Rural black women’s legacy of activism and self-advocacy has been lost in accounts of the Elaine Massacre.

That’s according to local historian Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, who highlighted the experiences and resilience of these women in her recent presentation “‘What are you going to do with us women?’: Gender, violence, and the 1919 Elaine Massacre.” 

The talk was given Sept. 19 at Lyon College in recognition of the centennial of the tragedy.

Jones-Branch, the James and Wanda Lee Vaughn Endowed Professor of History at Arkansas State University, explained that the Elaine Massacre began on Sept. 30, 1919, near Elaine in rural Phillips County, Ark.

A meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America, an organization of African-American tenant farmers and sharecroppers, was disrupted by white men, resulting in the fatal shooting of a white man. 

Hundreds of white people poured into the area in retaliation, killing an estimated 100 to 237 black people. Jones-Branch said the total number of casualties is still being debated.

“The event, erroneously named ‘the Elaine Race Riot,’ was precipitated by rural African Americans’ assertiveness through their demands for improved economic conditions and human dignity at a time when the South and the nation determined they were unworthy of both.”

Black women’s experiences have been left out of the story, she said. 

“What hasn’t been explored is the extent to which women challenged Southern racial violence through their individual and collective efforts. In Arkansas, they challenged this through organizations like the Arkansas Association of Colored Women, which still exists to this day.”

Black people in the rural South organized to protect their economic interests, Jones-Branch said, and women were present at these meetings, too. Ed Ware didn’t want to attend the meeting on Sept. 30, but his wife, Lulu, insisted.

“Like many rural black women, she was the force behind her husband,” Jones-Branch said. “The Wares owned and farmed 120 acres of land. That’s part of the sharecropping story we don’t often hear. Whites felt threatened by this sort of black financial independence.” 

“When violence ensued at the church, most accounts focus on the shootout between the men, not that armed black women were a concern as well.”

Men came to the Wares’ house to arrest Ed. He was on the run, but Lulu was left behind.

“She asked ‘What are you going to do with us women?’ They underestimated the lengths women were willing to go to in order to defend their homes.”

“Lulu was arrested and imprisoned with other black women for about four weeks,” continued Jones-Branch. “They were forced to perform hard labor and sleep on concrete floors. When Lulu returned home, she found that people had ransacked her home and stolen all of her worldly possessions.”

After being released, the women communicated with organizations and activists, like journalist and anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells Barnett and suffragette and co-founder of the NAACP Mary White Covington, to free the men arrested during the Elaine Massacre.

“Ida and Mary received national and international support,” Jones-Branch said. “Between 1923 and 1925, the court case Moore v. Dempsey was settled, and the remaining men were released.”

“Rurality did not equal ignorance and passivity for these women. These women had nothing but refused to be silent. They engaged in self-advocacy in the face of extreme racial and sexual violence.”

“You cannot equate your purpose with goal-based achievements.”

Lindsey Carter, ‘13, executive director of the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) of Independence County, shared this message at the Fourth Annual Lyon College Peace Rally on Sept. 19. The theme of this year’s event was kindness and how it can lead to peace.

Carter explained that CAC serves child abuse victims, bringing different agencies under one roof to make the investigation better and less traumatic for children. Since opening nine months ago, CAC has served about 185 children in Independence and surrounding counties.

As a forensic interviewer, Carter said her job is to listen to kids and be a safe person they can trust.

“There are times in my career when I’ve sat back and thought ‘Wow, this world is really ugly.’”

She continued, “I’ve learned that if I continue defining my success by measuring how much ugliness is in the world, then I’m going to fail all the time.”

Carter advised attendees not to equate their purpose with their profession, encouraging them to consider the impact of everyday acts of kindness.

“Whatever you end up doing in your profession, I’m sure you will serve an amazing purpose, but that isn’t your sole purpose in being here,” she said.

“Being present for people who need you, listening to a child who needs to talk, or tying your elderly grandparent’s shoes… those are the things you do from your heart. I truly believe that’s when you make an impact on the world.”

Carter said kindness is “our saving grace” and how to provide unity and happiness.

“It’s taken me a while to understand that the services and procedures we do on a day-to-day basis at CAC make a difference, but what it really comes down to is responding with kindness, compassion, and love inside and outside of our daily work.”

Lyon’s chaplain, the Rev. Magaret Alsup, thanked everyone for attending the rally and continuing to support the commitment to work for peace and unity on Lyon’s campus and in the larger Batesville community.

“We promote peace in the world when we are kind to those we encounter,” Alsup said. “We all know kindness, and a kind word can change someone’s day.”

As a way to visually represent the commitment to peace, she invited everyone to paint a rock with images or words of affirmation for two community kindness rock gardens. One will be placed on Lyon’s campus, and the other will be placed on CAC’s campus.

“Take a rock when you’re in need of a word of hope or encouragement.”

The Washington Post recently published a Lyon professor’s review of a new book about President Barack Obama’s foreign policy.

In the review, Assistant Professor of History Dr. Brian D’Haeseleer discusses “Obama’s Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State” by historian Jeremy Kuzmarov. D’Haeseleer says the book presents “a harshly critical take” on Obama’s foreign policy, and that the book suggests that Obama, not Pres. Donald Trump, launched “the new cold war.”

“While an ambitious effort to analyze Obama’s foreign policy record, [the book] offers neither a nuanced nor empathetic appraisal of the former president,” D’Haeseleer says.

“Nonetheless, Kuzmarov’s book is serious and fair and should prompt historians—and the rest of us—to reevaluate Obama’s legacy.”

The article has subsequently been featured in The Advocate Online, Jewish World Review, Greenwich Time Online, News-Time Online, Connecticut Post Online.