ELAINE, ARKANSAS NEVER FORGET OR FORGIVE

Some events in the history should never ever be forgotten because of the level of racist hatred inflicted on our African American ancestors. Bands of white thugs posed as America’s citizens 101 years ago decided it was time to exterminate all semblances of black life in Elaine, Arkansas. This racial event was more savage and brutal than any other white mob movement that occurred during Red Summer 1919. This month I am saluting the words and wisdom of Ida Belle Wells-Barnett. One reflection this month will be Mrs. Wells-Barnett’s investigations related to the Phillips County savage attacks by the white mobs of Arkansas. Today, however, I look at the savagery in the lens of an historian looking back a century after it occurred. Ida Wells will give you a reflection of the event months after it occurred on The Blackman Read Aloud Hour Project starting tomorrow, October 14, 2020.