27. Sensational Headlines Fed The Rumors
The Little Rock Gazette, a newspaper that circulated throughout Arkansas, published headlines about a rebellion that African American sharecroppers were planning. The paper even claimed that African Americans had calculated plans to murder whites and were amassing weapons.
The headline even claimed that 21 white men had been selected as the first victims in mass slaughter and that African Americans would “kill every white person in sight.” The inflammatory headline further incited the racial tensions that were already rampant and ensured that nothing short of a massacre would be the result.
