African Americans in Arkansas

African Americans have played an essential role in the history of Arkansas, but their role has often been marginalized as they confronted a society and polity controlled by white supremacists. As slaves in the United States, they were considered property and were subjected to the harsh conditions of forced labor. After the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, African Americans gained their freedom and the right to vote. However, the rise of Jim Crow laws in the 1890s and early 1900s led to a period of segregation and discrimination that lasted into the 1960s. Most were farmers, working their own property or poor sharecroppers on white-owned land, or very poor day laborers. By World War I, there was steady emigration from farms to nearby cities such as Little Rock and Memphis, as well as to St. Louis and Chicago.

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the African Americans fought for an end to segregation and discrimination. The Little Rock Nine, a group of Black students who enrolled in the previously all-white Little Rock Central High School in 1957, became a national symbol of the struggle for civil rights.

In the decades since the Civil Rights Movement, progress has been made in the state, including the election of Black politicians to local and state offices, and the desegregation of schools and public spaces. However, disparities in areas such as education, healthcare, and economic opportunity still persist.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Black women in Arkansas have been continued to be active in the struggle for civil rights. Women such as Daisy Bates, who played a significant role in the integration of Little Rock Central High School, and Lottie Shackelford, the first Black woman elected to the Little Rock City Board of Directors, helped to bring about significant change in the state. Today, Black women in Arkansas continue to face challenges related to systemic racism and discrimination.

Black people were brought to Arkansas as slaves as part of French colonization in the 1720s. At the time of the first US census of Arkansas in 1810, they numbered 188, comprising roughly 18 percent of the population. The African American population of Arkansas would grow in proportion, comprising 110,000 and 25% of the population in 1860 on the eve of the American Civil War. African Americans lived throughout the state, and were primarily made to work on cotton plantations; some were made to work skilled trades. Living conditions were barely adequate for survival, and African Americans had a mortality rate 30 percent higher than the white population (although the mortality rate in Arkansas was slightly better than the national average for African Americans). Fugitive slaves were common, despite the risk of physical punishment. Little is known about the culture of African Americans of this era, but it is clear that the African American population of this time managed to build cultural institutions and practices.

Reconstruction in Arkansas was the period 1865–1874 when the United States government, using the Army, worked to rebuild the South and tried to ensure that the newly freed slaves were granted equal rights and protections under the law. When the Union army occupied the state in 1864, Blacks were granted legal freedom, and many began to work towards economic and social independence. They established their own schools, churches, and businesses, and after 1868 some were even elected to political office. The Republican Party was dominant in Arkansas, and nearly all African Americans supported the party as it was seen as the party of abolition and emancipation. In 1868, the Arkansas State Constitution was rewritten to give Black people the right to vote and hold office, making Arkansas the first former Confederate state to do so. However, the Republican Party was deeply factionalized and spent much of its energy on internal battles. White supremacist groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan, were active in the state and used violence and intimidation to try to suppress Black voting and political power. In 1874, the Democratic Party regained control of the state government, and the era of Reconstruction came to an end. Democrats worked to roll back many of the legal gains that Black people had made during Reconstruction, and Black political power in Arkansas was suppressed for nine decades to come. The Reconstruction era in Arkansas was a time of significant progress for African Americans. Many Black people gained education and skills, and some were able to establish successful farms, businesses and careers. The era also laid the groundwork for future civil rights movements and political activism in the state.

After the conservative whites regained control of the state government in 1874, additional state funding for black schools was minimal. In 1912 Julius Rosenwald, multi-millionaire head of Sears, set up a program to fund black schools across the South. His Rosenwald Fund financed 389 public school buildings in forty-five counties in Arkansas. They included classroom buildings, shops, and teachers' homes. It gave $300,000 in an age when few blacks earned more than $100 a year. The famous black educator Booker T. Washington helped Rosenwald design a program that stimulated local support. The state or county government owned and maintained all of the schools, and the land was usually donated by a white landowner. The local community was required to match the grant through cash, materials, or physical labor, so that the community would have a strong continuing commitment to the program. As a result, building campaigns were initiated by local Black leaders.

In addition to the Rosenwald supported public schools, a number of northern Protestant missionary societies provided funds for schools for Blacks, as well as supplying teachers. The American Missionary Association, a northern Protestant charity, set up numerous schools for freed slaves all across the South starting in the Civil War. They operated 53 schools in 1868 in Arkansas. Some closed and the rest merged by 1878. Thus in Arkadelphia, Clark County, the Arkadelphia Baptist Academy was operated by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. The nearby Arkadelphia Presbyterian Academy was operated by the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen after 1889.