Transcripts For CSPAN3 1919 Elaine Arkansas Massacre 20240713

Up next, a discussion about the racially motivated 1919 elaine, arkansas massacre. Panelists contributed to the book. Part of the 2000 19 Southern Historical Associations Annual conference. 2019 welcome to new perspectives and sources on the elaine massacre of 1919. This is devoted to advancing our understanding of a horrific series of events that began just over 100 years ago in which africanamericans were hunted by a paranoid and enraged crowd of whites in the arkansas delta. I want to recognize the work of guy lancaster and helping to organize this panel. Unfortunately, he had to change his plans to join us and participate. All three of our scholars on this panel are contributors to a book edited by guy lanchester. We are shamelessly plugging that here. A century of atrocity and resistance, 18191919. Full disclosure. I am in there but this is not about me. I want to introduce our panelists. They will each present for 25 minutes. After that, i will spend a few minutes offering thoughts designed to generate discussion and then we will enjoy q a. We will go in the order of the program. First, matthew hills, a lecturer of history in the school of history and sociology at Georgia Institute of technology. Instructor in the department of history at the university of west georgia, the author of a lot of things including green backers, the former labor insurgency in the late 19th century south, arkansass gilded age, the rise and legacy of populism and workingclass protests. Pretty recent from the university of missouri. He coedited, reconsidering southern labor history, race, class, power. Is thee jones grant endowed professor of history at Arkansas State university. Her recent publications include, crossing the line, womens interracial activism in South Carolina during and after world war ii. Arkansas women, lives in times, coedited with gary edwards. Her current manuscript, which will be out with the university of Arkansas Press is called Better Living by their own bootstraps, rural black womens activism in arkansas, 19131965. Last but not least, Brian Mitchell teaches at the History Department at the university of arkansas at little rock. He has published multiple pieces on various aspects of africanAmerican History, also known for amassing tons of documents associated with the e lane massacre of 1919. He has given so many interviews lately it is hard for me to keep track of this. He is highly sought out for his expertise in these recently uncovered documents. He has been working with guy lancaster recently on a second of blood in their eyes. They have been working on that. That will be out in spring, 2020. The also has, i just learned, a graphic novel coming out on reconstruction leader oscar james dunn. Matthew will start with labor activism and africanamericans in arkansas. Charisse will start with the massacre. Brian mitchell, when the depths do not give up their dead, how primary sources are reshaping the debates on the massacre. Ok, so, ironically, for someone who earned a doctorate, i will read my paper without using powerpoint. About the paper, labor activism, thirdparty politics and africanamericans in arkansas. 1892 was the end of the populist era in arkansas. Shocked thecre nation but it would have been less shocking for those familiar with the history of Race Relations in arkansas since the civil war. Black farmworkers who tried to engage in collective bargaining have met violent opposition before. , there werefarmers deep roots in the state. The organization of labor in arkansas began after the civil war ended and almost medially, white oppression and resistance, union league, the sons of agricultural star, the agricultural wheel and the colored Farmers Alliance recruited and mobilized black arkansans during the decades following the civil war. Furthermore, after democrats w eaned the state from republican rule, many africanamericans participated in the struggle to third parties such as the greenback labour party, the union labour party. Sometimes in the ku klux klan, but usually in less formal policies or mobs frequently resort to violence and bloodshed to cross these efforts, as elsewhere in the south, arkansas democrats also implement it various disenfranchising measures during the early 1890s that disqualify the vast majority of black laborers for decades to come. Representedassacre decades of black activism and white oppression in the state, although it marked the end of neither. In the county where elaine is began right after emancipation. The union league came into arkansas at the same time and began mobilizing black amendments for voter registration, the Republican Party. There was an infamous incident that was a prelude to what happened in elaine on a smaller scale. A former slave named brian began organizing fellow former slaves in the county, reportedly assisted and encouraged by federal officers already occupying Phillips County. Small,lly, he formed a unnamed, Real Labor Union among his former slaves negotiating mostly with former masters. When they, organization could not get a deal, they start leaving the farms there working on, in many cases where there masters have been working. Slavesroup of former leave the plantations and form an independent farm colony on abandoned land. They basically took over as clause owners and operators. This is right after the civil war. Led by a man named bart, who later became the sheriff of the county, what happens is, this future sheriff and White Planters go onto this plot of land where brian and compatriots were organizing and operating as independent farmers and start killing them. By a himself is killed mob. Legendsdes after, local about his ghost haunting the swamp, supposedly. As far as i know, that is the First Episode of this kind of murderous white oppression of black activism in Phillips County. 5. 5 decades before the elaine massacre of 1919. Episode in no way ends activism. The Freedom Bureau keeps working until it is broken up in 1870. Later, thecades knights of labor organize africanamerican workers in Phillips County. The ball is already rolling decades before elaine. Gone aftereague was reconstruction. In0s, Greenback Party comes to arkansas. Nationally, it didnt amount to much in arkansas. It never elected a governor or congressman. Nevertheless, among africanamericans, greenback in arkansas and elsewhere, becomes important because essentially, by this point, Republican Party has already been scratched in arkansas and the Democratic Party has taken over. The Greenback Party in arkansas builds a biracial movement in the 1870s. In little rock, a former slave and union leader is elected to the state legislature as a representative from little rock. The greenbackers sweep elections. Half the candidates are africanamericans. You have them building a biracial line in little rock. The Greenback Party disappears by the end of 1870. State of0s, the whole native arkansas farm organizations are formed. The brothers of freedom, northwest. Initially these organizations were all white. At the same time, they are being organized, africanamerican farm groups are being organized as well. Monroe county, africanamerican farmers form the sons of the agricultural star. The same kinds of white organizations are being formed. 1886, they drop to the ,embership requirement nevertheless, all these chapters chapters, wheel segregated, they go to the same state meetings. You have white and black together for these agricultural meetings with a membership of 50,000 in arkansas by the 1880s. Suppose these farm groups were nonpartisan. They are all picking up where greenback left off, nominating candidates for local offices and state legislator. 1886, national comes to arkansas. [indiscernible] they are massive in terms of their importance. A labor strike, the great Southwestern Railroad strike, 1886, supposedly begins in texas, it is called the southwest reich, south midwest reich strike. In arkansas, 3000 real workers participate. Most of them are white. Some africanamericans. That plays as a impressive biracial coalition. That is then crushed. Court junctions issued against the strikers. The strike is over in two months in arkansas and everywhere else. Ends,1886, after that there was a plantation strike just south of little rock. In this case, 40 africanamerican farmhands who had been on organized, and organizer came in and organize a local chapter and these 40 hands, including some women, go on strike for wage rises. This is an allblack workforce organizing striking in the heart of jim crow era. Surprising, is, not the white sheriff of the county, robert worthington, who had already crossed the railroad strike, he comes in with deputies and 5 a. M. In the morning, they come to the door of the leaders. The deputye door, shoots him with a Double Barrel shotgun. He seriously wounded him. He survived ok, basically. When news gets out, 250 africanamericans come to the farm. I will read the quote from the new york times. The county is on the verge of one of the bloodiest race conflict that has occurred since the war. White law enforcement, all these black men, some armed [indiscernible] send aknights of labor white and African American leader to the plantation to keep the peace. The strike failed. Bloodshed was averted. Then was said to have committed outrages. Pretextuld serve as a for organization among them. The planters in the white sheriff were trying to provoke a bloodbath. An opportunity to stamp out black labor. With the arrival of black americans in the community, white law enforcement, the strike failed. It does not turn out like 1919. In the wake of the strikes, biracial organizations with Whites Holding most leadership positions, the membership is biracial. They start moving to third party politics. [indiscernible] they dont really have a party banner. The crushing the barrel strike, the railroad strike, that have involved white and black workers and the plantation strike, these were helping to build a biracial antidemocrat coalition. 