The Elaine Massacre and Arkansas: A Century of Atrocity and Resistance, 1819-1919

Although it occurred nearly a century ago, the Elaine Massacre of 1919 remains the subject of intense inquiry as historians try to answer a multitude of questions, such as why authorities in the Arkansas Delta used such overwhelming violence to put down a farmers’ union, exactly how many people were killed in the massacre, and how the event shaped the following century.

We cannot fully understand what happened at Elaine without examining the one hundred years leading up to the massacre. An...