Hellraisers Journal: “Voice of the Negro” by Kerlin: How Systematic Robbery of Tenant Farmers Led Up to Arkansas Riot of 1919

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

Hellraisers Journal – Monday  November 28, 1921
Excerpt from The Voice of the Negro by Robert T. Kerlin

from Hathi Cover, NY 1920

Note: On Saturday we featured a review of Kerlin’s “Voice of the Negro,” which includes a section on the so-called “riot” at Elaine, Arkansas. This deadly event, which we refer to as the Elaine Massacre, was a bloody rampage led by the plantation class, initially against the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (sharecropper’s union) and later against the entire Afro-American community of Phillips County, Arkansas.

Yesterday we published an excerpt from Kerlin’s book which described  how the Johnston Brothers were murdered during the Elaine Massacre. Today’s excerpt sets forth how systematic robbery of tenant farmers and sharecroppers led up to the Arkansas Riot.

From The Savannah Tribune of October 23, 1919:

SYSTEMATIC ROBBERY CAUSE OF RIOTS

ARKANSAS NEGROES HAD NOT PLANNED MASSACRE

The cause of the disturbances in Arkansas was systematic robbery of Negro tenant farmers and share croppers. For years Negroes have been working the farms of white owners on shares and when the time came for a settlement, owners have refused to give them itemized statements of their accounts. Negro tenant farmers and share croppers must buy their supplies during the year from the plantation store or some designated store. The system kept the Negro continually in debt and it is an unwritten law in Arkansas as in many parts of the South that the Negro may not leave the plantation until the debt is paid.

“The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America” was formed by Negro share croppers and the dues paid were to go into a common fund to employ a lawyer. The lawyer was to make a test case in court of one tenant farmer’s inability to obtain an itemized statement of his account.

Arkansas Elaine Massacre, Union is Strength, IB Wells Barnett p48, 1920

On October 6 tenant farmers on 21 plantations were to ask the owners for a settlement. It appears that, failing a settlement, the Negroes were going to refuse to pick the cotton then in the field or to sell cotton belonging to them for less than the market price. Trouble, however, was precipitated when W. A. Adkins, a special agent for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, Charles Pratt, a deputy sheriff and a Negro “trusty” were fired upon, so it is claimed, by Negroes in a church at Hoop Spur [where Union members were gathered]. Adkins was killed and Pratt severely wounded. A statement of one of the persons in the church at the time, however, shows that Adkins and Pratt fired into the church without provocation and that their fire was returned with the above-mentioned results. That precipitated the trouble.

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Hellraisers Journal: “Voice of the Negro” by Kerlin: Johnston Brothers Murdered by White Mob During Elaine Massacre

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

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 27, 1921
Excerpt from The Voice of the Negro by Robert T. Kerlin

Note: On Saturday we featured a review of Kerlin’s “Voice of the Negro,” which includes a section on the so-called “riot” at Elaine, Arkansas. This deadly event, which we refer to as the Elaine Massacre, was a bloody rampage led by the plantation class, initially against the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America (sharecropper’s union) and later against the entire Afro-American community of Phillips County, Arkansas.

From  Kerlin’s introduction to article:

The outstanding incident of the “Arkansas pogrom” was the slaying of the Johnston brothers. From The National Defender and Sun (Gary, Ind.), October 25, I take an article that appeared in substance throughout the colored press:

From The National Defender and Sun of October 25, 1919:

ALMOST ENTIRE JOHNSTON FAMILY IS MURDERED
BY FIENDISH HELL-HOUNDS OF ARKANSAS

(Special to the Defender and Sun.)

Helena, Ark., Oct. 24. [1919]-The report that the four Johnston brothers who were outrageously murdered near Elaine, Ark., met death in a riot at the latter place, is not true. The four brothers, one of whom. Dr. L. H. Johnston of Cowweta, Okla., who was there visiting his other brothers, had been hunting and were peacefully returning home with their game when they were intercepted by a white man, supposed to be a friend of the Johnston boys, and told that a race riot was in progress in Elaine and advised them not to go in that direction, but to return to a point below Elaine, leave their guns to avoid suspicion, and take the train for Helena. After considerable persuasion on the part of their supposed white friend, the Johnstons followed his advice, trying to avoid trouble that they knew nothing of.

