“GOING BACK HOME – STEP 2”
We’re
heading for Helena, Arkansas on Friday, stopping in Elvis’ hometown of Tupelo
for the night. Then we’ll participate in
the dedication of the memorial for the victims of the Elaine Massacre in Helena
on the 100th anniversary of the slaughter. It was part of the Red Summer of 1919, when
white people all over the country intimidated, tortured and killed black
people. Part of it was the return of
black soldiers who had fought for the USA in Europe and now came back
determined not to fall back into neo-slavery.
The main impetus, however, was what it has always been in American
history: the desire to maintain white
supremacy. The Elaine Massacre and the
Red Summer of 1919 re-emphasized a main theme of American history. Slavery and racism and white supremacy are
not unfortunate blots on the American character – they are at the heart of the
American character, and they must be acknowledged and deeply resisted.
Ida Wells
was one of those resisters. She did
early work on the Elaine Massacre, and her booklet “The Arkansas Race Riot” is a
primary source for information on it.
She broke her exile from the South in 1920 and traveled to the prison in
Arkansas where the African-American men who were given the death penalty in the
Elaine Massacre were being held. When
she got into Arkansas, she went in disguise, since she still had a price on her
head. Though she undoubtedly was scared,
she showed great courage. Part of that courage was in her nature, and
part of it was learned from her previous experience.
In 1917,
there was a race riot in Houston. It
resulted from the neo-slavery treatment of black soldiers stationed in nearby
Camp Logan. The soldiers marched
defiantly into Houston, daring white folks to mess with them, and eventually
the shooting began. Several white
persons, including police officers, were killed. Twelve African-American soldiers were tried
and hung for their part in the riot. Ida
Wells wanted to hold a memorial service for these soldiers in Chicago, and she
felt certain that she could find a black church which would host it. Yet, all the male pastors declined. Having no place to hold the service, she
decided to have buttons made, protesting the injustice. It did not take long for the Secret Service
to show up and inquire about the buttons and to ask her to cease and desist
distributing them, lest she be arrested for treason. Here is her account about it in her “Crusade
for Justice:”
“Well, said
the shorter of the two men, “ the rest of your people do not agree
with
you.” I said, “Maybe not. They don’t know any better, or they are
afraid
of losing
their whole skins. As for myself, I don’t care.
I’d rather go down in
history as
one lone Negro who dared to tell the government that it had done
a dastardly
thing than to save my skin by taking back what I have said. I
would
consider it an honor to spend whatever years are necessary in prison
as the one
member of the race who protested, rather than to be with the
11,999,999
Negroes who didn’t have to go to prison because they kept their
mouths
shut. Lay on, Macduff, and damn’d be him
that first cries, “Hold,
enough!” (From “Crusade for Justice”)
They did
not arrest her, and she kept distributing the buttons. It was this kind of passion and persistence
that enabled her to go into places like Arkansas to interview the men held
unjustly in the prisons. Thanks to her
and Scipio Africanus Jones (the primary attorney for the men), and the NAACP,
the men were eventually all freed. A
powerful work, but always in the context of the 237+ people who were
slaughtered. I wrote a couple of weeks
ago that federal troops were sent in to Phillips County to put down the
rioting, but their interpretation was that it was the black folk who were
rioting, and they joined in the slaughter of the black people.
So, as a
white boy raised in and on this stuff of white supremacy, it will be quite
intriguing to go back into the belly of the beast and see where we are, and
where I am. I’ll keep you posted.
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