Cruelty in Paragould
By Crystal Eckles
In Guy Lancaster’s article ““Negroes Are Leaving Paragould by the Hundreds: “Racial Cleansing in Northeast Arkansas Railroad Town, 1880-1920s”, Guy tells of a mostly forgotten history. Paragould was not a town in which there were a lot of African Americans, but those who did live in Paragould suffered incredibly poor treatment and the hands of whites. The Arkansas Gazette became a means of communicating the cruelty that the African Americans were enduring in Paragould.
On April 21, 1888, and letter was published in the Arkansas Gazette under "Disgraceful If True, A Report That Colored Citizens Are Cruelly Treated at Paragould.” This letter was written by an African American citizen living in Paragould at the time, and it was directed to the African American Judge Mifflin Wister Gibbs. This citizen was seeking help from the harassment that the African American community was enduring from the white community. The letter stated that white citizens were shooting at their homes, throwing rocks at their homes, and also setting their homes on fire.
Later on April 27, 1888, a white citizen decided to write a letter and have it published in the Arkansas Gazette to say : "the colored people have a right to complain at the treatment they have received, and the statement which you publish, though somewhat exaggerated, is in the main about correct.” This was to say that yes we are harassing these people and we are not ashamed of it.
The harassment continued and on October 1892, thirty white men issued a letter to all of the African American members of Paragould that stated that they all had three days and three nights to leave the town. The Arkansas Gazette again published an article that stated that the leading citizens were opposed to the racial cleansing. The Arkansas Gazette claimed that this racial cleanings took place because of the murder of Monroe Pulley, and being such a detailed newspaper, “the Gazette published no details of the murder.” By the time the Gazette published the news of the black citizens being forced to leave Paragould, most of the African Americans had left or was in the act of doing so.
Paragould was not the only place in Arkansas where African Americans endured harassment. Guy writes about the town of Cotter, which was a town that attracted a lot of African Americans because of the construction of the White River Railroad. The white community was against African Americans becoming a part of their community, and in response the local newspaper published an article on the front page that states: “There is a strong feeling against the Negro in Cotter and the county, and the feeling is growing. It is quite likely there will not be a colored person in Baxter county [sic] within a year. They are not wanted."
Harassment and fear tactics were used in many towns in Arkansas to get rid of African Americans. In September 1919 the Elaine Race Massacre took place and many lives were taken by violence. African American sharecroppers were attending a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America, so that they could demand better treatment from the white plantation owners. There were guards placed outside to prevent any act of violence, but shots were fired and that is how the massacre began. Governor Charles Hillman Brough sent troops from Camp Pike in Little Rock to reestablish peace, but it is also said that many of the troops engaged in murdering African Americans in Elaine. Over 100 African American were killed in this massacre. The next few days after the massacre, African American children, men, and women were taken to the Elaine schoolhouse, where they were questioned and tortured by officials, troops, and planters. After two to three days of this treatment the African Americans were released and put back in the fields to bring in cotton.
African Americans have had to endure mental and physical abuse from whites. This harassment didn’t fall upon deaf ears or blind eyes because it was put in newspapers like the Arkansas Gazette, but no one helped. No one helped the African American community of Paragould and no one helped the African American people during the Elaine Race Massacre. Indeed many if the black decided to stay in Paragould, but in very small numbers. In 1930 there was a report of a record low of twenty-two African Americans, and later in 1940 that number jumped to fifty-six. The small number of African American children did not receive education in Paragould; instead they were sent to a black school in Jonesboro that was about 20-30 minutes away.
Lancaster, Guy. "Negroes Are Leaving Paragould by Hundreds": Racial Cleansing in a Northeast
Arkansas Railroad Town, 1880-1920s." Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies 41.1 (2010): 3-15. EBSCOhost. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 July 2013.