes are reported killed by the soldiers. Other anecdotal information suggests that U.S. troops also engaged in torture of African Americans to make them confess and give information. A., Jr.The Elaine Race Riots of 1919. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 19 (Summer 1960): 142150. Colonel Jenckss report of his mission supported this view, claiming only two black people and one of his corporals had died. Salomon would make many of the decisions in the upcoming battle. A willow tree memorializing the African American lives lost in a 1919 massacre in Elaine, Arkansas, in one of the deadliest racial conflicts in U.S. history, was chopped down this week . Walter White, of the N.A.A.C.P., reported first that more than 100 African-Americans were killed, later changing it to 250. J. ed. HELENA-WEST HELENA -- Hard on the banks of the Mississippi River, the World still turns, one page at a time. [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". The Elaine Massacre and Arkansas: A Century of Atrocity and Resistance, 18191919. Unions such as the Progressive Farmers represented a threat not only to the tenet of white supremacy but also to the basic concepts of capitalism. Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Massacre of 1919. Brough, who had ridden on the train with the troops and accompanied them on a march to the Hoop Spur area. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.28. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [78] About 100 men remained behind on the hill, pinned down by Union fire. Differing interpretations of Holmes' order to attack at daylight resulted in Brigadier General James F. Fagan's troops attacking Battery D unsupported, and Major General Sterling Price's attack against the Union center was made after Fagan's had largely fizzled out. Little Rock: Parke-Harper Publishing Company, 1925. Grif Stockley For more information, contact 501-918-3025 orcalsfoundation@cals.org. Omissions? Stockley, Grif, and Jeannie M. Whayne. Enraged citizens fired at the bodies of the dead negroes as they rode out of Helena toward Elaine.. Despite dawn beginning to be visible in the sky, Price misunderstood Holmes' order to attack at daylight and held back his troops, until Holmes came over to explain his orders. [97] Vicksburg had surrendered on July 4, and the Confederate garrison at Port Hudson, Louisiana fell within a week. [38] Either at 3:30 am[29] or shortly after 4:00 am, Fort Curtis fired a warning shot, alerting the Union defenders to the Confederate approach. This was murder on the part of the white population. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. I have been trying to close a chapter in my family history. One African-American, William Pickens, described the region as the American Congo. Elaine, though an isolated plantation region, was part of the broader social upheaval following World War I that came in the form of massive strikes and racial confrontations, both at home and abroad. Further Deep South states seceded early in the next year, forming the Confederate States of America. The decision by the justices was aided by two white men involved in the massacre who reversed their previous testimonies. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). On November 5, 2019, the Elaine Twelve were memorialized on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail in Little Rock. The Elaine Massacre was by far the deadliest racial confrontation in Arkansas history and possibly the bloodiest racial conflict in the history of the United States. Although the posse encountered minimal resistance from the black residents of the area around Elaine, the fear of African Americans, who outnumbered whites in this area of Phillips County by a ratio of ten to one, led an estimated 500 to 1,000 armed white peoplemostly from the surrounding Arkansas counties but also from across the river in Mississippito travel to Elaine to put down what was characterized by them as an insurrection. On October 1, Phillips County authorities sent three telegrams to Gov. For the next five years, the cases of the Elaine Twelve were mired in litigation as Murphy and Jones fought to save the men from death. Little Rock, AR. Johnson, J. Chester. Black guards returned the fire, killing a white agent of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Estimates have ranged from 25 to 853, the latter from an Arkansas Gazette reporter who named no source. [52] The two Union cavalry regiments were holding a position behind a levee. The account that best captured the perspective of the sharecroppers came from Ida Wells Barnett, the legendary anti-lynching crusader and journalist.
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