eBook - ePub
Mob Rule in the Ozarks
The Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Strike, 1921-1923
- 304 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Winner, 2025 J.G. Ragsdale Award (Arkansas Historical Association)
On January 15, 1923, a crowd of more than a thousand angry men assembled in Harrison, Arkansas, near the headquarters of the M&NA Railroad, which ran through the heart of the Ozark Mountains. The mob was prepared to use any measure necessary to end the strike of railroad employees that had dragged on for nearly two years, endangering livelihoods and businesses in an area with few other means of transportation. Supported by local officials, the mob terrorized strikers and sympathizersâmany were stripped and beaten, and one man was lynched, hanged from the railroad bridge south of town. Over the next several days, similar riots broke out in other towns along the M&NA line, including Leslie and Heber Springs.
This violence effectively brought to a close one of the longest rail strikes in American historyâthe only one, in fact, ended by a mob uprising. In Mob Rule in the Ozarks, Kenneth C. Barnes documents how the M&NA Railroad strike reflected some of the major economic concerns that preoccupied the United States in the wake of World War I, and created a rupture within communities of the Ozarks that would take years to heal. The conflict also foreshadowed, for both the region and the country, the pendulum's swing back to moneyed interests, away from Progressive Era gains for labor. Poignantly for Barnes, who sees parallels between this historic struggle and present-day political tensions, the strike revealed the fragile line between civil order and mob rule.
On January 15, 1923, a crowd of more than a thousand angry men assembled in Harrison, Arkansas, near the headquarters of the M&NA Railroad, which ran through the heart of the Ozark Mountains. The mob was prepared to use any measure necessary to end the strike of railroad employees that had dragged on for nearly two years, endangering livelihoods and businesses in an area with few other means of transportation. Supported by local officials, the mob terrorized strikers and sympathizersâmany were stripped and beaten, and one man was lynched, hanged from the railroad bridge south of town. Over the next several days, similar riots broke out in other towns along the M&NA line, including Leslie and Heber Springs.
This violence effectively brought to a close one of the longest rail strikes in American historyâthe only one, in fact, ended by a mob uprising. In Mob Rule in the Ozarks, Kenneth C. Barnes documents how the M&NA Railroad strike reflected some of the major economic concerns that preoccupied the United States in the wake of World War I, and created a rupture within communities of the Ozarks that would take years to heal. The conflict also foreshadowed, for both the region and the country, the pendulum's swing back to moneyed interests, away from Progressive Era gains for labor. Poignantly for Barnes, who sees parallels between this historic struggle and present-day political tensions, the strike revealed the fragile line between civil order and mob rule.
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Yes, you can access Mob Rule in the Ozarks by Kenneth C. Barnes in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Publisher
University of Arkansas PressYear
2024Print ISBN
9781682262627, 9781682262610eBook ISBN
9781610758284Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1. A Railroad Cuts through the Ozarks
- Chapter 2. The Strike Begins: FebruaryâJuly 1921
- Chapter 3. No Trains Run: August 1921âMay 1922
- Chapter 4. Conflict Deepens: JuneâDecember 1922
- Chapter 5. The Harrison Riot of January 1923
- Chapter 6. Mob Rule in Harrison: January 16â31, 1923
- Chapter 7. The Mob Moves Down the Line: January 1923
- Chapter 8. Investigations: 1923
- Chapter 9. Aftermath: 1923â1924
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index