Mobs, Murder, and Mayhem: Race and Collective Violence in Arkansas
UALR History Department
Course Syllabus
Fall Semester 2011
Course Code:
Taught at:
Time of classes:
Course Instructor:
E-mail contact:
Office:
Office Hours:
HIST 4390
Arkansas Studies Institute (ASI)
Monday, 6:00–8:40 p.m.
Dr. Guy Lancaster
glancaster@cals.lib.ar.us or galancaster@ualr.edu
ASI 312
Usually 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. weekdays
Course Outline:
Typically, cases of racialized violence in America—such as lynchings or massacres—
have been classified under the specialized rubric of black history. This poses a number of
interesting problems. Most notably, such a classification individualizes the perpetrators of
these violent acts at the expense of collectivizing the victims; in other words, African
Americans are seen as possessing a shared history by dint of frequently being the target
of racialized violence, while white Americans do not collectively bear any stigma for
being the more frequent perpetrators of such violence. However, when examining
historical and current cases of genocide, ethnic cleansing, or persecution which occur
elsewhere in the world, we frequently speak of the perpetrators collectively as “the
Serbs,” “the Germans,” or “the Hutus.”
This course seeks to move beyond older explanations of collective violence as dependent
upon “mob psychology”—that is, as being fundamentally irrational and emotional—and
instead demonstrate how such violence, in America, is the logical outcome of the
institution of white supremacy, with a focus upon the Arkansas experience. In order to do
this, students will read scholarly works on the subject of white supremacy, as well as a
series of works covering very specific instances of racial violence in the state of
Arkansas. Along the way, students will interrogate the system of white supremacy
manifest during these years and ask whether it makes sense to think of Arkansas whites
as being collectively responsible for the violence which unfolded, especially given that
class, ethnic, and geographical differences among Arkansas whites made manifest not
only different forms of collective violence but also conflict among whites themselves
regarding the ends of such violent acts.
Please note that this course seeks to expand upon what subjects are traditionally
considered part of the field of history and will be somewhat interdisciplinary in scope,
incorporating, for example, one text written by a philosopher, as well as classroom
discussion extending beyond the field of history. However, students are not expected to
have any prior background in the fields of philosophy, psychology, or sociology—this
background will be provided in the classroom lectures.
Course Weekly Assignments
Each class has an introduction to the material, questions for discussion, and suggestions
for further reading. At the beginning of each class, readings and assignments will be set
for the following week. If you are absent from class, it is your responsibility to find out
what your assignment is for the following week by e-mailing the course instructor at the
e-mail address provided above. Absence from one class is not an excuse for lack of
preparation for the next.
Course Communication with Instructor
All communication with the instructor outside of the classroom should be posted via email to galancaster@ualr.edu or glancaster@cals.lib.ar.us or by phone. I am happy to
meet students outside of class by prior arrangement if you e-mail or call for an
appointment.
Course Attendance and Participation Policy
Attendance and participation at all classes—which means turning up and being able to
clearly demonstrate through class contributions that you have read the assigned material
and prepared answers to the questions set—is mandatory. Occasional emergencies and
illnesses do occur. Please contact the instructor as far in advance as possible at the e-mail
address provided above if this is the case. All valid absences MUST be documented (for
example, a letter from your employer, primary care provider, etc.). Persistent absence
from class, whether documented or not, may result in the award of an “F” grade for the
course. Persistent lateness to or early departures from class may result in the deduction of
participation marks. There is no make-up work on this course. There is no extra credit on
this course. Please also note the following from the university Student Handbook, which
also applies to this course:
Each faculty member has the prerogative of setting specific attendance
requirements for classes. In some courses, active student participation is
an integral part of the course, and the instructor may base a portion of the
students’ grades on attendance and participation. In general, students are
expected to attend class regularly. Students who miss class are responsible
for finding out about the material covered, homework assignments, and
any announcements or examinations. Students may be administratively
withdrawn from a class by the instructor for excessive absences during the
semester.
Course Grading System
A = 90%-100%
B = 80%=90%
C = 70%-80%
D = 60%-70%
F = 0%-50%
Course Late Submission of Work Policy
Work not submitted on time will lose ten percent per day. Work handed in over a week
late will automatically be given a mark of zero.
Course Assignment Citations and Formatting
All written work for this course follows the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. A
summary guide to this style may be found at the Chicago Manual of Style's Style Citation
Quick Guide webpage: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html.
