Elaine Massacre film debut set

The Arkansas Cinema Society and the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts will host the Arkansas premiere of “We Have Just Begun,” the story of the 1919 Elaine Massacre and Dispossession, at 6 p.m. on Jan. 19 in the Performing Arts Theater at AMFA in Little Rock.

The event is part of ACS’ Dreamland Film Series. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $15 and tickets can be purchased at the door or at https://www.arkansascinemasociety.org/programs/ we-have-just-begun.

Filmmaker Michael Warren Wilson will be on-hand for a Q+A after the film premiere.

“Deep in the Arkansas Delta lies the legacy of the worst race or labor battle in American history — hidden and obscured for over 100 years. This is the story of ‘We Have Just Begun,’” according to a news release.

According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the race riot occurred in Elaine (Phillips County) stemming from tense race relations and growing concerns about labor unions.

“A shooting incident that occurred at a meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union escalated into mob violence on the part of the white people in Elaine and surrounding areas. Although the exact number is unknown, estimates of the number of African Americans killed by whites have ranged into the hundreds; five white people lost their lives,” according to the article.

Wilson, director, co-producer, and co-writer of the film, said this screening at AMFA is important to raising awareness of the event and its correlation with current circumstances, according to the release.

“After interviewing dozens of descendants, historians, and current residents of the Delta, it’s clear to me that the Elaine Massacre was the deadliest race or labor battle in American history,” said Wilson. “Yet, despite growing up in Arkansas, I knew nothing about it prior to my research. The centennial in 2019 brought the event more publicity, but the full truth of it was obscured even then.

“The Elaine Massacre and subsequent dispossession of Black people have reverberated into the present. Today, the people of the Arkansas Delta have even fewer options, yet remain dominated by many of the same historical forces they fought in 1919. Elaine is in Arkansas. Understanding Elaine is to understand the ways in which capitalist domination and exploitation of the Delta has defined Arkansas economic and social life — activating and intensifying the racial legacies of enslavement and maintaining inequality in the region,” he said.

The Elaine Massacre also had local connections. Scipio Jones, a prominent attorney, is most significantly remembered for his role defending 12 men sentenced to death following the massacre. Jones was also married to Lillie M. Jackson of Pine Bluff, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Many Arkansans worked on the film, including Michelle Duster (great-granddaughter of Ida B. Wells); noted musician Joshua Asante (formerly of Amasa Hines); Cherisse Jones-Branch (Arkansas State University professor); Brian Mitchell (head of the Abraham Lincoln Archives in Illinois); retired Judge Wendell Griffen; and James White and Leonora Marshall (of the Elaine Legacy Center), along with various descendants of both massacre perpetrators and victims.

For tickets to “We Have Just Begun” or details, visit https://www.arkansascinemasociety.org/programs/wehave-just-begun.