Читать книгу Freedom Facts and Firsts - Jessie Carney Smith - Страница 67

In the summer of 1919, black sharecroppers and tenant farmers in the area of Elaine, Arkansas, organized to receive fair wages for their labor in response to suspicions they were being cheated by white landowners. They created the Progressive Farmers and Householders Union (PFHU) and secured the services of a white attorney to negotiate on their behalf. On September 30, whites from the Missouri-Pacific Railroad fired on blacks attending a union meeting in a blatant attempt to disrupt and discourage the activities of the PFHU. The blacks returned fire, killing two whites; hundreds of other armed whites gathered to seek revenge. The white mob burned black homes and businesses. At least 200 blacks were killed during the riot, and 67 blacks were indicted for inciting violence. Hundreds of blacks who acted in self-defense were arrested by federal authorities, with many held in public school basements after jails were filled. Twelve black PFHU members were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. In 1921 NAACP lawyers intervened, and six convictions were overturned by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The cases of the six other blacks were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1923 that due process law was violated in convicting them, leading to their release in January 1925.

Fletcher F. Moon