Further information on how to handle primary sources in this style is available here:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/chicago.html. This course uses the
“note and bibliography” style rather than the “in-text citation and reference-list” style.
Students with Disabilities
It is the policy and practice of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to create
inclusive learning environments. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this
course that result in barriers to your inclusion or to accurate assessment of achievement—
such as time-limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned
videos—please notify the instructor as soon as possible. Students are also welcome to
contact the Disability Resource Center, telephone 501-569-3143 (v/tty). For more
information, visit the DRC website at http:www.ualr.edu/disability.
Classroom Etiquette
Please turn off cell phones and beepers before entering the classroom or set them to a
silent alert. Do not read or send text messages or take or make calls in class. In the rare
event you must enter late or leave class early, please let the course instructor know in
advance. Please be considerate and respectful of others at all times in the classroom.
Cheating and Plagiarism
Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses and will be treated as such. “Plagiarism”
means “to adopt and reproduce as one’s own, to appropriate to one’s use, and incorporate
in one’s own work without acknowledgment the ideas of others or passages from their
writings and works.” See Section VI, Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and
Behavior, Student Handbook, page 39. Copying directly from the textbook or an
encyclopedia article without quotation marks or an identifying citation, for example,
constitutes plagiarism. Anyone who engages in such activities will receive a failing grade
in the course and will be turned over to the Academic Integrity and Grievance Committee
for University disciplinary action, which may include separation from the University.
Disclaimer
Class content, times, and location may change if unforeseen circumstances arise. The
instructor will seek to alert students as soon as is practically possible under such
circumstances. The instructor reserves the right to waive any of the terms and conditions
outlined in the syllabus, but this is entirely at the instructor’s discretion.
Required readings (books):
Mills, Charles W. The Racial Contract. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Roediger, David R. How Race Survived U.S. History: From Settlement and Slavery to the
Obama Phenomenon. Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2008.
Stockey, Grif. Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacre of 1919. Fayetteville:
University of Arkansas Press, 2001.
Required readings (articles):
Note: Most of these articles are through the UALR library or Central Arkansas Library
System online databases, either Academic Search or J-STOR; too, copies of most of these
journals are in the collections of both the UALR library and the Arkansas Studies
Institute. Entries of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture are available online.
Students may obtain these however they prefer and use whatever medium they prefer, be
it print or electronic, for the reading of these articles and in the classroom setting.
Lloyd, Peggy S. “The Howard County Race Riot of 1883.” Arkansas Historical
Quarterly 59 (Winter 2000): 353–387.
Vinikas, Vincent. “Specters in the Past: The Saint Charles, Arkansas, Lynching of 1904
and the Limits of Historical Inquiry.” Journal of Southern History 65 (August 1999):
535–564.
Holmes, William F. “The Arkansas Cotton Pickers Strike of 1891 and the Demise of the
Colored Farmers’ Alliance.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 32 (Summer 1973): 107–119.
Welch, Melanie K. “Violence and the Decline of Black Politics in St. Francis County.”
Arkansas Historical Quarterly 60 (Winter 2001): 360–393.
Lancaster, Guy. “‘Negroes Warned to Leave Town’: The Bonanza Race War of 1904.”
Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society 34 (April 2010): 24–29. Online at
http://library.uafortsmith.edu/fshsj/34-01_Complete_Issue.pdf
Froelich, Jacqueline, and David Zimmerman. “Total Eclipse: The Destruction of the
African American Community of Harrison, Arkansas, in 1905 and 1909.” Arkansas
Historical Quarterly 58 (Summer 1999): 133–159.
Lancaster, Guy. “‘Negroes Are Leaving Paragould by Hundreds’: Racial Cleansing in a
Northeast Arkansas Railroad Town.” Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies 41
(April 2010): 3–15.
