Monday, November 20, 2017

ELAINE MASSACRE


I love the Internet. I inherited a burning desire from my Dad to know things.  My Dad was a bit of a genius and he thirsted for knowledge. He kept references books handy for the things he did not know. He would have loved the ease of the Internet for its wealth of knowledge at our finger tips.

Sometimes what I search for is frivolous, sometimes it is medical, often it is something complex but many times a day I rush to my computer just to check out an unknown that I hear or read about. I want to know right now.

The other night, there was some severe weather in Arkansas and the weather channel was focused on the south east corner of the state.  Then I saw it. Very near Memphis was a little town with the name of Elaine on the weather map. Not having heard of it before, I hustled off to the computer to see if it was an Arkansas town or a Tennessee town as the state boundaries were not clear on the weather map.

I was hoping to find a small town that I could tell my childhood friend Elaine about and tease her that if she moved to Arkansas, she could live in her very own town. I all ready have notified my sister-in-law about Shirley, Arkansas. So far, no one is moving:)  As best as I can tell, there is no Patti, Arkansas. Darn.

However, what I found completely shocked and dismayed me. Yes the town of  Elaine was in Arkansas but it had just an awful history that you can read about here.  

In 1919 the black sharecroppers in Elaine  were trying to organize to get better prices for their cotton from the white land owners.  When two white men tried to break up the meeting, one of the white men was killed. 

Five hundred to 1000 whites, some from neighboring counties, joined a mob that attacked the blacks on sight. The slaughter of 237 blacks and 5 whites followed including women and children.

It ranks as one of the worst incidents of racial violence in American history.  It was horrific but I only discovered it by accident when looking up a small town in Arkansas. Sure wasn't in any of my history books at school. Makes me wonder what else is hiding out there?

What was interesting was that less than a week later the same news channel ran an in depth piece on the Elaine Massacre. Got the feeling I was not the only one to notice and Google "Elaine, Arkansas" that night.

Did you ever search Google only to uncover something dreadful, perhaps frightening,  or maybe you were luckier than I was and you uncovered something delightful?


41 comments :

  1. I learn so much on the internet! I had never heard of that massacre but I have sure learned a whole lot about the history of cataract surgery lately! :-)

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    1. Djan,
      Can you imagine how long it would take us to learn about things such as you surgery without the Net? In 2000 when I was diagnosed with Cancer, it took many, many trips to the library in search of answers. Like you, I sure do love how easy it is today.

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  2. I, too, love google searches. Not a day goes by that I don't look something up and get totally side tracked like you did with the story of Elaine, Arkansas. I did the same with the Jones Town flood in PA.

    Nothing involving black communities or black accomplishments were ever in mainstream history books so it doesn't surprise me this massacre wasn't. Same is true for women up until twenty years ago.

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    1. Jean R,
      How right you are. I remember in my youth we lived alternately in Ohio and Florida. I was amazed at the difference slants the Civil War took.

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  3. Before the internet, we were always running to an old encyclopedia set we had to answer questions that came up during conversations. Back in the late 80s and early 90s we fell in love with internet so we could more easily figure out what we wanted to know right away. Now we say, "Go get the learnin' machine...!" That is a dreadful and horrific story about Elaine. Our country's history truly has its brutal times.

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    1. robin,
      Oh lucky you to have had it so early. Where I lived in Florida we didn't get decent access till later. For years, it was a long distance charge to access the Net. It was early 2000 before we joined the rest of the world.

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  4. This was amazing to read this morning. Just last night I was looking at a map of Florida online and noticed Olga. I thought at first it was google messing with me, but there is such a town:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga,_Florida. I did not find nefarious history associated with it, but I did find a story about the Olga Oak, which is some 300 years old and that was pretty nice to read about.http://www.news-press.com/story/life/outdoors/2015/08/04/olga-live-oak-florida-caloosahatchee-tree-cassani-everham-fgcu/31124405/

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    1. Olga,
      Ha ha, are you temped to move to Olga Fl? I'll have to check that link on the Olga Oak. Thanks.

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  5. I love researching buildings and places on the internet. If I could only remember the many interesting stories and historical
    facts I have read, I would be a font of all knowledge.

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    1. Fun60,
      I think it may be a mixed blessing for we know it is so easy to look up that why bother to remember it? We can always go back to the site.

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  6. I do love Mr. Google.

    Hard to believe history would bury an event where 6 white people were killed.

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  7. joeh,
    Well done Joe. Your irony button is as sharp as ever. Wish I had thought of that.

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  8. There's so much buried in all history I think. I had heard about this horrific event from somewhere, a long time ago. About looking something up, there's a long article about nursing homes in the latest Time Mag. I'm not sure I dare to read it. In case I would end up in one.....

