In a small Arkansas town, echoes of a century-old massacre

[Judi Lynn]

Noreen Nasir, Associated Press Updated 12:28 pm CDT, Thursday, July 25, 2019

ELAINE, Ark. (AP) — J. Chester Johnson never heard about the mass killing of black people in Elaine, a couple hours away from where he grew up in Arkansas. Nobody talked about it, teachers didn't mention it in history classes, and only the elderly remembered the bloodshed of 1919.

He was an adult when he found out about it. By then, his grandfather, Alonzo "Lonnie" Birch, was dead — perhaps taking a secret to his grave.

Johnson believes Birch took part in the Elaine massacre. And now he's bent on telling the story of one of the largest racial mass killings in U.S. history, an infamous chapter in the "Red Summer" riots that spread in cities and towns across the nation.

"I feel an obligation," said Johnson, who is white. "It's hard to grow up in a severely segregated environment and for it not to affect you. If you don't face it and deal with it in various ways, it becomes undiscovered."

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/In-a-small-Arkansas-town-echoes-of-a-century-old-14127507.php

[dalton99a]

1. More than 200 black men, women and children were killed

The violence unfolded on the evening of Sept. 30, 1919, as black sharecroppers had gathered at a small church in Hoop Spur, an unincorporated area about 2½ miles north of Elaine. The sharecroppers, wanting to be paid better and treated more fairly, were meeting with union organizers when a deputy sheriff and a railroad security officer — both white — arrived.

Fighting and gunfire erupted, though it's still not clear who shot first. The security officer was killed and the deputy wounded.

White men frustrated that the sharecroppers were organizing went on a rampage. Over several days, mobs from the surrounding area and neighboring states killed men, women and children.

More than 200 black men, women and children were killed, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery, Alabama-based nonprofit that has documented more than 4,400 lynchings of black people in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950. Five white people were killed. Hundreds of black people were arrested and jailed, many of them tortured into giving incriminating testimony. Some were forced to flee Arkansas and, according to the Legacy Center, had their land stolen.

Johnson said his grandfather, Alonzo "Lonnie" Birch, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the same company that employed the railroad security officer who was killed at the Arkansas church where the black sharecroppers had gathered to organize. Once the violence started, Johnson said, railroad officials urged workers to join the fighting. He said his grandfather likely responded to the call.

[Blue_Tires]

2. They want us to forget

Like China has been doing with Tiananmen Square

[Dan]

3. I guess the question is

How many Tiananmen Squares have we had?