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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday December 23, 1919
State of Arkansas Sanctions Legalized Lynching of Twelve Union Men
From The New Solidarity of December 20, 1919:
TWELVE UNION NEGROES SENTENCED TO GALLOWS
A wholesale judicial lynching threatens to be the outcome of the recent situation in Arkansas, where a protest on the part of a group of Negroes known as the Farmers Protective Union [Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America] has resulted in a general charge of conspiracy against all the Negroes of the community. One hundred and twenty-two have been brought to trial. On the flimsiest evidence, sixty have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to twenty-one years. After a trial lasting exactly seven minutes, twelve have been condemned to die. This hideous travesty upon justice has been well called “legalized lynching”
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From The New York Age of December 20, 1919:
NEW BRUNSWICK FOLK GIVE TO DEFENCE FUND
NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J.-Acting on the suggestion of THE AGE that a fund ought to be raised for the defense of the colored men convicted and sentenced to be executed in Elaine (Arkansas) riots, the citizens of this, town, through M. J. Preston, have raised and forwarded $68.25 to Miss Mary White Ovington, chairman of the executive committee. N. A. A. C. P.
[There follows a list of person who made donations (from $.25 to $5.00) to the Defence Fund.]
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
The New Solidarity
“Official Organ of the Industrial Workers of the World”
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Dec 20, 1919
https://libcom.org/files/The%20New%20Solidarity%20(December%2020,%201919).pdf
The New York Age
(New York, New York)
-Dec 20, 1919
https://www.newspapers.com/image/33454699
IMAGE
Arkansas Elaine Massacre, 12 Union Men Condemned to Die, IB Wells Barnett p2, 1920
https://archive.org/details/TheArkansasRaceRiot/page/n1
See also:
Tag: Elaine Massacre of 1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/elaine-massacre-of-1919/
Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Farmers_and_Household_Union_of_America
The Arkansas Race Riot
-by Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Chg, 1920
https://archive.org/details/TheArkansasRaceRiot
Arkansas Race Riot, Elaine, Hoop Spur, Sept 30 to Oct 3, 1919, IB Wells Barnett, 1920
https://archive.org/details/TheArkansasRaceRiot/page/n61
The Nation and The Survey weigh in:
From The Nation of Dec 6, 1919
– page 715-re Elaine Massacre of Sept/Oct:
“‘Massacring Whites’ in Arkansas” by Walter F White
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=bvE4AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA715
On November 2, the Negroes arrested were brought to trial in Helena, the county seat of Phillips County, where, because of the intense feeling, there was practically no chance of an unbiased and fair trial. According to the press dispatches, counsel for the defense was assigned by the court; no change of venue was asked; no Negroes were impanelled for jury duty (although Negroes outnumber whites four to one in Phillips County); no witnesses were called to testify for the defense. The first five defendants, charged with murder in the first degree, were jointly tried, the jury returning a verdict of guilty in exactly seven minutes after retiring, and the defendants were jointly sentenced to electrocution on December 27. In five days a total of twelve men were sentenced to death and eighty others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to twenty-one years. Gov. Brough on November 28 announced that he would postpone the executions to allow appeals to be filed in behalf of the condemned men. Unless the result of these appeals is a removal of the death penalty twelve Negroes will meet death, additional victims of America’s denial of rudimentary justice to 12,000,000 of its citizens because of their color.
From The Survey of Dec 13, 1919
p233- re Elaine Massacre by WF White:
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MoEbAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA233
Phillips county, in October, is relatively unimportant as an isolated case. As an example of the underlying corruption and injustice that will lead to further and more disastrous conflicts, it is of grave import. Unless there is immediate interference on the part of federal or state officials—and there is little hope of the latter—twelve Negroes will be legally lynched and eighty will continue to serve prison sentences in Arkansas, victims of America’s negligence and denial of common justice to men.
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Battle Hymn of the Republic – Odetta
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel
“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal”
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on