1886, they dont amount to a lot but it is worth noting in the district that included the langley, atle rock, reverend, and a knights of labor leader, he ran for congress 42 pendently and received of the vote districtwide. 56 in the county where the strikes were held. There was a lot of biracial support. Therea third party is called the Union Labor Party. Inwas born in cincinnati 1887 by 300 labor farmers. It never really amounts to much but in certain states and in the southwest, kansas, arkansas, texas, they do. In arkansas, there is already this movement that welcomes new labor parties. 1890, both elections, the Union Labor Party had democratic elections that allowed violence and fraud and ballot box that, Union Labor Party had captured control of the arkansas government in 1890. The whole time this is going on, you have chapters of the agricultural wheel, knights of labor organizing throughout the delta, petitioning for reductions of land, tenant sharecropper percentages. It is a synergy between organizations and the thirdparty, the Union Labor Party. It is not like fraudulent elections didnt happen in still,e but the south they are more violent in the south then most parts of the country. 1890, there are charges of africanamerican men and union labor strongholds being beaten, whipped, as many as 20 being murdered in the 1888 elections in arkansas. A white candidate for congress named john clayton, brother of a former governor, he ran for congress with agricultural wheel support and africanamerican support. He was murdered by democrats. [indiscernible] there was another man heavily involved in the thirdparty effort of this period and he actually wins. The president of the state agricultural wheel, he won a district election in northeast arkansas, delta area. Managed to not get killed and take his seat. The lengths to which white arkansas democrats would go, they think nothing of whipping and murdering black men. If a white man is bold enough to challenge them, he might be murdered. Arkansas, two episodes. The democrats, [indiscernible] a lot of historians have written about arkansas before i came along. Democrats stole the election in 1890, but it got so violent because they could not keep winning that way. 1891, the Democratic Legislature passed a law. [indiscernible] oft it did was move control election machinery away from the counties into the state legislature. Democrats of course. At that time, one out of every seven white men in arkansas was registered in the census bureau. Year, the colored Farmers Alliance was spreading across the south, starting to organize mostly black farmers, black sharecroppers, tenant farmers. Fall, 1891, before cotton picking season, the white president of the alliance, a man from texas named richard humphrey, proposed a Regional Strike of Cotton Pickers demanding wage rise. They were still striking for one dollar per day. This never really gets off the ground. Lee county, arkansas, not far from Phillips County, it kind of goes back, the groundwork that had been done in this part of arkansas, the Freedom Bureau had been active decades ago, the knights of labor were involved in lee county, mid1880s. I have never been able to get to the bottom of it. Knights of labor were still there when the strike happened. It is one of the few places where it comes off. An organizer from memphis named ben harrison comes in, organizing black Cotton Pickers and the rest of the south, the strike is ignored. In leethought county, the strike actually happened. The short version. Within two weeks, it evolves into a bloodbath. First the strikers start rating plantations, violence breaks out, the strikers kill a White Plantation manager. At that point, the Phillips County sheriff forms a posse and the strike leader and strikers are captured and murdered in cold blood. They are not arrested. Murdered on the spot. Tragedy of thein farmer labor movement. It was a biracial movement. After the election reform law, most black men are not voting and the way that Cotton Picker strike was demolished, after that there is no organization to fill in the void the agricultural wheel had held. Biracial farm labor activism in arkansas the 1892, likerty, everywhere else, it was too late. The Union Labor Party had been the populist party in arkansas. After the election reform laws, voter turnout drops 20 . Black in calhoun county, men showed up armed determent vote anddetermined to white officials killed 4 on the spot. 1892, postcivil war era, the nadir of biracial farm activism in arkansas. I will be the last sentence and then sit down. To assert their rights as workers and citizens during reconstruction and the decades that followed, they should not be considered to have been fruitless or in vain. With a perspective of hindsight, the efforts of brian, newly emancipated black farmhands in Phillips County, the knights of labor in polasky county and elsewhere in the state among black farmhands and laborers and the Cotton Pickers leak in lee county, all pave the way for later activism in the state. Similarly, the efforts of the progressive farmers and Household Union of america, which continued the legacy of earlier protest movements met with violent oppression in Phillips County, 1919, should not put failure upon these efforts. They helped paved the way for the southern tenant farmers union. [indiscernible] became one of the founding members not only did the stfu, revive greenback efforts in arkansas and elsewhere, it often met with violent oppression. Provided a, it significant legacy for the Civil Rights Movement that followed decades later. Many younger members went on to become leaders in the local Civil Rights Movement in arkansas. The participation of africanamericans in the labor movements in the 1890s should be seen as having laid the foundations for the 20th century. Ofa lot of ways, the roots elaine can be found in the populist era. [applause] good afternoon. Good afternoon. The 1919 elaine massacre was precipitated by rural africanamericans through their demands for improved Economic Conditions and Human Dignity at a time in the south and nation determined they were unworthy of both. What has been left out of the , the struggle for Human Dignity, is womens experiences and activism during and after the elaine massacre. Women witnessed and experienced racial terrorism of the massacre as did their children. Men,more so, then black rural black women were impoverished and were almost never granted the considerations or protections extended to white women regardless of social or economic background. What has not been explored is the extent to which women challenged southern racial violence through the individual and in this case i will be talking about garnet, the antilynching crusader and collective efforts. They did this through such organizations as the Arkansas Association of colored women, the National Association of colored women and the national advanced, association for advancement of colored people, the naacp. In essence, what i will talk about, the gendered considerations of the terrorism of the elaine massacre and resistance to rural reform from the perspective of women who lived through the years leading up to, during and following the travesty of justice. Ok. These are some of the areas i will be talking about. 