Talk:Elaine massacre
Too many news accounts of the Virginia Tech massacre made the false claim that it was the worst gun violence in US history. Those reporters have overlooked the 800 dead at the Elaine Race Riot. r3 18:12, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Was it Hoops Spur(about 5 miles north of Elaine) or Mosby Spur(about 8 miles south of Elaine?
For many years--at least through the 50's, an old rusted out stake body truck, no wheels, sat on the edge of the alley that ran parallel to and north of Main Street. Allegedly, 4 dead African American men had been tied to it by their feet and drug around the streets in the colored section of town. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.152.152.129 (talk) 04:36, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
800 dead?
Even in the early 1900s, *individual* lynchings could virtually never be permanently hushed up. Yet we are to believe that 800 people died here -- and that the numbers could still be in dispute? That the extent of the killing cannot be verified? That is a ridiculously farcical notion.
Before we start *presuming* the truth of the 800 figure, as a commentator on this page has already done, why don't we see the source for the figure? I've seen several inflammatory articles on the Elaine Riots, and every one postulates or alleges 'several hundred' murders, but not one provides even a reference.
Rather than leaping to swallow what we prefer to believe, perhaps it were best to seek evidence. Doing otherwise is acting in the same fashion as the vigilantes of Elaine in 1919.
If I can locate any valid references for the casualty allegations, I will add them. But the fact that even author Grif Stockley could only suggest 'between 20 and 856' suggests the poverty of the allegations. This event occurred practically within living memory in a nation where such things were routinely talked to death in the press.
Let's have a modicum of reason here, please.