In my recent post on the Springfield Massacre of 1908, I discussed a disturbing fact of American history. The nation suffered from hundreds of attacks/massacres/eliminations of African Americans in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Yet, most people today know nothing about any of them. So, in this post I’ll relate the story of another, similar, incident: the 1896 Polk County Race War in Arkansas.
Calling this event a race war is a little misleading. A war generally indicates a declared state of hostility between two professional armies. That isn’t what happened in Polk County in 1896. Here is the story. Railroads were laying track in Polk County at this time, seeking to tap into Arkansas’s natural resources such as timber. At the end of July about 30 African American workers entered the county to work. On August 5, enraged whites ran them out. The next day more African American workers arrived. The railroad (the Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Gulf Railway) pledged guards to protect the workers.
Trouble was imminent, the Arkansas Gazette stating, “Polk County citizens say they have no negroes there nor will they permit them to come and work on the railroad.” A report from Texarkana for the Salt Lake Herald stated, “The natives have served notice that Sambo must move on, as it is against their religion to permit them to desecrate their soil with pick and shovel or otherwise.”
The Polk County Race War Begins
On August 6 local Arkansans attacked the camp of the workers. Abetting them were a “mob” of immigrants from Sweden, Italy, and Hungary. (That’s right. As if the racism wasn’t enough, southern blacks sometimes drew the hatred of immigrant workers as well.) When the attack ceased, three workers lay dead. Another eight suffered injuries.
Sadly, we don’t know what happened after that. Sources don’t offer much help. But further trouble may have taken place. The railroad announced its intention to bring in more workers, so the potential for more violence certainly existed.
The Polk County Race War might seem a minor blip, given that about a dozen people suffered injury or death during its course. But as I explained in the last post, this is just one example out of many in Arkansas during this decade alone. Time and again, Polk County whites sought to drive African Americans from the town of Mena. Other incidents included violence at the Hawthorne Mills near El Dorado, action at a lumber mill in Canfield, on the railway of the Cotton Belt Railroad in Ouachita County, and at the McNeil sawmill in December. That is just the state of Arkansas in the year 1896. And just the examples that someone recorded and we know about.
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It Just Continues
Hopefully, I’ve established by now that these types of incidents were much more common than most of us believe. The consequences go farther than that, however. Each of these events made news. That news spread and had a psychological impact on those who heard it. For many whites, it inspired them to imitate the violence. The chance of punishment was so remote that they had little to lose when taking out their anger and prejudice on black Arkansans.
Also consider the psychological impact on African Americans. It was easy for one’s whole reality to become pervaded with fear, wondering what minor thing might set off a rampage. This contributed to the fog of fear clouding the southern landscape for African Americans for generations. For those who have never experienced it, it’s impossible, perhaps, to understand what this felt like. Most of us are lucky we have no idea; it’s not something I’d wish on anyone. But that is how these seemingly small events multiply in terms of their impact.
In my next post I’ll relate one further example from my former home in Arkansas. It didn’t directly result in death, but it shows another way in which local whites tried to control the lives of African Americans.
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