Entries from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
(http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/):
Argenta Race Riot
Back-to-Africa Movement
Carter, John (Lynching of)
Catcher Race Riot
Convict Lease System
Election Law of 1891
Jim Crow Laws
Ku Klux Klan (Reconstruction)
Ku Klux Klan (after 1900)
Lynching
Night Riders
One Drop Rule
Peonage
Race Riots
Sharecropping and Tenant Farming
Sundown Towns
Class Schedule:
August 22:
First meeting, distribution of syllabus, aim of course, explanation of terms
August 29:
Mills, The Racial Contract, 1–40. Lecture: Historical Evolution of Race/Ethnicity
September 5:
No Class (Labor Day)
September 12:
Mills, The Racial Contract, 41–133
September 19:
Roediger, How Race Survived, ix–98
September 26:
Roediger, How Race Survived, 99–230
October 3:
Arkansas history overview. EOA entries “Ku Klux Klan (Reconstruction),” “Jim Crow
Laws,” “Lynching,” “Race Riots,” “Back-to-Africa Movement,” “Sharecropping and
Tenant Farming,” “Night Riders,” “Peonage,” “Election Law of 1891,” “Convict Lease
System,” “Sundown Towns,” “One-drop Rule”
October 10:
Lloyd, “Howard County Race Riot”; Vinikas, “St. Charles Lynching”
FIRST PAPERS DUE
October 17:
Welch, “St. Francis County”; Holmes, “Cotton Pickers Strike”
October 24:
Lancaster, “Bonanza Race War”; EOA entry “Argenta Race Riot”; EOA entry “Carter,
John (Lynching of)”
October 31:
Froelich and Zimmerman, “Total Eclipse”; Lancaster, “Negroes Are Leaving Paragould”;
EOA entry “Catcher Race Riot”
November 7:
Stockley, Blood in Their Eyes, xii–105
November 14:
Stockley, Blood in Their Eyes, 106–233
November 21:
Lecture: Theories of Collective Violence
November 28:
Lecture: Defining Evil and Judging Ancestors
SECOND PAPER DUE
December 5:
Discussion of student research
THIRD PAPER DUE
Assignments:
1. A 1,200–1,500-word paper offering a comparison and contrast of The Racial
Contract and How Race Survived U.S. History, discussing how each work can be
used to inform the other, problems inherent in either one or the other approach,
etc.
2. A 7–8-page paper comparing and contrasting two of the Arkansas-specific events
discussed during the course, analyzing them in the light of classroom analysis of
white supremacy and collective violence. Students should seek to answer in each
case who exactly is the object of the violence, who exactly is the perpetrator, who
is benefitting from the violence, how such violence advances white supremacy,
and in what respect is the violence truly collective.
3. A small summary of approximately 1,000 words, written like an entry you might
find in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, of an event of racial violence that has not
yet been discussed in long form anywhere. These are events I have come upon in
various readings, and so where possible I’ve listed the source I was using, though
it may not be the best. Because this is meant to be a short summary, not a whole
lot of detail of analysis will be required.
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
1897 Prescott murder (July 26, 1897, New York Times)
Hampton Race War of 1892 (see Moneyhon, Arkansas and the New South, 90)
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1921 lynching of Henry Lowery (see Stockley, Ruled by Race, 187)
Mississippi County 1915 (March 25, 1915, New York Times)
Van Buren County expulsion 1883 (see Moneyhon, Arkansas and the New South
73)
Little River County lynchings March 1899 (Stockley, Ruled by Race, 131–132;
March 24, 1899, Mena Star)
1897–1898 Attempted Lonoke County expulsions (see January 1 and 29, 1898,
New York Times; February 10, 1898, Southwestern Christian Advocate), 1905
Lonoke County Club (see Moneyhon, Arkansas and the New South, 106; MatkinRawn, “We Fight for the Rights of Our Race”)
El Dorado Race Riot, February 26, 1910 (see Mena Star, February 28, 1910)
Jonesboro lynching of March 1881
Ideally, each student would choose a different subject about which to write. If this modest
list is not enough for the class, the professor can easily provide more events.
The online Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture
(www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net) provides trustworthy entries on counties and towns
and will direct you to additional resources regarding local history. The research room of
the Arkansas Studies Institute contains a wealth of local history books and journals. The
Main Library downtown holds complete runs of the Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas
Democrat on microfilm, as well as the New York Times. In addition, the Arkansas
Gazette Index, also located in the periodicals department, will direct readers to more
precise dates for events in question, at least for pre-1900 events, though readers will want
to look under “negroes” as a starting point.
The Arkansas History Commission (www.ark-ives.com) has, in addition to the Gazette
and Democrat, runs for many local and regional newspapers; if the particular town or
county you are researching has no available newspaper records, try a nearby town or
county. The Arkansas History Commission also has a great collection of county records
on microfilm, in addition to other official documents. In addition, all students are greatly
encouraged to subscribe to the Arkansas History Discussion Group listserv
(http://libinfo.uark.edu/specialcollections/arkansas/#arhist). Many experts in state and
local history subscribe to this and are more than eager to help students and other
researchers with their problems or quandaries. The Arkansas Periodicals Index
(http://arkindex.uark.edu/) is also a good source.
