Follow ABHMS executive director emeritus, colleague on historic pilgrimage this Saturday
American Baptist Home Mission Societies Executive Director Emeritus Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III will be joined by his New Baptist Covenant (NBC) co-executive director, Hannah McMahan King, on a pilgrimage for the 100th anniversary of the Elaine (Ark.) Race Massacre. Check NBC’s Facebook page to watch live video updates throughout Saturday, Sept. 28.
Dehumanized by a white-controlled exploitative sharecropping system, African American tenant farmers organized at Hoop Spur (Ark.) Church on Sept. 30, 1919. At approximately 11 p.m., a group of local white men fired shots into the church in an attempt to intimidate the African Americans striving for self-determination. Shots were returned, and a white man was killed. Rumors spread of black insurrection against white residents of rural Phillips County.
Within hours, 500 soldiers from nearby Camp Pike were ordered to shoot to kill. In addition, an estimated 1,000 white males from neighboring regions had descended on the Elaine community, indiscriminately killing 100-237 African American men, women and children who happened to be in the area. Four additional white men were killed.
Read more on NBC’s website.
