Elaine Race Riot
Overview
Elaine, Arkansas
Elaine is a city in Phillips County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 865 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Elaine is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....
in Phillips County, Arkansas, in the Arkansas Delta
Arkansas Delta
The Arkansas Delta is one of the five natural regions of the state of Arkansas. It runs along the eastern border of the state next to the Mississippi River. It is part of the Mississippi River alluvial plain, itself part of the Mississippi embayment...
, where sharecropping
Sharecropping
Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land . This should not be confused with a crop fixed rent contract, in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a fixed amount of...
by African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
farmers was prevalent on plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
s of white landowners.
Approximately 100 African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
farmers, led by Robert L. Hill
Robert L. Hill
Robert Lee Hill was an African American sharecropper from eastern Arkansas and founder of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America....
, the founder of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America
Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America
The Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America was a union of African-American tenant farmers . A meeting of this union at Hoop Spur, Arkansas, was attacked on September 30, 1919, leaving a white sheriff dead and sparking the famous Elaine Race Riot.The Progressive Farmers and Household...
, met at a meeting at a church in Hoop Spur in Phillips County, nearby Elaine.