1919, rural blacks gathered at church in Phillips County for a meeting of the progressive farmers and Household Union of america to discuss suing their landlords for their fair share of the cotton crop. Women were there. County,e, phillips smaller image of elaine. Women were there. Women like mason where there with her children, also present miller, wife of jim miller. Rural blacks have always been about the business of organizing and engaging in cooperative economics. One of the things you will thate on this slide is when it says the progressive farmers and Household Union of america, it also says, let me fastforward a little, it also says, the National Need business businesstional negro league. Africanamericans have been organizing to protect economic interests at least since the turn of the 20th century when the established the colored Businessman League of america in 1903. This kind of action was not unusual and critical at a time when black people deemed it necessary and even crucial to protect themselves from those who thought to undermine their compliments. The idea, as matthew said, was not new and neither was female membership. Is me try to forward, this millers involvement in the organization. This is what i was saying about the progressive farmers and Household Union of america. The Business Aspect to all of this. I want to show you next, moving ahead to this slide, this is her membership card. As you can see, if you can see it and i apologize if you cannot, she was approximately 24 years old when she joined. She was already the mother of three children. As you can see from her responses to questions, and in fact the questions themselves, there was little that was radical about the organization except for the fact that africanamericans dared to advocate for themselves in jim crow america. If you can see this, you would notice she was asked about the state of her health and she answered unhealthy, which was a common occurrence among rural black women who lacked access to health care and suffered as a result of food insecurity. Includedmbership also this woman, born in louisiana in 1878. She and her husband were fairly well off compared to other members. This is important. It disrupts what we have traditionally thought about rural black folks. That is that they possess nothing. That is not true. They owned their own land, they farmed 120 acres and hired other africanamericans to labor for them. The relative independence was one of the things that made them particularly dangerous. Black Financial Independence angered whites. Ed,night of september 30, did not want to attend the meeting. His wife, lulu insisted. She, like many rural black women were often the force behind their husbands. When the violence ensued at the church in 1919, most accounts focus on the shootout between men and not on the fact that women were there and they were a source of concern as well. White people lived in fear of armed black people, men and women alike. I think you should be able to see what i mean in this article. When people like mason, when the shootout occurs, she is shot in the arm. Quite literally she has to run for her life. Another woman who had to run for her life was named sally giles. She was particularly concerned after her son, albert, was arrested for the murder of james ar in of phillips cabin Phillips County plantation owner. They had long engaged in selfdefense, as in the case of ed, who left and returned home to grab his weapon. They underestimate the extent to which women were willing to go to protect their homes and families. For example, when lulu, when men came to her house to arrest her husband, she asked, what are you going to do with us women . The risk they assume when they are arrested, lulu was arrested as well, so was her husband, when he went on the run. I want you to know, they had some fairly terrible experiences. When lulu was arrested, she was there for four weeks, in prison, along with other black women, forced to perform hard labor and sleep on concrete floors. When she returned home, white people had ransacked her home and stolen all of her worldly possessions. It is clear it was never just about black people allegedly writing. It was more about the fact they had defied stereotypes and challenged white supremacy. If you can see this once again, i apologize if you cannot, it talks about how they found women who had weapons in their skirts or in their stockings or what have you. They are concerned about these women carrying weapons as well, not just black men. Another black woman, mary moore, was driven from the farm where she and her husband worked. We were whipped, as well as men. Black women could not expect their gender to protect them from violence. When she is finally able to return home after her release to collect her familys belongings, she found her house had been vandalized and in fact the people who stole the goods from her house threatened to kill her. Ok . We should never allow black womens victimization to hide their strength and tenacity. In another example, lulu black, a mother of four children was dragged outside her home and asked if she was a member of the union. She answered in the affirmative until the mob it would better the condition of the colored people and they worked. It would help them get what they work for. They did not like her answer so they beat her within an inch of her life and carried her to jail. Whenfinal example, hundreds of africanamericans were arrested in the aftermath of this, 500 troops were dispatched to put down the insurrection, as it was called among other things, Molly Simmons was among them. She was from parkdale, arkansas, ashley county, 22 years old. She had attended college. She told officers she had been composing and lecturing for the uplift of her race. This was a popular refrain among black Women Leaders at the time. When asked, she denied advocating social equality because she knew better. I dont have any way to substantiate this. It is likely simmons said this to avoid physical and Sexual Violence. Rate and sexual going bitterly rape and sexual vulnerability was common in womens lives. In laymans terms, for many people during this time of history, it was difficult to imagine black women were rapable. This concern is shared by a number of africanamerican leaders. Camp morrisas camp, or ec morris as he was known, that one point he was president of the National Baptist convention and he was a leader in the arkansas Republican Party and a member of the commission on Race Relations and he lambasted shoulders who had raped or sexually assaulted black women during or after the massacre. They are not just murdering people. They are raping and sexually assaulting black women. I would talk about ida b wells burnett. I want to say a few things about her role in the aftermath of the elaine massacre. As you can imagine, what madened, it is elaine, news around the country. Women activists, individually or through organizational affiliations, wrote letters demanding justice for the men who had been sentenced to death and those that had received long sentences. In at least one organization, known as the National Equal Rights league, a Human Rights Organization founded 1864, members, which included people like ida b wells burnett, wrote to the governor of arkansas and asked for a stay of execution for the men. Much involved in this organization. She was the former vice president. Ida andant to point out other well educated middleclass black women were members of organizations like the negro fellowship league. This organization had been founded to help africanamericans who had been imprisoned as a result of other racial malaise that happened around the same time, in fact even before elaine. A little about her, she was born 1862, mississippi, no stranger to Racial Injustice and violence. She had challenged segregating seating on the ohio and chesapeake railroads 71 years before rosa parks challenged the buses in 1955, montgomery, alabama. She also challenged racism and Sexual Violence through her memphis newspaper, the free speech and headlight, and doing so led to her paper being destroyed and she was banned from being from returning to the south. They threatened to kill her. She did return to the south. 1920, disguised as a little old woman, she came to arkansas to meet with the men, families. She published at her own expense a pamphlet called the arkansas race riot. This is an example of her connections around the country, talking about this case, soliciting support for the men in arkansas. This is a des moines iowa newspaper. This news really makes it around the country. Here is a final example from a newspaper in seattle, washington. She publishes a pamphlet after meeting with these folks down in arkansas. Again, i apologize if you cannot see any of this but i will highlight a couple things. One of the thing she noted in the document is black women had to pay the jailer one dollar. Most of them did not possess this money, in order to see their loved ones but she was impressed that they were bolstered by their Christian Faith and often sang and prayed to alleviate suffering as much as possible. Chicago,returned to she continued to use her many organizational affiliations to assist the men and families she had met in arkansas. I just put a few images of the pamphlet up because what has not been talked about at all is how much she talked to women and how much they told her about their experiences during this, the fact that they had lost everything they owned but also the fact that they had the tenacity to go back and see what they could reclaim under the threat often of death. This is Available Online if anyone wants to take a look. This is the last page, where you see here, she publishes on her own dime. It came out in 1920. Efforts to aid what became known as the elaine 12, also came from black club women, particularly those who were members of the Arkansas Association of colored women, aacw. 1905, established affiliated with the National Association of colored women, which still exists, both do as a matter of fact. Aacw was founded, 1836. They rallied, just like organizations nationwide, challenging racial violence during and after world war i. 1919, black arkansans establish the citizens defense fund, 1920, the organization raised 10,400 to aid the elaine 12. 