When the train on which they were riding en route to Helena reached Elaine, their good white “friend” led a mob aboard the Jim Crow coach and with guns drawn commanded the Johnston boys to throw up their hands, according to eye-witnesses, and in a few seconds had handcuffed three of the boys, evidently not recognizing Dr. L. H. Johnston as one of the brothers, and was marching them out of the train when Doctor Johnston spoke to the men, saying: “Gentlemen, these men are my brothers, and I want to know why you are taking them from this train.” In reply, one of the men said: “If you are their brother you’d better come along with them.” To this Dr. L. H. Johnston retorted: “Well, I will certainly go,” whereupon he was handcuffed, and the four forced at the point of guns to get in a waiting auto and hurriedly driven off. That night about eleven o’clock the bodies of the four brothers, riddled with bullets and mutilated with knives or other sharp instruments, were found by the roadside. They had been murdered in cold blood!

The perpetrators of this gruesome atrocity then issued a statement to the effect that one of the Johnstons took a gun from a deputy sheriff and killed him, causing the posse to fire on the four brothers, killing all of them instantly.

Mrs. Mercy Johnston, mother of the unfortunate quartette, who lived in Chicago in a home purchased for her by her sons, was at the time in Pine Bluff, visiting relatives. She accompanied by relatives and friends, her heart all but breaking over the sad occurrence, went to claim the bodies of her loved ones, that she might at least pay a mother’s last tribute, even though that should be in tears and heartache, but rank insult was added to injury when she was compelled to pay a ransom for the dead bodies. She paid the price, however, and followed the remains to their last resting place in Little Rock. The funeral was the biggest and most impressive ever seen in that city. No man was quite strong enough to look upon this terrible scene. The great wonder is that any black should witness such a scene and be free from that which makes men desperate.

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[Photograph and paragraph break added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Chicago Broad Ax: Mary White Ovington Reviews “The Voice of the Negro” by Robert T. Kerlin

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

Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 26, 1921
Mary White Ovington Reviews “The Voice of the Negro” by Robert T. Kerlin

From the Chicago Broad Ax of November 19, 1921:

BOOK CHAT-BY MARY WHITE OVINGTON
-CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE…..
—————

“THE VOICE OF THE NEGRO”
By Robert T. Kerlin
——-

(Published by E. P.  Dutton & Co., 681 Fifth Ave., New York City, Price $2.50, postage 12 cents.)

Arkansas Elaine Massacre, 12 Union Men Condemned to Die, IB Wells Barnett p2, 1920

Mr. Robert T. Kerlin, professor at Virginia Military Institute, last June wrote a letter to the Governor of Arkansas, in which he declared it would be a crime against the Creator, if the six colored men [The Moore Defendants-six of the Elaine 12] condemned to death, were executed. “Were they to suffer death,” he said, “they would be crucified.” Shortly after this statement, he was asked to resign by the Board of Virginia Military Institute. Refusing to do this, he was dismissed. This courageous letter to the Governor of Arkansas was the culmination of a number of acts sympathetic to the Negro, that had evidently grated against the sensibilities of the Board of Virginia Military Institute. 

Probably “The Voice of the Negro,” the book which Mr. Kerlin’s publishers put out in 1920, was one of his heinous offenses. This book presents to the reader a careful synopsis of Negro opinion, as voiced through its press for four months succeeding the Washington riot. To quote from the preface, “virtually the entire Afro-American press consisting of two dailies, a dozen magazines, and nearly three hundred weeklies, has been drawn upon.” “When I told the publisher,” Mr. Kerlin goes on to say “that I was making this compilation, he remarked that my book would make disagreeable reading. There are worse things than disagreeable reading.”…..

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[Photograph added.]

Note: By last June, when Kerlin wrote to the Arkansas Governor, the Elaine 12 had become the Ware Defendants and the Moore Defendants (6 in each group). The Ware Defendants had won another retrial, scheduled for June 1921, but since postponed. The Moore Defendants were scheduled for execution on June 10th, which execution was delayed by one brave judge. As of this date, the Ware defendants are yet awaiting their 3rd trial. The Moore Defendants have won a hearing before the U. S. Supreme Court.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From the Chicago Broad Ax: Mary White Ovington Reviews “The Voice of the Negro” by Robert T. Kerlin”