Elaine, unfortunately is the scene of one of the most deadly racial confrontations. In the fall of 1919 African Americans sharecroppers gathered at meeting of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America at a church in Hoop Spur (Phillips County), three miles north of Elaine to protest the low and delayed payments from the white plantation owners for their cotton crops. After a shootout outside the church, the Phillips County sheriff sent out a posse to arrest those suspected of being involved in the shooting which was followed by approximately 500 to 1,000 armed white people from the surrounding areas to travel to Elaine; to put down what was thought of by them to be an insurrection. The Governor sent troops who placed up to several hundred African Americans in makeshift stockades. It is not certain whether the troops or the mobs were responsible, but a large number of African Americans were killed.