Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1919-11-08
ELAINE, ARK, RIOTS-THE PROOF
Bv William Pickens

By William Pickens
At last it is proven, what we said at first
about the inspiration for the killing of
Negroes in Arkansas-and it has been prov
en- much quicker than we hoped it would
be- A man Of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People who
has white face, went down into Arkansas
and got the whole "dope" He interviewed
the WHITE PEOPLE from the Governor
down, and found out from their own lips
that the Negroes had no conspiracy to cup
rise' or to murder any white people, and
that the colored farmers had only organized
to sell their own cotton and to save them
selves from debt slavery to the big plant
ers-and to defend their lives, if need be,
from the organizing Ku Klux and from
the vengeance when they feared would be
poured out from the wrath of the planters.
They knew, Of course, that these planters
would be pletny angry when they found
out that the Negroes were banded together
the world, instead Of allowing the white
to sell their own cotton into the markets Of
planter to sell it and give them fourteen
cents pound and get forty cents pound
for himself
The Governor of Arkansas was asked
point blank by this investigation (whom
the Governor thought was a newspaper
correspondent in sympathy with the murder
of Negroes) what evidence he and the
other whites had that Negroes had con-
spiracy to kill any white people, and the
Governor Of Arkansas replied that they had
mo evidence except the fact that the Ne
groes had an organization and that one
white man, who was after bootleggers got
killed by some Negroes.' Just think of
it, AS if man hunting bootleggers has
not plenty of chances to be killed in Ar
kansas or anywhere else without any con-
spiracy on the part of the general Negro
population They have not proven or at
tempted to prove that thest bootleggers
were even members of that farmers or
ganzation. The big planters and the money
sharks were looking for pretext to break
up this effort of the colored farmer to
break away from debt-slavery. and they
got the preteXt when one white man hap
pened to be killed by colored law-breakers
(perhaps). I say PERHAPS, for even the
circumstances attending this killing have
not been given to us and will not be given
to us,-and we know the methods Of the
white officer of the law in that section.
But not only Arkansas, Mississippi and
Tennessee, just across the river, were also
looking for chance to crush the human
desire and the new hope Of it's colored
poems for becoming freer. And white men
from Memphis and from Mississippi poured
into Helena, Ark, near Elaine, and THE
ARMS THAT HAD BEEN TAKEN FROM
THE NEGROES BY THE OFFICERS AND
SOLDIERS WERE GIVEN INTO THE
HANDS OF THESE BLOODTHIRSTY
MOBS Notice, [ am afraid you will not
get me; the arms that were taken from
the homes Of Negroes, ordinary arms for
ordinary defense against burglars were
not kept by the law, but turned over to
these white men and boys who poured in
on the trains to help kill Negroes
The military also took it to be it's duty
to kill Negroes, not to keep order but to
kill Negroes. Can anybody wonder that
some colored people, hiding for their lives