Markers on Civil Rights trail to 12 from Elaine

LITTLE ROCK — Markers to 12 men convicted of murder and sentenced to death, before eventually being released, in connection with the Elaine Race Massacre will be placed along the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock said a marker to each of what is known as the “Elaine 12” will be located along the trail from the Old State House Convention Center to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock. They are to be unveiled Tuesday.

The men were black sharecroppers convicted and sentenced by an all-white jury following the 1919 massacre in eastern Arkansas during what is known as “Red Summer” when hundreds of African Americans nationwide were slain by white mobs.

More than 200 people died in Elaine, mostly black men, women and children.

show the trial of 54-year-old Lonnie Joseph Parker was postponed on Wednesday from Nov. 20 until April 13.

The delay was requested by new defense attorney John Wesley Hall, who was named as Parker’s defense attorney on Oct. 24.

Parker has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of prescribing without a legitimate medical purpose. An indictment says he prescribed about 1.2 million dosages of opiates approximately 16 gallons of cough syrup during a two year period.

Parker was convicted in 2000 of possessing child pornography and served more than four years in prison. The state Medical Board reinstated his license in 2015.