By: Cameron Pellegrino '27
When Christmaelle Vernet (‘25) enrolled in Professor Kathy Robert Forde’s “The Black Freedom Struggle and the Press” class, she certainly didn’t expect to end up co-authoring a TIME Magazine piece with her professor. The content of that piece is focused on the very material the class covered, with the purpose of representing a scarcely recounted tragedy in American history.
It didn’t take long for Forde to recognize the brilliance of Vernet as a result of her deep engagement with course material. Vernet also happened to be the Editor-in-chief of The Rebirth Project at the time, which is a multimedia platform at UMass dedicated to highlighting the voices of marginalized students.
Forde then recruited Vernet as a research partner for a project surrounding the Elaine, Ark., massacre of 1919, a horrific catastrophe in which the white press orchestrated a disinformation campaign. Their collaboration exemplifies the kind of student-professor partnerships available to students who want to pursue original research.
Vernet and Forde recommend remaining skeptical and always questioning what the full story is. Journalism is much more than reporting on current happenings, it also considers what can be done to improve how people of all cultures and backgrounds are represented and have an equal voice. The pair created not only a mentorship, but also a friendship throughout their exploration into history.
“I was just so grateful to have [Vernet] as a research partner,” Forde said. “Yeah, I’m a mentor, she’s a mentee because I’m pretty old and she’s young. But, we also learn from each other, and I learn from her … This partnership of two years, I just feel like we’re going to be friends for a long time after this and I really am grateful for that.”
They set out to highlight the importance of fair representation in journalism and standing up for democracy. Through their research, they explored the sheer importance of Black journalism and how instrumental it was in challenging the widespread disinformation led by white journalists, which kickstarted the atrocity in the first place.
“It is one of the worst massacres that has happened in American history and not very many people know about it, so getting to shed light on such a tragic event and one that’s often very much overlooked is also important,” Vernet said. “People who are still grappling with the effects of what happened are able to have an article that speaks to their story and gets to share that with an audience that might have never heard of it before.”
In Vernet and Forde’s article, they detail how the Elaine massacre was one of the grimmest racial massacres in the history of the United States, and yet so few people know of its existence. Hundreds of African Americans were murdered as a consequence of a crude disinformation campaign constructed by the government and The New York Times.
An apparent Black revolt, which was an entirely fabricated story, led white men to take immediate “retaliatory” action. As reports from the era go, a few hundred Black sharecroppers wanted to organize a system for fairer pay, but there was no planned riot. The reason for the massacre’s general unfamiliarity is the strategically suppressed coverage of the event, designed by the perpetrators themselves. Vernet and Forde used reports and primary sources from this time as a major source within their research.
Much of the credit for the lie can be given to the Times, who worked in accordance with the government to help cover the cruelty up — whether they knew about it or not. Details are hard to come by and difficult to verify because of limited surviving documentation. The newspaper, though, is confirmed to have pushed the narrative of an existing plan to revolt and broadcast it to the entire country.
“The New York Times was a very big part of this disinformation campaign, not just specifically in Elaine, this was national,” Vernet said. “It was a narrative that was pushed all across the country. When you have the most power on a widespread scale, you control that narrative.”
Above all, the events show the utter power of journalism. Journalism can save democracy, and that’s exactly what Vernet and Forde found over the course of their multi-year research process. Where power tries to silence, voices of truth will always come to light.
In this case, it was Chicago Defender journalist Ida B. Wells, someone the research pair took a deep interest in. She wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo, opting for resistance instead of aggression. Despite attempts to censor her truth, it’s her findings that highlighted the real truth of what happened in Elaine in 1919.
Through Wells’ courage and dedication to fundraising, she did help bring a case to the Supreme Court in spite of all the obstacles standing in her way. White-dominated courts and juries blocked much of her progress, and the legal system did not deliver justice to the falsely accused. For Forde and Vernet, that is why the massacre must not be forgotten, but rather remembered and learned from.
“Communities, when they suffer these kinds of harms, it stays with them,” Forde said. “Those harms are still part of a burden that community carries. It has also shaped that community and robbed that community of livelihoods and wealth … It’s important that we listen to and learn from the past and listen to the voices today of that community.”
Vernet challenges students to take initiative and represent the next generation, reminding them that the world faces countless problems that only fresh ideas and bold action can solve. The responsibility of positive change rests on the shoulders of bright and energized students motivated to make a lasting difference.
“I think as students, we underestimate how much power we have and what abilities we have,” Vernet said. “If you have an idea and you want to go for something and you want to take on something like this, definitely just go for it … As students, we should take that initiative. It’s important that as we are the new generation coming up that we take these initiatives and we are not afraid … We should be at the forefront of a better future because we are the future.”