Richmond Virginia, September 30, 1919.
On this day in 1919 the Red Summer spread to Arkansas when over 100 black residents of the Elaine area were killed after violence erupted when white law enforcement officer, accompanied by one black trustee, arrived at a meeting of blacks associated with the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. The Union had armed guards, which given the events of that summer and even that week was a wise precaution.
The union was a black sharecroppers union and there was no reason that it shouldn't have been meeting. The entire event lead to convictions for murder of several black men that were later overturned by the United States Supreme Court. That event can be regarded as a turning point in the Supreme Court's scrutiny of such matters and therefore, in some ways, the Elaine Massacres can be regarded as ushering in, very slowly, what would become the Civil Right Era. The event also provides a very clear example of why the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution exists.
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