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    1. Inger,
      Well I am pleased that it wasn't totally buried.
      Nursing homes can be scary or delightful. Finding the right one is a challenge.

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  9. Oh Yes----I have searched stuff like that a lot through the years... Luckily, I had not heard of Elaine, Arkansas (although I have been to Shirley, Arkansas).. Don't think I'd want to live in Elaine..... Yipes...

    I love to research stuff especially something I'm interested in such as health issues... BUT--I learned quickly that I had to be careful what I read and believed... Yipes---some very wrong information on there!!!!!! I now do my research using reputable sites .......

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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    1. Betsy,
      You use to live near Shirley and I agree, I wouldn't want to live in Elaine. Yes, you have to be really careful about health issues. I usually stick to Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic sites.

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  10. Yes, encyclopedias, and their annual 'yearbooks, are a thing of the past, for sure! That's pretty awful about that city. :(

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    1. Silver Willow,
      Those encyclopedias took up sooo much room but it was all we had.
      Yes, shocking about Elaine.

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  11. When I Google my name I find pictures of several men in orange jump suits---prisoners.

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  12. Stephen,
    I was laughing about that till I Googled your name and sure enough--the boys in orange were there. Guess it is still funny unless you were applying for a job or credit:)

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  13. I have occasionally googled places to learn their history wasn't what I expected, I don't do that so much anymore. Here in my city, there are streets, roads and avenues with the names of my four children. We used to make jokes about each child eventually buying a home in his or her own street.

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    1. Ooh, think I would be tempted to move to a street in my name. That would be kind of fun.

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  14. I enjoy doing internet research on things that tweak my interest. We had a couple sets of encyclopedias when I was little and I was always looking something up.

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    1. Brig,
      Me too and just like with the Internet, I would get distracted in the encyclopedias and start looking at other stuff.

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  15. My father too was a searcher. He spent hours in the library every time a new question would arise. He told me to always search for answers. He assured me I would never have all the answers but the search was the important part. He would have loved google. Meanwhile, my sister-in-law is names Shirley Elaine. She could pick a place in Arkansas. LOL

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    1. Grannie Annie,
      Our dad were a lot alike. I am just sorry mine passed before the Internet. Ha ha, your SIL really could have her pick. Think I'd recommend Shirley since I have been there.

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  16. I have been using internet for quite a while. But it is recently that I found its real use. So far, I have never came across such incidents in my life. Liked the post.

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    1. Shalet Jimmy,
      Thank you. It really is an amazing tool isn't it?

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  17. That is very interesting. I had noticed that there is a Houston in many states besides Texas. I guess friends of Sam Houston settled all over the place. And yes, I do stop and look up all kinds of new-to-me things, places, people. I'm so glad there is an internet too.

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    1. Barbara,
      Know what you mean. There is even a Houston Arkansas with a grand population of 159. Must have been a distant cousin:))

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  18. I use Google and Wikipedia often. I hate to tell you, but I can't think of an awful thing I've found there.

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    1. Mage,
      That is great and I hope you keep your record intact.

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  19. Google and You Tube really have widened my general knowledge. I think I was pretty ignorant to world issues until I discovered Google. I can't think of anything awful, well apart from operations that have gone wrong and that kind of thing.

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    1. Joey,
      They are both great tools and entertainment. Love that our questions can be answered so quickly.

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  20. I can't imagine life without the internet, though I've only had it for a little less than 10 years. I'm constantly looking for information for all kinds of different things.

    There have been a lot of unexpected things that I've stumbled upon, but this is the first I heard about the Elaine massacre. How horrifying!

    Blessings~

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    1. A Joyful Chaos,
      Welcome to TNS and thank you for commenting. I know, somehow I forget that we didn't always have this marvelous tool.

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  21. I love to look up stuff on the Internet too, and I like it that my curiosity can be easily satisfied.
    The story of the Elaine massacre is horrific and does lead one to wonder how many other acts of cruelty and brutality are hidden in our history.

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    1. Linda R,
      Me too. I love the fact that we can have almost instant gratification regarding our inquiring minds.

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  22. What a horrible yet probably not uncommon story. As to the history part my navy cousin stationed in South Carolina told me his children learned about the "War of Northern Aggression" in elementary school. Which included the alternate fact that it had nothing to do with human slavery. So it goes. Thanks for sharing Patti....

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  23. TB
    Me too when in the South. I was taught it was for economic reasons and had nothing to do with slavery. I went to school in both locations and got two different versions.

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  24. I don't know how I survived before Google. Of course, my many symptoms sometimes point me to "I'm dead" or some such fate. But I love looking stuff up. I happen to know some horrible stories about Ashdown Arkansas that may or may not be on the net, but it, too, had a sordid past of killings and hangings. The hanging tree is still alive out in the woods. I wasn't raised in the south, so I never knew what racism was until I moved here.

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