In an Ark. town, echoes of a century-old massacre скачать в хорошем качестве

In an Ark. town, echoes of a century-old massacre

(25 Jul 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus120937 NATS (children playing) ELAINE, ARKANSAS' MAIN STREET CONSISTS OF SHELLS OF SHUTTERED STORE FRONTS - SOME WITH DUSTY ITEMS STILL ON DISPLAY. UPSOUND (English) Vera White, Elaine, Arkansas resident: "Just a little old country town. We barely do have a store." THE TOWN'S HISTORY GIVES THIS VACANT SCENERY SOME HAUNTING CONTEXT. 100 YEARS AGO IN ELAINE, WHITE MOBS MASSACRED HUNDREDS OF BLACK MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN - IN ONE OF THE BLOODIEST RACIAL CONFRONTATIONS IN AMERICA'S HISTORY. SOUNDBITE (English) James White, Elaine Legacy Center Director: "People still don't talk about it.// A lot of people got killed and really wasn't nobody that was brought to justice. You know, they owned land. They had to run off and leave it. Because they were scared." IT BEGAN ON A LATE SEPTEMBER EVENING IN 1919... A GROUP OF BLACK SHARECROPPERS WERE MEETING JUST NORTH OF ELAINE TO DEMAND BETTER PAY FOR THEIR COTTON CROPS. BUT A DEPUTY SHERIFF AND SECURITY OFFICER - BOTH WHITE - SHOWED UP, AND FIGHTING ERUPTED. THE SECURITY OFFICER WAS KILLED. WHAT FOLLOWED WAS WHAT'S KNOWN AS "THE ELAINE MASSACRE" - MOBS OF WHITE MEN FLOODED INTO THE TOWN, KILLING AN ESTIMATED 200 BLACK PEOPLE. FIVE WHITE PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES. HUNDREDS OF BLACK PEOPLE WERE ALSO ARRESTED AND JAILED. GFX THE MASSACRE WAS A PART OF DOZENS OF RACE RIOTS AND CONFRONTATIONS THAT BROKE OUT ACROSS THE U-S, FROM LATE SPRING TO EARLY AUTUMN IN 1919. IT WAS KNOWN AS "RED SUMMER" - BECAUSE OF THE SEVERE RACIAL BLOODSHED. GFX ENDS NATS JAMES WHITE WAS BORN IN ELAINE - HIS GRANDMOTHER TOLD HIM STORIES OF HOW BLACK RESIDENTS HID IN SWAMPS TO ESCAPE THE VIOLENCE. NOW - HE IS THE DIRECTOR OF THE ELAINE LEGACY CENTER - AN ORGANIZATION THAT'S FOCUSED ON PRESERVING THE TOWN'S CIVIL RIGHTS HISTORY. NARRATIVES ABOUT THE VIOLENCE IN ELAINE DIFFER. RESEARCHER BRIAN MITCHELL HAS BEEN TRYING TO SORT THROUGH THEM. SOUNDBITE (English) Brian Mitchell, University of Arkansas-Little Rock Professor: "Everybody that had some degree of power in the state or in this county was a part of the process of the massacre, so the people who would control all the records are actively suppressing the records." BUT SOME ARE TRYING TO CHANGE THAT - AS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY APPROACHES IN SEPTEMBER. UPSOUND (English) Kyle Miller, Descendant of Elaine Massacre Victim: "For so long, the Elaine massacre was not really acknowledged// It was something that was only talked about behind closed doors." KYLE MILLER AND OTHERS, INCLUDING SOME WHITE DESCENDANTS OF THOSE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE VIOLENCE, WANT RECOGNITION OF THE MASSACRE IN A REGION WHERE THERE ARE STILL MANY WHO DOUBT THE SEVERITY OF THE BLOODSHED. A LARGE, SWOOPING CONCRETE MONUMENT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION ACROSS FROM THE PHILLIPS COUNTY COURTHOUSE IN HELENA - ABOUT A HALF HOUR FROM ELAINE. NATS (Elaine)   BUT NOT EVERYONE SUPPORTS THE EFFORT - SOME RESIDENTS IN ELAINE ARE ANGRY THE MEMORIAL IS BEING BUILT OUTSIDE THEIR TOWN. SOUNDBITE (English) James White, Elaine Legacy Center: "If you said '1919' what do you think of? Elaine. You don't think of Helena.// It was Elaine and it should have been in Elaine." THOSE BEHIND THE MONUMENT DEFEND ITS PLACEMENT - SAYING THE MASSACRE WAS BIGGER THAN THE SMALL, RELATIVELY INACCESSIBLE TOWN OF ELAINE. SOUNDBITE (English) Kyle Miller, Descendant of Elaine Massacre Victim: "It was really more of a strategic thing than anything.// We wanted something that people would be able to easily find and locate." BUT MEMBERS OF THE ELAINE LEGACY CENTER SAY BUILDING A MONUMENT MISSES THE MARK  - FOR WHITE, Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...