Folks,

I’m honored to be returning to Elaine, Arkansas this afternoon, where I’ll talk about our plans to spread preschool, broadband, and jobs (PB&J, for short) across this great state of ours.

And I don’t take this opportunity — this chance to talk about how we can all work together to build a better future — lightly.

You see, while I’m excited about today’s event, I’m also contemplating Elaine’s history.

Just over 100 years ago, Elaine was the site of a brutal massacre. Hundreds of Black farmers and businesses owners were murdered. Why? Because they dared to work together to build a better future. They dared to hope that their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren could dream even bigger dreams than they could.

This is a hidden story that must be told.

On the night of September 30, 1919, a group of Black sharecroppers got together at a church in Elaine to work on advocating for fairer wages.

A band of white men attacked them. Then, hundreds of soldiers (called into action by the governor) and vigilantes went on a killing spree. Over the next few days, they slaughtered hundreds of Black men, women, and children in the area. And they stripped Black families of land, businesses, and wealth that they had worked so hard for.

In the end, none of the white perpetrators were held accountable. Twelve Black men were sentenced to death, but later freed — the NAACP successfully took six of their cases all the way to the Supreme Court.

And the Elaine massacre was not an isolated incident. The “Red Summer” of 1919, as it’s been dubbed, was marked with white supremacist terrorism against Black communities across the country. These violent attacks targeted Black people who were building businesses and futures for their families — including Black veterans who’d just come home from WWI.

Ida B. Wells — the legendary, pioneering Black woman investigative journalist who raised her voice for anti-lynching legislation — documented the history of the Elaine massacre. Families passed down the stories of what had happened to mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters.

All too often, though, history books and school curricula have failed to share this chapter of Elaine’s history. They’ve erased the truth that all too often, when Black people worked hard for their families and organized together, they were met with racist violence.

But community members — and descendants of victims and perpetrators alike — have lifted up the story of the Elaine massacre and made sure it’s not forgotten.

I carry our state’s legacy in my heart as a seventh-generation Arkansan — whose ancestors labored in the soil of our state and made it possible for me to become a physicist, ordained minister, and candidate for Governor.

We must remember the souls of Elaine. We must continue to tell their stories. And we must honor them by building for the future — by coming together across lines of race and place to make change for all of our families.

So today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to visit Elaine and talk about my plans to bring opportunity to the Arkansas Delta.

I’ll listen to what folks in Elaine are saying about their needs and their hopes.

And as the first Black Governor of Arkansas, I’ll keep coming back to Elaine — and I’ll keep visiting every corner of this great state of ours — to check in and make sure we’re bringing results that people feel in their daily lives.

Thank you for everything you do to make this work and this campaign possible.

Together,

Chris Jones





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