Chances are that students will only need to locate a few newspaper records to complete
this assignment, but this is simply to provide information as to where materials may be
located, especially if students seek to turn their brief entries into longer papers at some
point in the future. There is the possibility the professor will want these entries used in
the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Students should be prepared to discuss their findings for
the last class, December 5.
Grading:
Classroom participation: 20%
First paper: 20%
Second paper: 30%
Third paper: 30%
Suggested readings:
The following are a list of works on both general Southern history, Arkansas, history,
history of race, and the theory of violence and terror which may be of use to students of
this class. These are not required readings but may aid students as they seek to develop
their paper topics or if they desire to explore these issues further in another class or in a
thesis.
Arkansas and Southern History:
Arsenault, Raymond. Wild Ass of the Ozarks: Jeff Davis and the Social Bases of Southern
Politics. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1984.
Ayers, Edward. The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992.
Barnes, Kenneth C. Journey of Hope: The Back-to-Africa Movement in Arkansas in the
Late 1800s. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
———. Who Killed John Clayton? Political Violence and the Emergence of the New
South, 1861–1893. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998.
Gordon, Fon Louise. Caste and Class: The Black Experience in Arkansas, 1880–1920.
Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995.
Graves, John William. Town and Country: Race Relations in an Urban-Rural Context,
Arkansas, 1865–1905. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1990.
Harper, Kimberly. White Man’s Heaven: The Lynching and Expulsion of Blacks in the
Southern Ozarks, 1894–1909. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2010.
Lancaster, Guy. “‘They Are Not Wanted’: The Extirpation of African Americans from
Baxter County, Arkansas.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 69 (Spring 2010): 28–44.
Matkin-Rawn, Story L. “‘We Fight for the Rights of Our Race’: Black Arkansans in the
Era of Jim Crow.” Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2009.
Moneyhon, Carl. Arkansas and the New South, 1874–1929. Fayetteville: University of
Arkansas Press, 1997.
Nevels, Cythnia Skove. Lynching to Belong: Claiming Whiteness through Racial
Violence. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007.
Robles, Josh. “Amity’s Lost Black Community.” Clark County Historical Journal 33
(2006): 8–16.
Stockley, Grif. Ruled by Race: Black/White Relations in Arkansas from Slavery to the
Present. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2009.
Whayne, Jeannie M. “Law, Villains and Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in
the Elaine Riots.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 58 (Autumn 1999): 292–311.
———. A New Plantation South: Land, Labor, and Federal Favor in Twentieth-Century
Arkansas. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1996.
Williamson, Joel. The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South
since Emancipation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Wood, Amy Louise. Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Woodruff, Nan Elizabeth. American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in
the Delta. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Woodward, C. Vann. Origins of the New South, 1877–1913. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1951.
———. The Strange Career of Jim Crow. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Race and American History:
Basson, Lauren L. White Enough to Be American? Race Mixing, Indigenous People, and
the Boundaries of State and Nation. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2008.
Blum, Edward J. Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion, and American
Nationalism, 1865–1898. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
Gross, Ariela J. What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.
Jaspin, Elliot. Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in
America. New York: Basic Books, 2007.
Kidd, Colin. The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World,
1600–2000. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Loewen, James. Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. New York:
The New Press, 2005.
Malcomson, Scott L. One Drop of Blood: The American Misadventure of Race. New
York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2000.
McVeigh, Rory. The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan: Right-Wing Movements and National
Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Roediger, David R. The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American
Working Class, 3rd ed. Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 2007.
Violence, Terror, and Conflict:
Appadurai, Arjun. Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005.
Card, Claudia. Confronting Evils: Terrorism, Torture, Genocide. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2010.
Cordell, Karl, and Stefan Wolff. Ethnic Conflict. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010.
Ross, Marc Howard. Cultural Contestations in Ethnic Conflict. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2007.
Strathern, Andrew, and Pamela J. Stewart. “Introduction: Terror, the Imagination, and
Cosmology.” In Terror & Violence: Imagination and the Unimaginable, edited by
Andrew Strathern, Pamela J. Stewart, and Neil L. Whitehead. Ann Arbor, MI: Pluto
Press, 2006.
Tilly, Charles. The Politics of Collective Violence. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2003.
Vetlesen, Arne Johan. Evil and Human Agency: Understanding Collective Evildoing.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.