25. Rumors Spread About A Black Insurrection
The idea of African American sharecroppers organizing into a union already threatened the economic system that much of the agrarian South was built on. In an area teeming with racist hatred, especially during the Red Summer, there were fears that the African Americans were actually planning a revolution.
People quickly spread rumors throughout Phillips County, the rural area in which the town of Elaine sat, about a black uprising. Some even printed posters and distributed them to alert suspicions and feed the mob mentality that was quickly taking over.
