“Voices of Elaine” will take place at The Central Theatre in February.
The Hot Springs NAACP will host “Voices of Elaine: The 1919 Arkansas Massacre and Its Ongoing Impact” to educate Arkansans on the history of the Elaine massacre in 1919.
The symposium features the 2022 documentary film We have just begun – The 1919 Elaine Massacre and Dispossession at 11 AM, Feb. 4, 2023, at The Central Theatre, 1008 Central Avenue.
The film explores a deadly chain of events that takes place when a group of black farmers organize to obtain a fair price for their cotton crop to escape subsistence living. Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2, 1919, hundreds of African Americans were massacred in and around Elaine in Phillips County, Arkansas. The bloody event in the Arkansas Delta has been one of the worst, little-known secrets in history.
After the film, Arkansas Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen will be the keynote speaker. Griffen is a competency and inclusion consultant, trial and appellate lawyer, trial and appellate judge, legal scholar, religious leader, and social commentator.
The symposium will conclude with a descendants-of-Elaine panel discussion and Q&A. The descendants will discuss their reality, past and present, and how they envision the future of Elaine.
Tickets, including a box lunch, are $18 before January 28, and $25 after. Student tickets: $10. Purchase at VoicesofElaineHS.org. Proceeds benefit the Elaine Museum and Richard Wright Civil Rights Center. For more information visit ElaineMuseum.org
