Elaine Race Riot - The Trials

The Trials

In October and November 1919, an Arkansas grand jury returned indictments against 122 blacks. Since most blacks had been disfranchised by Arkansas' requirements, they were not allowed to serve as jurors, therefore the jury members were all white. There were 73 charges of murder, plus charges of conspiracy and insurrection.

Those blacks willing to testify against others and who agreed to work for a period without pay as determined by their landlords were set free. Those who refused to comply with those conditions, or were labeled ringleaders or were judged unreliable, were indicted. According to the affidavits later supplied by the defendants, many of the prisoners had been beaten, whipped or tortured by electric shocks to extract testimony or confessions. They were threatened with death if they were to recant their testimony.

The trials were held only a month after the events, in the courthouse in Elaine, Phillips County. Mobs of armed whites milling around the courthouse. Some members of the audience were armed as well. The lawyers for the defense did not subpoena witnesses for the defense and did not allow their clients to testify. Twelve of the defendants were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Their trials lasted less than an hour in many cases; the juries took less than ten minutes to deliberate before pronouncing them guilty and sentencing them to death. The Arkansas Gazette applauded the trials as the triumph of the rule of law, as none of the defendants had been lynched.

Thirty-six defendants chose to plead guilty to second-degree murder rather than face trial. Sixty-seven other defendants were convicted and sentenced to various terms up to 21 years.