Elaine, Arkansas is in Phillips County, one of the poorest counties in the United States, a flat expanse of deprivation where your Google Maps won’t keep you from getting lost. Elaine is lost. It looks like a place where nothing good has happened in a very long time. That's, at least in part, because something terrible happened there. Something a majority of Americans don't know about. I'm educated as a historian, but I lack the imprimatur of an advanced degree. I will do my best to offer a concise history lesson. The facts are straightforward. In order to escape destitution and indentured servitude, black sharecroppers in the Arkansas delta organized under the banner of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. On the 30th of September 1919, a prominent, white attorney named Ulysses Bratton traveled the three hours from Little Rock to meet with the workers to discuss strategy. They met at a small church on the outskirts of Elaine at a place cal
Music writing (and cultural commentary) for today's oddball.