1000 of that came from little rock based club women. Black club women also discussed what had happened at elaine at the biannual meeting in 1920. Let me flip. Quickly. That is where they talk about the money they had raised, the 10,000 and black club women have contributed to that. When they go to their meetings, they are talking about it at these meetings as well. You have people representing arkansas, black womens clubs ywca,ll over the country, in one example, a woman named mary jackson, the industrial secretary, she visits the men in arkansas and requests a letter be sent to africanamerican attorneys, jones, who has taken over the case to support efforts to have the men released. , we know thatmple africanamerican women members of the aacw are at the meeting, so this is molly spate, my left, youre right, the first president of the association of colored women, henrietta carolina, another woman, i dont have an image of, her name was lady obryant, she was from arkansas. At this point, she headed the naacp, arkansas chapter of the antilynching crusaders. This was an organization founded 1922 to raise money to support antilynching bills. When henrietta carolina speaks at the meeting as a representative of the aacw she advocates for strong plea for the condemned men awaiting execution for rioting in elaine, arkansas she was urging all members of the club to write to the arkansas governor asking him to commute the sentences to life in prison. In a final example i would like to show you, the antilynching crusaders, so each state had its own representative. Lady obryant was the representative for arkansas. Another example of womens collaborative efforts around the country, a black woman president of the kansas city naacp, writing to the arkansas governor as well. Blacks final example, women and naacp leaders often communicated with each others as part of the activism to end racial violence. In particular, they corresponded with mary white ovington, a white suffragist and naacp cofounder. She was also a board member and former executive secretary. She adamantly supported efforts to secure justice for the elaine 12. 1921, she spent 250 of her personal money, sending that to little rock to aid the arkansas work. She used her nationwide personal connections to raise money for the cause, further corresponding 1921,ly with jones, who, had become principal counsel for the case. They wrote to each other. In one of the letter she wrote remarkable work which you have done in these arkansas cases. This has been one of the most important cases relating to the negro in the history of the United States. I am sure we must feel very happy to have been able to take a part in it. Responsen see, jones amicably and tells her her ongoing support gave the men new so more versus dempsey was settled and prison men were released into their custody between 1924 and 1925. But what does this cost them and their families . With few exceptions, they lost all of their worldly possessions to white people who stole them and place them in their own homes. They literally saw their possessions in other peoples homes. They received nothing for their crops, but we mustnt overlook world black womens resilience and resistance, despite the atrocities they entered. Endured. Even though it cost them dearly, they refused to be silent. Their engagement in political and economic intricacy drew their membership in shuanizations like the ps are important. Genderace and organizations like the naacp garnered National Support for the elaine 12 through the leadership and generosity of national Women Leaders like ida mary wellsnett and earning mary wells elvington. Rural black women and women in particular have been more nuanced and complex than their political and Economic Conditions suggest. From activism shifts away active racism that affected toir lives and allow them raise the foundation for the next generation of rural black women activists. Thank you. [applause] hello. I came to my study of the elaine massacre during hurricane katrina. I was quite literally tempest assed, so i came to arkansas a newer lenient new orleani an that was fleeing the hurricane. That was around the time i read blood in their eyes, and it left me with a number of questions. Do, i beganou trying to fill out or figure out why there were these holes in the research. I started by assessing what we then i began looking for the things that were absent. In looking for those things that were absent, i did find a number of new documents. Documents shed on what happened at the massacre. There are certain things that we know now that we did not know prior to this research. One of the things that we know now is that the plantation owners, the planters were keenly aware of the Sharecroppers Union before the hoops bird shooting. Important, t is. Oops spur shooting the reason that is important, the officers that arrived at the Hoops Spur Church did so by accident, and they were having car problems. They can immediately stopped a few yards away from a well Hidden Church on the side of the assistance car road. Needing car assistance, they maintained they walked to the church, where they were fired upon. We also know that the Business Elite were getting reports from the membership, from spies within the membership about what was going on, who was attending the meetings, and where these meetings were being held. We know that the American Legion became, the local American Legion became the first posse used to take down the meetings, and we know who was arrested, so who was at the hoops spur meeting and how they were charged and how the American Legion was organized. Oh, sorry. Much of what we know comes from found in theetters collection or the archives of governor Henry Justin Allen of kansas. Those who have read blood in their eyes or on the lips of allenemembers that henry gives refuge to the founder of the union. In a drawnout dispute that will end up in federal court, alan will take the stand that he will not send Robert Lee Hill back to arkansas just to be executed. Maintains that is a general in the area, a general in the south, and he believes the case was totally unfair. I knew that we would have a lot of light here, so i know it would be very difficult to read the documents themselves, so i made transcriptions of what i thought was important in the documents, if anyone would like to see the entirety of the documents i would be happy to send them copies of them. But what i wanted to show you about some of these letters that go back and forth between allen,r allen and e. M. President of the business association, is the revelations that come from these letters. E. M. Allenwas that says that debt peonage does not exist in Phillips County, and the sharecroppers and philips county live a life that is without worry and prosperous. So he paints a narrative that is fictional. It does not exist. When did the whites learn of the union . Allen will also confess that there were good negroes within the union who reported back to elaine what was going on and who was attending the meetings. Ok. That is a transcription of let me back up one. That ithe Big Questions walked away with when i came across these letters is, ok, would it be possible to figure out who the spies were . Backtrack and find some historical evidence that would point out who were some of these possible spies. There were a number of clues that alan left in his letters, that there wases a small cadre of friendly negro es not in sympathy with the movement, for stan, as he says, by duress from the Union Members that reported back to him everything that was going on. Thought it was going to be impossible to isolate any , becausels this would have been something it would have tried to hide, and then i came across something in a newspaper about an informer named Isaiah Murphy. Isaiah murphy does the impossible. If you have read the federal reports and the reports of the officers, particularly colonel jinks, the commanding officer, the town was filled with mobs of white men all carrying guns. Somehow Isaiah Murphy is not shot by any of these individuals. In fact, when the train arrives with soldiers, he greets the and he turns himself in, identifying himself as a good negro. A stockade,ken to he is taken right before the Business Elite and the governor of the state. Appearance he makes before the met the press is brought out. Instead of telling them that he had been in hoops spur and was shot at by Police Officers, he maintained there was a revolution afoot. And he identified the members of the union as participants in this revolution. Now, that is interesting. Him is morepens to interesting than that. He is allowed to go out and smoked a cigarette. Isle smoking a cigarette, he shot in the back by one of the soldiers. Could not take the stand again, he could not recant, he could not be cross examined, yet his account becomes the basis for this idea of a revolution being a foot. Foot. Ing a is there an alternate theory about hoops spur . There is. This letter was found in a yale,ction at and it says dear