“Massacred for asking to be paid fairly!”

Ajouté : 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]In September 1919, black sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas, did something that would get them massacred. [clears throat] They tried to form a union. On the night of September 30th, approximately 100 black farmers attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church in Phillips County, Arkansas.

[00:00:26]They were sharecroppers on white-owned plantations meeting to demand fair payments for their cotton crops. Black labor unions were deeply resented by white landowners because unions threatened to weaken white aristocratic power. Black men stood as armed guards around the church, knowing that organizing often attracted violence.

[00:00:55]Then white men arrived at the church in the dark. A gunfight broke out. Enraged white mobs formed and descended on the black town of Elaine, destroying homes, businesses, and attacking any black person in their path. Arkansas' Governor Charles Brough called for 500 federal troops under orders to shoot to kill any black person who refused to surrender.

[00:01:23]The troops did not come to protect black residents. They came to help the mob.

[00:01:30]After days of violence, at least 200 black men, women, and children lay dead.

[00:01:37]Some historians estimate the toll as high as 800. Five white people died.

[00:01:43]When the violence ended, 67 black people were arrested and charged with inciting violence. 12 were sentenced to death, the Elaine 12. Not a single white attacker was prosecuted. The black sharecroppers were blamed for their own massacre. The NAACP took up the case.

[00:02:07]In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled the trials violated due process.

[00:02:14]The convictions were overturned, but no one was ever held accountable for up to 800 deaths. This happened during the Red Summer of 1919, when white mobs attacked black communities in over 25 American cities.

[00:02:32]Black people were being massacred for asking to be paid fairly. Share this because the Elaine Massacre may be the deadliest racial massacre in American [clears throat] history and most people have never heard of it.