, Columnists
Look What Has Been Taken From Black Americans
One 1919 riot in rural Arkansas cost Black farmers more than $10 million.
Whose cotton is it?
Photographer: Russell Lee/Archive Photos/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Americans are learning more and more about their country’s tragic racial history — about the myriad Black lives and livelihoods that have been destroyed and stolen, from the days of slavery to the death of George Floyd. But how, as part of any effort at conciliation, can our nation place a value on what has been taken?
The example of one little-known event — the Elaine, Arkansas massacre of 1919 — offers some insight.