mr. Jones it goes on lawyer to say there is a witness in kansas keep in mind, kansas is where sanctuary had been offered to look Robert Lee Hill there is a witness in kansas who maintains that plantation owners sent out agents that surrounded the church and began firing in. The Police Officers that were killed at hoops spur, they maintained, arrived late and the car was mistaken by the men who surrounded the church and was fired upon, by the other White Plantation agents. So to me, this makes a lot more sense than the notion of a car breaking down conveniently from as of yards away secret meeting. The American Legion involvement as been puzzling, because for long time, people knew the American Legion was involved, but did not know how the American Legion became involved with the event. I began tracing the American Legion involvement after discovering a deputy by the name of a. F. James. James is important because there are two members that flee and are not immediately captured after hoops spur. Ware,rst being ed the second being a sharecropper, will flee to new orleans and live there under false names before being caught and turned for a reward. The deputy sent to arrest them is a deputy by the name of a. F. James. Censusars in the 1910 and appears as a jailer in the 1910 census, but what is important about him is when he goes to new orleans, he is interviewed. In his interview, he provides an account of how the men in the American Legion came to participate in the massacre, and he maintains that he and another officer went out immediately after the shooting and discovered there were far too many Union Members for them to arrest alone. They made their way back to helena, and in the court at helena, they will deputize 75 American Legion members. The 75 legion members that they deputize will then go to the armory and be provisioned with weapons, and go back out to where the hoops spur shooting occurred and arrest the Union Members that are still there. Quite by surprise, i guess all of us have hobbies one of my hobbies is to take in at takes and old, dirtys places for records. Working on the elaine massacre, i spent a lot of time in Old Buildings around helena and in a lane in a looking atelaine, closets. Was theg we discovered minute book, the original minute book of the American Legion post. In it, it describes the post in action. The post in action matches the story of ef james. Es. A. F. Jam they were called by the sheriff and deputized in the courthouse, and then went out to elaine and captured the men who were involved. But that is not the ending of the post involvement. In other minutes, other points in the minutes, i find out that the committee of seven, the men who are in charge of investigating the massacre, are members of the post. When the sheriff dies, the post that only they put pressure on the people forming the committee, the governor, that only men from the post be allowed to replace him. So they investigate themselves. If this werent enough, following the massacre, the state will convene its first , staten legion conference for the American Legion between october 8 and ninth of 1919. It is at this meeting that they will restrict africanamericans from participating in the American Legion out of fear that they could use this as a base of organization for future violence. What do we know about the Union Members . For the better part of a century, we had only known the of Union Members that were arrested because they ran in the gazette and local newspaper. They ran in the gazette and local newspaper without names. Another discovery made in the last couple of years were the indictment books, the original indictment books of those arrested immediately following the hoops spur shooting. Give us the names of all of the Union Members who are arrested. From that point, we turn to prison records. There were a series of different types of prison records. This first prison record is called a descriptive record, and it tells a great deal about who were the members, from their height and weight to physical scars, tattoos, whether they were smokers or nonsmokers, and this allowed us to create a demographic of what the average union urges event was union participant was like. We were also able to pull out the prison records from where they were housed, giving us more information about where they were from, the religion they were practicing or not, whether they were a smoker or nonsmoker, whether they had family, where their family was from, their childrens names. Like i said, this would allow us to figure out what the composition of the union was, who was more likely to be in the oron, someone from arkansas someone who had possibly just moved into the region from somewhere else . After figuring out the names of the Union Members, i decided in should dohat my class a series of public history projects. One of these public history projects was try to fill in the gaps in the lives of these elaine 12. What happens to the elaine 12 after they were released from prison . The narratives that were created were submitted to the encyclopedia of arkansas, and money we began raising money to try to put markers out at the burial sites of all of the 12. V. Dempsey case is named after frank moore. Buried inat he was little rock, arkansas at the National Cemetery. Following his release from prison, he went to chicago, where he worked as a Security Guard for a real estate company. Shippeddied, he was back and buried at the National Cemetery in little rock. Is j. E. Knox, and he is also buried in little rock, at haven of rest, the same cemetery that jones is buried in. Dr. Jones branch spoke about ed and lulu ware. We were able to find them in st. Buried in thee cemetery there, and hopefully this spring we will be placing a marker at that cemetery. Biggest question i get when i speak is, what happens to the dead . Of you put accurate estimate how many dead there were, and have you identified any names of the dead . That took us to another class project. One thing that has been missing in arkansas for Phillips County are death certificates. They have been missing for at least 50 years. No one knew what happened to them. The process had been when a coroner retired, he took his records with him. There was this gaping hole. Obituarygo to the index, you discover for 60 years, there has not been a black death because the helena world did not record the deaths blackcks or take the obituaries. There is a gaping hole when it comes to black deaths in Phillips County. Summer, ier the discovered the death certificates were mistakenly inadvertently placed in the corners families funeral home familys coroners funeral home record. Although i do not believe that these records accurately depict the number of people who died in werelaine massacre, we able to identify a few new names of individuals. Some of these names are corroborated by other documentary sources, Calvin Miller would be one of the s that is described by ida b wells, when she says the Miller Family was killed. Was a 32yearold laborer, and it merely says that he died of hemorrhage. Doesnt give any other details. That is a good one. That is one that was a lot of information on it. This is one of the famous johnstone brothers, the Four Brothers that are massacred after the elaine massacre, during the elaine massacre. This one has even less information, identifying they died of gunshot wounds and their , andere shipped upon nothing more. Another question i get is where do we go from here . I like to leave researchers with a list of questions they might take up in their research or they might work on their students. One of the resources that was discovered was the fact that there was a Motion Picture taken during the massacre. Photographer drove down from little rock. He was intrigued by the fact there was this massacre taking place, and he recorded footage. He then sold his footage, and we have not found it. So out there somewhere there could possibly be footage of the elaine massacre. Leroy johnstone was a returning world war i veteran. He had served in the 169th infantry. Thatof you will identify as the Harlem Health fighters harlem hellfighters. If you look at where it says wounded, you can see that his record was changed from severely wounded to slightly wounded. This anomaly puzzled me a great deal, and going back and looking at his service record, i realized that no medals were awarded to leroy johnstone. Over that summer, i worked on posthumously having those metals posthumously awarded to the family of leroy johnston. With the assistance of congressman french hill, i was not only able to get the records awarded to the family, but french hill started House Resolution, and that House Resolution eventually became law. There will be a commission established in the coming year to evaluate all the records for nonwhite that participated in world war i, in hopes of identifying people who earned awards but were not effectively awarded the awards. This is probably one of the more interesting discoveries, and it came from a newspaper called the toby complains to become a plainsstealer. The most conservative estimates are 15, the liberal estimates are 800. I have been