[37] The felled trees slowed Fagan's main attack,[38] which was on the Upper Little Rock Road,[39] and forced the Confederates to leave their supply wagons and cannons behind. The first time you log in to our catalog you will need to create an account. Confederate infantry deserted in large numbers, their morale shattered. HELENA-WEST HELENA -- Hard on the banks of the Mississippi River, the World still turns, one page at a time. (WMC) - Areas of Eastern Arkansas are sending more violent offenders to federal court. Battle of Helena - Wikipedia The information you have provided is great for families that lost people and is greatly needed. The CALS Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization. One hundred years ago this week, one of the worst episodes of racial violence in American history unfolded in Elaine, Ark., a small town on the Mississippi. Many families described how they had run into the woods for safety from bloodthirsty mobs, hoping to surrender themselves to the federal troops for safety. Livingston, Kelly, and Madison Peek. The twelve men were: Frank Moore, Frank Hicks, Ed Hicks, Joe Knox, Paul Hall, Ed Coleman, Alfred Banks, Ed Ware, William Wordlaw, Albert Giles, Joe Fox, and John Martin. [24] The Union garrison would face the coming attack with 4,129 men. Additional support provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Legal disfranchisement stripped them of the vote and an ability to share in any benefits of citizenship. The Confederates charged Fort Curtis in their last attack, but the heavy artillery inside kept the attack from reaching the fort. Enraged citizens fired at the bodies of the dead negroes as they rode out of Helena toward Elaine.. The racial makeup of Helena is 67.93% Black or African American, 30.59% White, 0.13% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.17% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Taylor, Kieran. [71] Both Price and Holmes were issuing orders independently,[72] and Holmes' orders were making things worse for the Confederates. Brough, requesting that U.S. troops be sent to Elaine. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1988. See this venue in scenes from the 2004 film, "Walk the Line . Cortner, Richard C. A Mob Intent on Death: The NAACP and the Arkansas Riot Cases. Late in the evening of Sept. 30, black sharecropper families gathered in the Hoop Spur church near Elaine. The commander of Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi, Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith, was forwarded in June the dispatch that Johnston had received, and delegated making the decision whether to attack Helena to Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes, the Confederate commander of the District of Arkansas. On October 31, 1919, the Phillips County grand jury charged 122 African Americans with crimes stemming from the racial disturbances. A defensive position known as Fort Curtis already existed to the west of Helena, but four new batteries, named with the letters A, B, C, and D, were ordered built. Males had a median income of $27,203 versus $17,250 for females. Ferguson, Bessie. [18] The Confederate columns finally united on July 3,[19] and that day began the final movement towards Helena. 5. The trials were a joke. According to police, deputies were dispatched to the 1000 block of Cherry Street in regard to a shots fired complaint when they discovered 50-year-old Cornelius Borum on the front porch. Robert Palmer noted that in the mid-1930s Helena was "the blues capital of the Delta". E. M. Allen, a planter and real estate developer who became the spokesman for Phillips Countys white power structure, told the Helena World on October 7, The present trouble with the Negroes in Phillips County is not a race riot. Woodruff, Nan Elizabeth. He made no motion for a change of venue, nor did he challenge a single prospective juror, taking the first twelve called. From 1906 to 1946, Helena was a terminal point on the former Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, which provided passenger and freight service to Joplin, Missouri. American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. What a travesty of justice. When he returned home, 150 men came to ransack his house, seizing his union meeting minutes and his Masonic lodge books. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Ms. Wells Barnett gathered testimonies that described the sheer horror of the massacre from those who endured and lived to tell their stories. Clancy, Sean. During the American Civil War, the Battle of Helena was a deadly encounter. Holmes and Price arrived on the hill, and finding that the Union guns could not be used, ordered Tilden's Missouri Battery and Marshall's Arkansas Battery to begin to come up. [70] Fagan's lines had been badly thinned by not only Union fire but also heat and exhaustion. On September 29, 2019, a memorial to those who died during the massacre was dedicated in downtown Helena-West Helena. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. [44] Brooks' men became disorganized and did not reform until 8:00 am. Helena-West Helena Police investigate a deadly Friday night - FOX16 Fort Curtis was not directly attacked at the Battle of Helena since the Confederacy focused its attacks on the outlying batteries. Price's men fell back and abandoned Graveyard Hill. HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. The descendants of the wealthier white perpetrators, they insist, have profited, and continue to do so, from the suffering and loss that their families endured in 1919. In June 1863, Confederate Commander Theophilus Holmes sought to take pressure off of Vicksburg, Mississippi, by attacking the Union-held town of Helena, Arkansas. The Helena-West Helena Police Department says the body of Fredrick Willis, 23, of Helena-West Helena, was found late Tuesday evening. Walter White, of the N.A.A.C.P., reported first that more than 100 African-Americans were killed, later changing it to 250. Families of union members found no welcome when they returned to their homes. Vigilantes from Mississippi seized another union member, Lula Black, and her four children from her house, knocked her down, pistol whipped and kicked her, then took her to jail. This neglect by the government came in the face of people who merely sought to exercise their basic rights to secure a lawyer to defend their property. Wikipedia On April 10, 1929, an F5 tornado struck northern Jackson County. Dr. Woodruff is a historian and the author of American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta.. [65] Carried by momentum, some of Price's infantry charged down the hill towards Helena itself, but were driven off.
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