The Red Summer - Ellisville
United States History Untold
The Red Summer -- Ellisville
On June 9, 1919, a White woman named Ruth Meeks reported that she had been attacked on her way home from her job as a hotel clerk. John Hartfield, a Black man, threatened her with a gun, she told police. He then took her to a railroad trestle and raped her, afterwards he took her under a sweet gum tree near a pasture and ran away with her clothes, she said.
Police reported finding the woman’s clothing at Hartfield’s house. He was shot and captured on June 24th as he tried to board a train. The sheriff held him in jail but a large mob of White men took him away with no resistance from the sheriff. The mob of White men began to organize Hartfield’s lynching.
A White doctor was ordered, by the lynchers, to treat Hartfield’s injuries and keep him alive until they could kill him. The doctor told them they had better move fast; Hartfield would not last 24 hours.
On June 26th, as many as 10,000 Whites gathered in a field just outside of Ellisville, Mississippi to watch John Hartfield get lynched. Vendors sold flags, trinkets and souvenir photographs. Local politicians delivered speeches. Young boys climbed into the trees to look down at the screaming Hartfield.
NAACP officials sent a telegram to Governor Theodore Bilbo, asking him to intervene. Governor Bilbo issued a public statement that he was powerless in this situation. “The Negro has confessed, says he is ready to die and nobody can keep the inevitable from happening,” he said.
Newspaper accounts state that “not less than 2,000 bullets were fired into his body. One of them finally clipped the rope.” John Hartfield’s body fell to the ground and a fire was built around it. The body was burnt to ashes.
Despite the large crowd that witnessed the lynching, none of the White men that took Hartfield from jail or the organizers of the lynching, which was widely publicized, were ever identified, though thousands saw them commit the heinous murder.
One vendor who had one of Hartfield’s fingers stated, “We orter kill more of ‘em around here. Teach ‘em a lesson. Only way I see to stop raping is to keep on lynching. I’m goner put this finger on exhibition in my store window tomorrow, boys, and I want you to drop around.”
The federal government did nothing. Days later, Whites killed a Black man in neighboring Perry County after hearing him mention Hartfield’s death. Governor Bilbo “blamed the French for the increasing violence in the U.S., claiming they had put ideas of equality in the heads of Negroes. He said, “this is a White man’s country, with a White man’s civilization and any dream on the part of the Negro race to share social and political equality will be shattered in the end.”
Only 14 of the 77 Black men lynched in 1919 were accused of assaulting a White woman. In a society of laws, each citizen deserved the constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair trial and due process.
Despite isolated political efforts to curb racial violence or individual attempts to secure a fair trial, no national governmental effort developed to stop the anti-black rioting and lynching. So it spread like wild-fire, feeding off news accounts, deep-seated prejudice, and general anxiety.
About the Creator
Glenda Davis
The purpose of this blog will be to discuss race relations, learn history and hopefully help us all to be more patient, understanding and empathetic.
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The Red Summer - Charleston
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By Glenda Davis5 years ago in The Swamp
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Thank you so much for writing about my Great Uncle John. I'm shaking after reading the details...