#PHSTMU This week for #creepyhistory we'll be talking about violent history and how to deal with presenting it to the public. My focus will be on the Elaine Arkansas Massacre that took place in 1919. https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/30/the-ghosts-of-elaine-arkansas-1919/

The Elaine Arkansas Massacre often gets over shadowed by the more talked about Tusla Massacre that took place a few years later. When the Black residents of the town unionized and attempted to make things better for themselves the white elite felt threatened. 2

TW: racial violence. After a violent confrontation that ended with a white man dead several days of violence commenced. "They “began to hunt Negroes,”... The white marauders cut off the ears and toes of some of the dead and dragged their bodies through the streets of Elaine." 3

Conservative estimates put the death toll at about 100 deaths. It's far more likely that at least 200 people died during the Elaine Massacre. Many of the responses at the time were that killing Black people was justified in order to prevent a race war and "black insurrection." 4

Because this happened in such a rural place it was hard for Black newspapers to cover. White authorities covered it up and said "that a large-scale black uprising had been suppressed by prompt action befitting the circumstances." 5

"It encapsulates two fundamental & often interconnected problems that still plague America today: the vast disparities in wealth & power between black and white, & the enormous & growing inequalities between employer & worker." The magnitude of this event must not be lost on us.6

How can we present this history in a way that can teach someone without turning them off to it because of the violence? The truth is, sometimes you can't. However, we must remember that as historians our duty is to the truth and that the truth can be a hard pill to take. 7

Without telling the bloody, violent, sad, creepy parts of history we are doing a disservice to the memory of those who died and to ourselves. Skipping over the rough patches makes for a smooth, boring and rose tinted ride. Bad things happen and we have to talk about them. 8

Violence is a part of the human existence and while we work to combat it we must teach about it and the lessons it has taught us and do our best to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. 9