asked, is there a logical explanation that might this vast chasm theren these two numbers . Is one possible scenario that very few people have looked at, and that is that win blacks were placed under curfews, many of them possibly snuck away and left and were thereby counted as dead when they actually fled. The article comes from andka plains dealer, identifies a large amount of phillipso fled from county who had arrived there, indigent, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The group is some 200 individuals. Classoping that a future or possibly one of your classes might take a look at this population the records that exists there and the family members that may still be in , and look in topeka at the oral histories, why they decided on topeka and whether they brought any records back with them. Ill is praise my students who isk on these projects, this one of my graduate classes that worked on public history projects relating to the elaine massacre. On can see Robert Whitaker my left, youre right, riffs stokley, and sheila walker, who is the greatniece of the milligan brothers, of the giles giles,rs milligan albert giles. We created the Digital Index for the Arkansas State archives. I will leave it there. Thank you very much. [applause] when i consider the work of my colleagues here on this am, like you probably, struck by the deep roots of what happened that elaine, and the of those roots as well, along timeline in the past involving lots of different types of people, some of whom are not usually brought forward in the records. Those roots, i think we should think of them in both terms of resistance to oppression, but oppression itself. It is one of the striking things that comes to my mind, concepts morality, economic interests, Financial Independence. I think the legacy of what happened that elaine is going to continue to be a longrunning one and abroad one as well. Those are some of the things that i consider when i think about the work that these scholars are doing. What i would like to do is open the room for questions for our panelists, and because we are recording, we would preferred that you use the microphone, even if you think you dont need it, we prefer the microphone since we are recording the session. If you could give your name before you ask the question so our panelists can engage you fully. Go ahead. This was just wonderful, thank you all so much. Sarah wilkerson freeman, Arkansas State university, and i wanted to say, brian, i am sorry that the catastrophe brought you to arkansas, but you are much welcome and perhaps there was a reason. It is such a pleasure to see these new documents emerging. 20 years ago, i worked with my undergrads to create an elaine website, which you might have run into with all kinds of articles, especially from local papers and the crisis. Arkansas racee riot, ida b wells. I want to make sure you are aware of that website, and now i can add your website to what my students are using for their capstone papers, as my 18yearold used this information. One of these things that is in these articles is an idea that these railroad agents were clem the bootlegger, and that is how they ran across the Hoops Spur Church and all that. What i wondered about in terms of where other records might be, the early bureau of investigation, because it was supposed to be really involved at that point, was the issue of prohibition and bootlegging. And obviously, the railroad agents. By the american was also essentially in many ways a kkk American Legion was also essentially in many ways a kkk, there was a huge crossover, especially in mississippi and arkansas. We never really hear much about the kkk, particularly involved in a lane. Instead we hear more about the soldiers and all of that. I was wondering if you were ever able to figure out what was theg on with clem bootlegger, and if you have considered looking at those early federal papers that might be of interest, in addition to what was going on in the kkk and mississippi and arkansas . I believe that is directly for me. Did anyone else here come a result of a catastrophe . No maam, i think i am the only one. Thank you, sir. I have seen your database and studieshat arkansas institute, i have done a study with them, i have collected and digitized over 100,000 pages of documents. Many of them have not been used in any of the existing research. We are still trying to decide what to do with it. We need to figure out, get grant money to design something to house it. I really liked the digital archive that the university of chicago did for the red summer. I would like to do Something Like that with those records and provide them. And the federal records, the military federal intelligence records and the fbi records are there. I also most recently found out there was a congressional investigation that i do not have the records for that i will actually have to take a trip back to d. C. And see if i can find. The kkk connections, that seems to be on the kkk appears after, when the governor is not able to successfully execute the men, the kkk endorsed his opponents, mcrae. Mccrae becomes governor, and ironically, they had elected to make sure the executions happened, but he ends up being the person releasing them. But they do appear, not appear as an active force within, i have not seen them mentioned as an active force within the actual massacre itself. What you might find fascinating are the minute books. The minute books shed a lot of light on recreation in helena, and i had no idea. You are always told that minstrel shows were very popular in the american south, but they had a Standing Committee for minstrel shows, and they made lots of money. They made thousands of dollars from their minstrel shows, so it gave me an idea about what was going on and what they thought what they thought was amusing, what they did in their pastime. I think that might be another project that is quite interesting for students, to take a look at the minute books. The very same people that are participating in the massacre also bring the first boy scout troop, just months later, to helena. Bad anda of good and sort ofgood versus evil go back and forth. It is like a pendulum there. Themselves as a kind and benevolent association, but at the same time, they are committing these atrocities. More questions . I have one for all three of you. Im mark schulz from st. Louis university. We have been hearing how difficult it is to find access to mass murderers everything is deep down, covered up, and you found wonderful caches. Im wondering how you did the legworks access these amazing caches of documents, especially how you were able to search and get access to them. [laughter] sure. Would you like each panelist to talk about ok. Do you want to start . I will start. For me, since we were talking about rural people in world spaces, that is pretty much the research i do these days. So i just i kept seeing and hearing the name elaine, right, so i wanted to know more about it and how people were talking about it. Came up a lot in africanamerican newspapers in one way and in mainstream newspapers, and i remember seeing it when i was doing some research for something else, about the Arkansas Association of colored women and the National Association of colored women. There is a lot of information in those papers. I did not have to go to anyones attic to find it, but i had to look at the microfilm. I started doing this because, as you all know, when people Start Talking about the story, it is about what black men and white men do. If you are talking about black men in the rural south, you cannot have a good discussion unless you factor in women into the equation. I wanted to tell a different story and in terms of my research, i am very intentional about locating black women because they are almost always but people do nothing to include them in the story. Once i knew that was the story i was going to write, it was not difficult to find the information. Usually they mention them, but people have not written about them as if they have mattered, and i thought it was time to do that. All didnt either, but these reports were written down by people who were involved in them, whether they are in private collections or not published, asimply lot of these third parties and organizations, labor organizations have their own newspapers and publications in arkansas, sometimes not just in the south, but the National Congress had one in philadelphia. [inaudible] paper insh a philadelphia for laborers or farmers in washington, d. C. , so a lot of that was looking primarily at arkansass primary sources, and that was the whole you are not going to find these things in arkansas. Might [inaudible] the stories were there. They were does not arkansas sources. I always begin my research with the existing secondary writings, and what i tell my students to do is when you read list ofmake a questions, gaping holes that exist if you are going to do something, if you are thinking about doing a project. [inaudible] im sorry . [inaudible] ok, thats [laughter] gaping holeslot of in this project. I started looking at the and itse of the seven composition. I started looking at