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A fact from Lynching of Owen Flemming appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 June 2021 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that when the sheriff in Helena, Arkansas, was asked to arrest Owen Flemming, an African-American man accused of killing a white overseer on June 8, 1927, he allegedly said "I'm busy. Just go ahead and lynch him"?
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was: promoted by Desertarun (talk) 08:37, 28 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
... that when the sheriff in Helena, Arkansas, was asked to arrest Owen Flemming, an African-American man accused of killing a white overseer on June 8, 1927, he allegedly said "I'm busy. Just go ahead and lynch him"? Source: [1]
ALT1:... that Owen Flemming, a Black man, was murdered by a group of 500 men after killing the man who attempted to force him to save his boss's mules during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927? Source: [2]
Overall: @Drmies: Great work. I had been reviewing this yesterday, but the copyvio detector was down. Everything looks good on all counts, but the original hook is more interesting to me than ALT1. Epicgenius (talk) 17:02, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Epicgenius, that's fine with me. The second hook came to me because, as it turns out, that flood affected different people in very different ways (BUT I DON'T SEE RACE--then you're blind). Our new colleague has been working on the literary ripples cause by the flood, including writings by Richard Wright. The first one has all the brutality of the situation--but then again, it's easier for me, as a white person, to look at that and read it and write it into an article. I don't know if it's too close to the bone for a Black reader, I really don't. Drmies (talk) 21:13, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Drmies: Don't get me wrong, the second hook is still pretty interesting, just a little bit more to take in. I did find the original more interesting more because of how out of place that quote must seem in the modern day. But as an Asian American, I wouldn't know how a Black reader would interpret that as opposed to a white reader. Epicgenius (talk) 21:18, 26 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You are right, this was not an easy read. Glad it made it into the DYK section. Thank you! OtuNwachinemere (talk) 17:45, 3 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Drmies: Great work. I had been reviewing this yesterday, but the copyvio detector was down. Everything looks good on all counts, but the original hook is more interesting to me than ALT1. Epicgenius (talk) 17:02, 26 May 2021 (UTC)