U of A's Pryor Center Presents: A Symposium on the Elaine Massacre

Courtesy of the Arkansas State Archives.

The 12 Elaine Massacre defendants.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Pryor Center Presents lecture series at the University of Arkansas opens this fall with "A Symposium on the Elaine Massacre" from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 19, at the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History located on the Fayetteville Square.

Also known as the Elaine Race Riot of 1919, this event, which occurred near the community of Elaine in Phillips County, was one of approximately 25 white-led anti-black riots that occurred throughout the U.S. that year and was one of the largest racial mass killings in our country's history.

“This will be an incredibly powerful day, exploring both what the Elaine Massacre meant for our state and nation then, and how its ongoing painful legacy has continued to shape our culture today,” said Calvin White Jr., associate dean of Fulbright College, who will be giving the day’s opening remarks. “Our hope is that by facing and historically contextualizing this difficult piece of our past, we better understand the event itself, the reasons why such atrocities happened, and how we can prevent such tragic, historic events from repeating themselves in the future.”

Event Schedule:

• 9 a.m. — Welcome by Calvin White Jr., associate dean of Fulbright College, and video screening by Scott Lunsford, associate director of the Pryor Center.
• 9:30 a.m. — “A Family History and Recovery from the Elaine Massacre,” presented by  Judge Brian S. Miller. Four of Miller's great-uncles were among the victims of the Elaine Massacre.
• 10:45 a.m. — “Discovering a Hidden Past: How Do We Know That a Massacre Occurred?” presented by Robert Whitaker, the author of On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice that Remade a Nation.
• 1 p.m. — “Damaged Heritage: From the Elaine Race Massacre to Reconciliation,” presented by J. Chester Johnson, a well-known poet and essayist, whose grandfather participated in the massacre.
• 2:30 p.m. — “What Is a True Ally? An Open Conversation on True Racism,” presented by Sheila Walker, whose great-grandmother and several great-uncles were victims of the Elaine Massacre.
• 3:15 p.m. — “Moore v. Dempsey and the Rights Revolution,” presented by Rayman L. Solomon, former dean of the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, and a native of Phillips County who has been an active member of the Elaine Massacre Memorial Committee. 

The event is sponsored by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the African and African American Studies Program, the Department of Communication, the Department of History, the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, and the Department of Sociology and Criminology.

The Pryor Center is part of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and is located at 1 East Center Street, Suite 120. Parking is available on the Fayetteville Square. The event is free and open to the public. 

For those who cannot attend the symposium in person, the presentations will also be streamed live on the Pryor Center's Facebook page and later posted to the Pryor Center's website.

About The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students and is named for J. William Fulbright, former university president and longtime U.S. senator.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.