In a small town in southwestern Arkansas, in the back of a segregated cemetery lies the graves of a few of my great-great-grandparents. The oldest was born in 1873. This was 10 years after the Emancipation Proclamation & 8 years after the American Civil War officially ended. Arkansas was a member of the Southern Confederacy. He was a part of the 1st generation of African Americans born after slavery was abolished.
They were not slaves, but they were 2nd class citizens at best. Segregation was in place & officials made voting impossible. Before my great-great-grandfather turned 20, there were at least 100 recorded lynchings that took place across the state, including near his hometown the 1879 lynching of a man and his two sons for trying to pay for something with a $50 bill.
My great-grandfather was 3 years old during the Elaine Massacre of 1919. A riot took place after Black sharecroppers tried to organize to negotiate for better accounting and payment matters with White landowners. An estimated 200 people died.
My great-grandmother moved to Los Angeles around 1950 for a better life, leading to my birth 29 years later.
Rose Hedge Cemetery, Gordon, Arkansas, June 20, 2022
