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Concept
Robert Lee Hill
Summary
Robert Lee Hill (June 8, 1892 – May 11, 1963) was an African-American sharecropper from the Arkansas Delta and a political activist, founder of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America following World War I. Based in Arkansas, this organization was intended to help sharecroppers and tenant farmers to gain better financial arrangements with white landowners.
Hill was involved in an organizing meeting of black farmers near Elaine, Arkansas on September 30, 1919. When two deputized white men and a black trustee arrived at the church to disrupt the meeting, shots were exchanged. The white community reacted with extreme violence in an event which became known as the Elaine massacre. For two days, white militia swept through the county attacking blacks; a total of five whites and an estimated 100-237 blacks were killed, and the government called in federal troops to quell the riot. Hill fled to Kansas, where he was later arrested. The NAACP worked on his behalf with the state and with federal authorities. Governor Henry Justin Allen refused an extradition request from the state of Arkansas, stating he did not believe Hill would be safe in Arkansas jails or given a fair trial there. Federal charges were later dropped and Hill was released from jail in October 1920.
He later worked for at least two different railroad companies in the Midwest, from 1920 to 1962. Their expansion provided new industrial jobs for African Americans. He died within a year after his retirement in August 1962.
Robert Lee Hill was born in Dermott, Chicot County, Arkansas. There is little documentation of his birth and early life. Documents in his handwriting seem to show that he had some form of limited formal education. Hill did complete a correspondence course as a private investigator and was known to refer to himself as "Robert Hill, U.S. Detective".
The white Democratic-dominated legislature passed an election law in 1891 and poll tax amendment to the state constitution in 1892 that effectively disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites in the state.
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