Race, Labor, and Violence in the Delta examines the history of labor
relations and racial conflict in the Mississippi Valley from the Civil
War into the late twentieth century. This essay collection grew out of a
conference marking the hundredth anniversary of one of the nation's
deadliest labor conflicts--the 1919 Elaine Massacre, during which white
mobs ruthlessly slaughtered over two hundred African Americans across
Phillips County, Arkansas, in response to a meeting of unionized Black
sharecroppers. The essays here demonstrate that the brutality that
unfolded in Phillips County was characteristic of the culture of race-
and labor-based violence that prevailed in the century after the Civil
War. They detail how Delta landowners began seeking cheap labor as soon
as the slave system ended--securing a workforce by inflicting racial
terror, eroding the Reconstruction Amendments in the courts, and
obstructing federal financial-relief efforts. The result was a system of
peonage that continued to exploit Blacks and poor whites for their
labor, sometimes fatally. In response, laborers devised their own
methods for sustaining themselves and their communities: forming unions,
calling strikes, relocating, and occasionally operating outside the law.
By shedding light on the broader context of the Elaine Massacre, Race,
Labor, and Violence in the Delta reveals that the fight against white
supremacy in the Delta was necessarily a fight for better working
conditions, fair labor practices, and economic justice.
