In October 1906, a wave of racial violence swept through Argenta, Arkansas, after a white farmer was shot and killed. Over the next four days, armed white mobs attacked Black residents, burned homes and businesses, and forced many families to flee.
Background
The trouble began on September 11, when Robert R. McDonald, a white former police officer, shot and killed Wiley Shelby, a Black musician, during a confrontation at a bar. Shelby’s body was taken to the Colum Brothers Funeral Home, a Black-owned business operated by Garrett, Charles and Robert Colum.
The following day, a coroner went to the funeral home to investigate Shelby’s death. A confrontation followed between Black residents and white police officers, during which Robert Colum was shot and killed. A coroner’s jury later ruled that McDonald had acted in self-defense in Shelby’s killing, while another jury determined that the person responsible for Colum’s death was unknown. No one was held accountable for either killing.
The tension reached a breaking point on the evening of October 6.
John B. Lindsey, a white farmer, and his son Milton were walking along East Washington Avenue when gunfire erupted. John Lindsey was struck by multiple bullets and died. His son was wounded.
The shooting quickly brought armed white men into the streets. As word spread that the gunfire had come from the Colum Brothers’ building, a crowd gathered outside, convinced that those inside were connected to Lindsey’s killing. Garrett and Charles Colum and Black businessman Louis Styles were accused of taking part in the shooting, but they managed to escape before a posse arrived at the building.
Their homes and businesses were then targeted. Garrett Colum’s home and Styles’s house were set on fire, while other Black homes and businesses were attacked. At one point, members of the mob tried to force women and children back into the burning Colum home, but others intervened and helped them escape.
The violence soon spread beyond the immediate area. Several buildings along East Washington Avenue were destroyed, and Black residents began fleeing Argenta. Some crossed the river into Little Rock, while others sought protection at Shorter College and at a school in Military Heights.
The violence reached its most notorious point with the lynching of Homer G. Blackman, a Black restaurant owner and businessman. Blackman was arrested on October 7 after being accused of firing at the Lindseys. He had not been in Argenta when the shooting took place and had only returned to the town by train later that night.
Despite this, four masked men took Blackman from the city jail that night and brought him to the intersection of Sixth and Main streets, where they hanged him from a utility pole and then shot his body repeatedly. No one was prosecuted for the lynching. His death was recorded as having been carried out by “parties unknown.”
Two days later, on October 9, Alex Champion, a Black bartender, was shot and killed in the Bridge Saloon after allegedly making threats against Luther Lindsey, the son of John Lindsey. A murder charge connected to Champion’s death was later dismissed.
Champion’s killing marked the last recorded death of the riot. By then, authorities had increased security in the town, and the violence began to subside. Many Black residents had already fled Argenta, and while some eventually returned, many others never did.
For decades, the Argenta Race Riot received little public attention, and the experiences of the Black residents who suffered during the violence were largely left out of the public memory of the city. More than a century later, efforts were made to bring the events back into public view.
On October 7, 2023, a historical marker was unveiled at the intersection of Sixth and Main streets, where Homer G. Blackman had been lynched 117 years earlier. The marker commemorates Blackman and the racial violence that swept through Argenta in 1906, helping preserve the memory of the people whose homes, businesses and lives were affected by the riot.
Source:
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/argenta-race-riot-of-1906-2415/
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=243303
