Ida B Wells Barnett – WE NEVER FORGET

Quote Ed Ware, Song fr AR Prison, Fall 1919, Elaine Massacre, Ida B p6

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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 18, 1921
Arkansas State Supreme Court Reverses Death Sentences for “Massacre Plot”

From The Crisis of January 1921:

ANOTHER VICTORY IN ARKANSAS

THE Supreme Court of Arkansas has held that discrimination against Negroes in the selection of both grand and petit juries is in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment and of the Civil Rights Act of 1875, and it has consequently reversed the decision of the lower court in condemning to death for the Elaine riots Ed Ware, Will Wordlow, Albert Giles, John [Joe] Fox, John Martin and Alfred Banks. This is the second time that the court has reversed the sentences of death passed on these Negroes.

Death sentences on six other Negroes which have been affirmed by the State Supreme Court will now probably be held up by the Governor until the present cases are decided.

Governor Brough has made every effort to hang these Negroes, even attempting to influence the court by newspaper articles in which he cited the various Arkansas organizations which were demanding their death.

[Photograph and emphasis added. Italic type removed.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Arkansas Supreme Court Reverses Death Sentences of Six Men Convicted for Elaine “Riots”” →

Quote Claude McKay, Fighting Back, Messenger p4, Sept 1919 ———-

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.]

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: New Solidarity: “Twelve Union Negroes Sentenced to Gallows” -Legalized Lynching in Arkansas” →