The 1919 Arkansas Massacre and its Ongoing Impact

“We want our history told as our people told it to us from one generation to the next, keeping alive our pride, our integrity and our character.”— James White, Elaine massacre descendent

HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, AR, UNITED STATES, January 12, 2023/ EINPresswire.com / -- ‘Voices of Elaine’ Symposium in Hot Springs to Honor Black History Month

he Hot Springs NAACP will host “Voices of Elaine: The 1919 Arkansas Massacre and Its Ongoing Impact” to educate Arkansans on the history of the Elaine massacre.

The symposium featuring the 2022 documentary film “We Have Just Begun – The 1919 Elaine Massacre and Dispossession” takes place at 11 a.m. Feb. 4, 2023, at The Central Theatre, 1008 Central Ave. in Hot Springs.

The film explores a deadly chain of events that is ignited when a group of black farmers organizes to obtain a fair price for their cotton crop to escape subsistence living. Between Sept. 30-Oct. 2 1919, hundreds of African American men, women and children were massacred in and around Elaine in Phillips County, Ark. The bloody event in the Arkansas Delta has been one of the worst, little-known secrets in history.

After the film, Arkansas Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen will be the keynote speaker. Griffen is a competency and inclusion consultant, trial and appellate lawyer, trial and appellate judge, legal scholar, religious leader, social commentator, and public speaker.

The symposium will conclude with a descendants-of-Elaine panel discussion and Q&A. The descendants will discuss their reality, past and present, and how they envision the future of Elaine.

Tickets for the symposium and a box lunch are $18 before Jan. 28, 2023, and $25 after. Student tickets are $10. They can be purchased at VoicesofElaineHS.org. Proceeds benefit the Elaine Museum and Richard Wright Civil Rights Center. For more information visit ElaineMuseum.org.

Karen E Sparks
NAACP Unit 6013, Hot Springs, Arkansas
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