posses and seeing if there were records held by those families. I went to the helena museum, which had been a bastion of the elites, so it was maintained by these people who would have been the heads of the union or the heads of the business association. Initially i was told, there is nothing here about them. But a fortunate happenstance took place. We had a former graduate student that became the curator there, and we went out for he went to a symposium, and he was speaking, and we went out for , a little group of scholars with him. He said wow, that is really interesting. We have a lot of stuff from those families. I said, would you have a minute book. He said no, but we have a lot of junk in the attic if you want to and lookone saturday at it with me, we have been trying to organize things, i would love some help. Three of us loaded up in a car and drove from little rock to helena and worked all day and found all sorts of things that they thought they had lost or did not know that they had, and among those things was the minute book. With the indictment book found in the clerk of courts office, is the clerk of courts swamped like many, underfunded. I went to the office to see if there were any Court Records about the 12. They said, we have no idea what we have, but you are welcome to dig around in our closet. There were stacks of dust covered books. Among them is the indictment book. This insight and went all the way back to the territorial indictment book went all the way back to the territorial period and was just sitting dust covered on a shelf. We were able to take pictures, it had all the Union Members on it. Once we found out where Robert Lee Hill had fled and we began aboutg newspaper articles the governors reluctance to , i wanted to see what we could find in his collection and whether or not Robert Lee Hills attorney had a collection. We were able to find five letters written by hill in his lawyers collection, and hundreds of letters that were sent into governor alan, some praising him for defending the 12 or defending robert we hill Robert Lee Hill, and others admonishing him for not sending them back. Everywhere, i have been to missouri, looking through world war i records through black soldiers part icipation in the union. Once we had a list of people in the union, that of the double possibilities for other records. A lot of times you need that one record or series of key records and can start piecing the puzzle back together. Im becky howard. I have two questions for brian. Did you get a sense that johnstons record was targeted for alteration, or something that is being done to most black veterans . A number of type overs that i saw in other records. French hill and i talked about this particular record when i went to his office for assistance. He is a Veterans Affairs individual in his office. I asked, have you seen this a lot . He said many of the Service Records from world war i were burnt in a fire, so they are missing. To do to figure out his participation in the war was go to the unit records, which are in college park, and find out what the unit is doing at that time, who the officers are identifying is wounded, where they sent them to, when they rejoined the units. It took a lot of investigative tok, more than one archive piece together these identities. It will be really interesting once they form this commission and they actually spent time to look at these records to see how often that happened. I have looked at some for italian veterans in arkansas, and [inaudible] i have seen it in others too, but men were not that blatant. My other question, the group that goes to topeka. Could you maybe check to see if the brown family from the 1954 connection . There is a lay so much i can do. The past three years have been extremely busy for me. Topeka, iu said thought oh. I keep a running list of projects my students will do or work on collectively, and that is on the list. It is on the list. Hi, really fascinating. Gail murray from memphis. If you have been to a lane this year, they have had a number of events, and i would like a little in sight into how the planning for those events has gone and how complicated and ,ractious that might have been how the memories are there and how many people do not want stories told, and any light you might have on how things are now. I can talk about it, but you worked on a lot of the projects too. In as, i participated number of projects and i went down to a not for the marker dedication did you go to that . Yes. Large,what i saw, by and africanamericans, of course, are very much on board with this. Some of them are still a little skeptical because they have to live in Phillips County and elaine, and this is a climate where there are some people, ive had white students from elaine who have told me point blank that the people either number one had not heard about it, or the people they know have ell, why are we still talking about this . There is also a big corruptible uffle that theerf memorial is in helena and not elaine, so i think it depends on who you talk to. I know the events that i have attended in elaine have been extremely well attended. Right . Blackandwhite . And white. H black i do not know how many of these white people are from philips county, which is another thing. I know many of these families come from somewhere else. Who youits depends on talk to, because i know there are people who wish this would tainted history, why is this relevant, so on and so forth. I cannot understand how you arrive at that in conclusion that conclusion, but people are of mixed minds about it. Im convinced that the planning of this event will become a case study in shared memory in public space, because of the way it was handled. There were largely three groups. There was the elaine legacy group, elaine is one of the four communities in the United States. Then there was the memorial foundation, which was in helena, and it was largely funded by a very wealthy plantation owning family. The emphasis that each group took was very different. Wantedena Group Reconciliation without actually talking very much about the thatiduals and their roles he will played in the event. So everyone wanted to they outted healing, but with identifying who had participated. Then the elaine people wanted reparations, but without being armed. Identify who was without bodies harmed. Without bodies, it becomes very, very hard to do reparations. Becauseaying you you were left there, these old farms . Thewe repairing you because families suffered in the massacre . You have to be able to prove if descendent from one of the families killed. The group i was working with was largely centered out of little rock and there were writers and mers and the colors and stakeholders there to the Work Together as a unit, since we are coming up on the centennial. Someme point, there were points we can sit around the table and talk about, but there were these huge breaches quite often, and it revolved around reparations and the idea that felt as if they should have more control over the event itself. This is just something i just remembered when i went to the last event i attended down there, there was also this air of, they do not trust each other, right . One of the things i heard i remember this, but i did not think anything about it when i got in the area, the road was blocked off. You had to take a detour or whatever. I heard some people say at the intentional,is was to confuse people so they would get lost, turnaround and go home or whatever. There were people who were even there who were very suspicious of that. I do not know if that had anything to do with anything, but i heard a lot about it while i was there. I managed to make it down there, so i dont know. They were in very interesting discussions about where do we go to, ok, now regards we have these memorials are up, but what happens to elaine, what happens to the story . The governorasking of arkansas whether he will establish a commission, Something Like they have done in , that willryland actually go out and try to put in names and find the remains. There has not been an answer on that, however, the Governors Office said they are willing to work with us on the commemoration of a number of other racially violent incidents and make sure state markers are placed on those sites. I do think it is important that we form a commission, and the commission is empowered and funded in such a way that it can do a proper investigation. [inaudible] im from middle tennessee state. Ryan, first off, they give for justifying my decision to always say yes to beers with a researcher. I work on a lot of digital history projects that i try to bring to the classroom, with varying degrees of success. I am wondering how you organize that and actually go about it. Since it is all primary, it is sort of a trick. I will tell you what the catch is. The catch is, you do not want them to have a project where they dont find anything, right . This makes my summers very interesting. That means i have to do all the research and find stuff and pretend like i dont know where it is at and have leads where i have them go find the same stuff. So yes, my summers are