ELAINE, ARKANSAS RIOT (1919)

CONTRIBUTED BY: WESTON W. COOPER

One of the last of the major riots of the “Red Summer” of 1919, the so-called race riot in Elaine, Arkansas was in fact a racial massacre. Though exact numbers are unknown, it is estimated that over 200 African Americans were killed, along with five whites, during the white hysteria of a pending insurrection of black sharecroppers. The violence, terror, and concerted effort to drive African Americans out of Phillips County, Arkansas was so jarring that Ida B. Wells, a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) published a short book on the riot in 1920. It was also widely reported in African American newspapers like the Chicago Defender and generated several public campaigns to address the fallout.

On the night of September 30, 1919, approximately 100 African Americans, mostly sharecroppers on the plantations of white landowners, attended a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church in Hoop Spur, a small community in Phillips County, Arkansas. They hoped to organize to obtain better payments for their cotton crops. Aware of white fears of Communist influence on blacks, the union posted armed guards around the church to prevent disruption and infiltration.

During the meeting, three white men pulled up to the front of the church. One of the men asked the guards, “Going coon hunting, boys?” Gunfire erupted after the guards made no response. Though sharp debate exists as to who fired first, the guards killed W.A. Adkins, a security officer from the Missouri-Pacific Railroad, and injured Charles Pratt, the deputy sheriff.

The next morning, an all-white posse went to arrest the suspects. Though they encountered little opposition from the black community, the fact that blacks outnumbered whites ten to one in this area of Arkansas resulted in great fear of an “insurrection.” The concerned whites formed a mob numbering up to 1,000 armed men, many of whom came from the surrounding counties and as far away as Mississippi and Tennessee.  Upon reaching Elaine, the mob began killing blacks and ransacking their homes. As word of the attack spread throughout the African American community, some black residents fled while others armed themselves in defense. The mob then turned its attention to disarming those blacks who fought back.

Meanwhile, local white newspapers further inflamed tensions by reporting that there were planned black uprisings. By October 2, U.S. Army troops arrived in Elaine, and the white mobs began to disperse. Federal troops rounded up and placed several hundred blacks in temporary stockades, where there were reports of torture. The men were not released until their white employers vouched for them.  There was also considerable evidence that many of the soldiers sent to quell the violence engaged in the systematic killing of black residents.

In the end, 122 blacks but no whites were charged by the Phillips County grand jury for crimes related to the riots. Their court-appointed lawyers did little in their defense despite the investigation and involvement of the NAACP. The first 12 men tried for first-degree murder were convicted and sentenced to death. As a result, 65 others entered plea bargains and accepted up to 21 years for second-degree murder. Led by black attorney Scipio Africanus Jones, the NAACP and other civil rights groups worked towards retrials and release of the “Elaine Twelve.” Eventually they won their release, with the last of the twelve set free on January 14, 1925.

Tribute To Ermias " Nipsey 'Tha Great' Hussle" Asghedom

DETON BROOKS (1909-1975)

CONTRIBUTED BY: BRIAN KASTNER

Deton Brooks in India, CBI Roundup, ca. 1945

During World War II, thirty African-American correspondents risked their lives reporting news home from the front-lines of the war. Covering the war took two forms. First, they were reporters of the combat between the Allies and the Axis. Concurrently, they reported on the treatment of African American soldiers amid the segregation of American Army units. This is the dichotomy that African American correspondent Deton Brooks experienced as a reporter and advocate in his war coverage in Burma.

Deton Brooks was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 14, 1909 to parents Laura and Deton Brooks. Educated in the local public schools, he graduated from the University of Chicago in 1935 before becoming a school teacher and later, a journalist. Reporting on the war for the Chicago Defender, he arrived in India to cover the China-India-Burma theater in September of 1944. Soon after arriving, he drew the ire of U.S. military officers in India for attempting to submit a story on the segregation of a swimming pool at a military base he visited. When a military censor refused to transmit the story, Brooks threatened to notify his paper and demand an investigation. The Army relented and his story was quickly sent to the Chicago Defender. Following the story’s publication in the Defender, the pool was swiftly integrated.

Brooks next went to Burma to cover the construction of Ledo Road, which was to serve as a supply route between China and India for the Western Allies. Here he was joined by fellow African American correspondent Frank Bolden of the Norfolk Journal & Guide. Bolden and Brooks covered the road’s construction by eight American Army units, of which six were African American units.

When construction was completed on the road in January of 1945, a convoy was set to ride into China. As the convoy was being readied, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, the political leader of the Republic of China, pronounced that no black soldiers could enter China. Unaware of this proclamation Deton Brooks inquired why there were no African American drivers in the planned convoy. After hearing of the ban he immediately went back to headquarters and registered his protest. In response, the Army sent eleven African American soldiers to join the convoy.

When the first atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, Deton Brooks was in Chongqing, China. Within days the Japanese surrendered and the Chinese delegation to the surrender ceremony agreed to take three Western journalists to represent the wire services. The thirty correspondents in China were told to elect three journalists to cover the surrender ceremony, and Brooks was selected by his fellow journalists. He was present at the signing of the Japanese surrender on the battleship U.S.S. Missouri.

Once the war ended Brooks returned to the United States and civilian life. He received his Master of Arts degree and Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University in 1958. He then worked in the Cook County Department of Public Aid starting in 1958 and was appointed the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Human Resources in 1969, becoming the first African American to head a city department.

Denton Brooks died in Chicago, Illinois on August 29, 1975. He was 66 years old at the time of his death.