This field looks like so many other countless fields across the Delta, yet it hides a deep and sinister history. This photograph was taken by the location of the Hoop Spur church, which would sadly become the catalyst of the Elaine Massacre, one of the most horrific tragedies in the history of Arkansas.br/br/ On September 30, 1919, about 100 Black sharecroppers met at the Hoop Spur church to discuss joining the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. They had wanted to gain better payments for their cotton crops from the white plantation owners. The details of what happened are murky and have been lost to time, but itrsquo;s believed that a group of local white men fired shots into the church. Armed guards provided by the union returned fire, and in the resulting chaos one of the white men was killed, and another was wounded.br/ br/In response, a mob of white vigilantes and US Army soldiers poured into the area, fearing that there was a ldquo;Black revolt.rdquo; Armed posses began shooting Black people indiscriminately, and slaughtered others as they worked in the fields or fled into the forests or canebrakes for shelter. A reporter for the Arkansas Gazette wrote that soldiers ldquo;committed one murder after another with all the calm deliberation in the world, either too heartless to realize the enormity of their crimes, or too drunk on moonshine to give a continental darn.rdquo; br/ br/The death toll from the Elaine Massacre is unknown, but there are estimates that several hundred people were murdered in around this field. The church at Hoop Spur no longer stands, it was burned down shortly after the shooting. I donrsquo;t know if it was just my imagination, but there was definitely an uncomfortable and eerie feeling in these fields near Elaine. An overwhelming sense that something awful happened here seems to have seeped into the soil and was as thick in the air as the summer humidity.br/br/ br/ Taken: 2020