spent doing research, like, every summer. Im on the road with my family, on the road with my kids, and on the road on the weekends by myself searching out this primary research so we will have projects for the fall. Is time consuming, but it has been very rewarding for the students. At the end of the class, there is some football some fulfillment to saying yes, i have made this contribution to arkansas history, a substantive contribution to this field of study. It allows us to showcase our department in a very positive light, so that is a big plus. Studentsproud of my and i think they do great work. Rebecca sharp, and my question is for matthew. Why arkansas . I did not know it was such a hotbed of radicalism. My first question, why arkansas and is this too far exceptionalism specifically . In some ways, arkansas is a very good distillation of southern populism coming up, because the southern populist party never really amounted to anything. Thats because in arkansas, the game was already over after 1891. Arkansas really had all the ingredients. Whites, africanamericans, railroads in immigrants who came to the United States from outside of the United States and in other cases, immigrants to the south. Experience with the rail unions, coal mines and the rails and western arkansas, bringing german and irish miners to arkansas. There is no simple answer to that, but part of that, like all southern states, you had a white population and the black population, groups coming out spontaneously from other parts of the united dates, even some from outside the United States, bringing with them ideas about labor unions and the economy and radicalism. One of them is little rock, the urban trade unions, the other is Sebastian County. You are looking at a litany of in arkansas, from brians infield all the way to the 1930s. [inaudible] it goes 1880s, the 1904,case, and in [inaudible] white miners driving all the africanamericans out of town. In many ways it is another but the ministry and who the ministries bring little rock becomes one side of that equation in the state, but so does Sebastian County and of course, the delta, there are more indigenous African Americans, but then you have some nice labor people coming in who are not from the south, but coming with National Ideas about economic reform and labor rights. I think all three brought activity, and that has led the state to be a center of unionbased activity. They do not always coalesce, but there is a statewide movement that is kind of a roller coaster, goes up and down, but arkansas from independent to the war, at least in the 1930s, keeps getting beaten down and coming back in this long traditional protest. Hi, my name is lauren thompson, and i teach right outside of st. Louis, missouri. I wanted to talk to you all since you are experts on race riots, how you feel about the term race riot. The reason i ask is because i have students of caller from students of color from st. Louis and chicago. When we talk about this, the students of color say oh, i do not know it was the white people when they hear race riots, they think of ferguson. Equate the shift between modernday protesting they believe africanamericans were guilty or it was a black on black community of people and when they learn the actual facts, they go wow, why not . It,those of us who teach how can we change the conversation and how we approached the race riots in this larger period of jim crow. If anything, what else could we the it so students and public could see it for what it is . Massacre. Massacre, yeah. White terrorism. We no longer refer to elaine as a race riot. Been discussed, the nomenclature, i would also like to say i go alongame line, way out of my way to make sure the discussion is not about black capacity. It pacitti. Pacivity these people were armed. Passive theree would be no massacre. They were just sitting there taking it. They might be out man or outgunned but they were always resisting. Its important to emphasize that. In, i would add to this discussion about language of right versus massacre. I have been advocating that we also phaseout discussion about Race Relations. This is not about people getting along. About systems of oppression and people reacting to those. Then they are passive there is no massacre. Its a power struggle. Is poorkansas, it whites and poor blacks. And the murder of john clayton being a classic example. There is no guarantee of personal safety. I am a reverend and native of arkansas. I want to thank you for your indepth presentation. I pastored in the delta. I can relate on several levels what you are saying. Forget, anyone who wants to locate elaine, i brought a map. This is it in relation to west memphis, jonesboro, little rock. Do you know of similar stories from arkansas that have not yet been fully exposed as you have done with the e line massacre . Of violence . Or resistance . Either or. Right now, we are looking at alake village story that is post reconstruction resistance by africanamericans that took place there. Were just starting to look at the primary source references for that. Trying to see if there are any records that have not been mind yet. I am hoping that something pans out. That might be a project in a year or two. That one seems like is going to take more fleshing out the and the elaine, arkansas narrative. Of the arkansas election of 1888, there was a paper written to the new york times. Theres a list of white democrats are committed massacres. Its amazing the arkansas gazette published it. The arkansas gazette denies the letter. The men were either been whipped or killed and there are 20 counties listed. I dont have time you have to read between the lines. The details are there. King and tested nevertheless the stories are there. To read andknow how interpret the old newspapers of the south. The basic stories are there. If its hard to find those stories, imagine how hard it is to find stories about violence and acted on women. At least one black woman who i have written a little bit about is very active in the organization. She is i think put in jail, beaten andf jail, later died in memphis and later died from that beating. Then there was a white woman social worker from memphis who was flogged as well but she lived and the black woman in toward the worst of the punishment. In talking about the farmers union, people tend to focus on the fact that it was interracial. But it was integrated rather than the fact that a lot of these people endured of violence because of their involvement in that. Lets thank our presenters one more time. Feel free to come and speak with them. [applause] sunday night at 8 00 eastern, American History tv on cspan3 looks back at the senate if the trial of president bill clinton which took place over five weeks in january and february, 1999. We are here today because the president suffered a terrible moral lapse. A marital infidelity. Not a breach of public trust, not a crime against society. It was a breach of the marriage vows. It was a breach of his family trust. It is a sex scandal. Nations past, watch the clinton impeachment trial sunday night at 8 00 eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Campaign 2020 buses traveling across the country asking viewers what issues president ial candidates should address. Candidate who will advocate for everyone regardless of how old they are, what kind of background that come from, what race or religion they are, their Sexual Orientation or gender may be. I feel like that has not been happening the past few years and we need to get back to a president that will advocate for everybody. Issues are social justice and what you plan to do to resolve the issues. Well and howue is it affects american politics and how money influences [indiscernible] that. Need help on my top issue is not a legislative issue. Rather an ethics issue read ethic local transparency is our Biggest Issue in washington and government in general. Something that they need to focus on is making sure the American Public knows whats going on because there are a lot of Committee Hearings and meetings that we cant know about that are regimental to our perception of politics. If the candidates would focus on being upfront about their views and once they do get into office, stating what is going on and allowing the American Public to be more involved in the American Progress that things would be smoother in washington. Voices from the road on cspan. This weekend, American History tv is joining our spectrum Cable Partners to showcase the history of indianapolis. To watch more video from the cities on our tour, visit cspan. Org cities tour. We continue with our look at the history of indianapolis. We are driving around downtown indianapolis with our guest from the Indiana State Museum. What is your role with the museum and what are we looking at today . Curator of social history at the Indiana State Museum which means i spend a lot of time doing research and in particular africanAmerican History. Today we are glad to visit the historical locations that help to tell the story of africanamericans in indianapolis. Why were africanamericans coming to indianapolis . Many africanamericaer