Robert Lee Hill, Date of Birth, Date of Death

Robert Lee Hill

American labor unionist

Date of Birth: 08-Jun-1892

Date of Death: 11-May-1963

Profession: trade unionist

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

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 the Great War.
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.
The shooting of a white man trying to interrupt the meeting led to the Elaine race riot.
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.