Memorandum from Hair to Ifill; Historian's Report in Connection with Acorn v. Clinton

    NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE
AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC.

TO: Sherrllyn If111

FROM: Penda D. Hair

DATE: March 27, 1989

MEMORANDUM

e.$r .

AIADF

RE: Acorn - Historianrs Report

I have attached a draft of the hl.storlanrs report ln Acorn
v. C1inton. Thls Report nay be useful to us.

PDH; oet

Attachment

Notiorul OJIEI Rcgioml Olfrcc

Cilfiibvtior e Thc NAACP L:gal Defensc & Educational Fund, tnc. (LDF) is not part Suitc 1600 Suitc 800
d&ctibh lot U.S. of thc Netioml A:sciation for Sc Advuccmcnt of Colorcd Pcoplc 99 Hudson Strcct 634 S. Spring St.
ircoru tu ptposcs. (NAACP) although LDF ws foundcd by tf,c NAACP md shares its Ncw Yorh, NY f0013 Los Angclcs CA 90014

comitmcnt to equal rights. LDF has had for ovcr 30 ycars a scparatc 212/219-19N 213/6U-2{5
Board, progrm, staff, officc ard budgct. Ftt: 212/2t6-75V2 Fzx:212/6244075

Rcgioul OJlrcc

Suite 301

1275K St. NW
WashingtonDC20005 202/682-l3U Fax 202/682-1372



Natioml Officos
Robcrt H. Prciskcl

hcsilL*
Wilcy A. Ilranton

Vit h*ilar

Billyc Subcr Aaron
Atlanta, Gcorgia

Anthony Amstcrdrm
Ncw'Yorh. Ncw YorL

Clarcncc Avant
Los Angcles, California

Mario L. Bacza
Ncw York, Ncw York

John T. Bahcr
Elomrngton, lndiana

Alicc M. Beasley
San Francisco. CaLfornrr

Mary Frrnccs Bcrry
Washington, D.C.

Anita Lyons Bond
St. louis, Missouri

William H. Brown lll
Philadelphie, Pcnnsylvania

Hclcn L. Buttcnwicscr
Ncw York, Ncw YorL

Iack G. Clarhc- 
Ncw York, Ncw York

LH. Clayborn
Dallas, Tcxas

William K. Coblcntz
San Francisco, Calilbrnia

Talbot D'Alembcrtc
Tallahasscc, Flori&

Allison S. Davis
Chicago, Illinois

Ossic l)avis
Ncw Rochcllc, Ncw York

Pcter I. Dcluca
Wliire Plains. Ncw York

Adrian W. DcWind
Ncw York, Ncw York

Anthooy Downs
Washington, D.C.

Robcrt F. Drinan
Washington, D.C.

Charlcs T. Duncan
Washington, D.C.

Kcnncth C. Edelin
Boston, Massrchusctts

Marirn Wright Edclman
Washington, D.C.

Christophcr F. Edlcy, Jr.
Ncw York, Ncw York

Hclcn G. Edmonds
Durhm, Norrh Carolina

David E. Feller
Bcrkclcy, Califomia

Clarcncc Finlcv
Ncw York, ilcw YorL

Norman C. Francis
Ncw Orleans, Louisiana

Exeeutive Officns

Julius LcVonnc Chenrhcrs
Dircctot-Couasel

Jamcs M. Nabrir lll
Associatc Dircttor-Cuvnscl

Boail of Directors

Marvin E. Frankci
Ncw Yorh, Ncw York

John Hopc Franklrl
Durham, North Llrr.lina

J. Thomas Franklin
Boston, Messachusctts

Ronald T. Gault
Ncw York, Ncw York

Jack Grccnbcrg
Ncw York, Ncw York

Gordon G. Greincr
Dcnvcr, Colorado

Lucv Durr HecLncv
PLlladclphia, Pcnn'vlvurr

Charlcs V. Hamiltt>n
Ncw York, Ncw York

Eliot Hubbard Ill
Lincoln, Massachusctts

Am Hutchinson
Ncw York, Ncw York

Hcman Johroon
Kansas City, Missorri

Anne Faith loncs
Boston. Massachus. tts

Jctta N. Joncs
Chicego, lllinois

Quincy Joncs
Los Angclcs, Calilirrnia

Ama J. Julian
Oa[ ParL, Illint'is

Harry Kahn
New York. Ncw Y,'rk

Nicholas DcB. Katzcnbach
Morristown, Ncw Icrscy

David E. Kcndell
Washington, D.C.

Rcginald Lcwis
Ncw York, New Y.>rk

Connic S. Lindau
Ncw Yorh, Ncw York

Georgc E. Marshall, lr
Loi Angcles, Calrli'rnia

Robcrt McDougal, Jr.
Chicago, lllinois

Paul Mmrc, lr.
Ncw York-, Ncw Y,'rk

Jmcs M. Nabrit, Jr.!&ashington, D.C.

Mary Ogdcn
New York, Ncw York

Barrington D. Parkcr. Jr.
Ncw York, Ncw York

Martin D- Pavron
Ncw YorL] Nc* York

Stcphcn J. Pollak
Washiogton. D.C.

Natiorul Offken
William T. Colcman, Jr., Esq.

Chaim ol tfu Boad

Harriet Rabb
Secrctory

Elcanor S. Applcwheitc
Trcaura

Robcrt S. Pottcr
Ncw York, Ncw York

Hugh B. Pricc
Ncw York, Ncw York

Glcndore Mcllwain Putnam
Boston. Massachusctts

Danicl L. Rabinowitz
Ncwark, Ncw Jcrscy

C. Carl Randolph
Ncw Yorh, Ncw York

Gilbcrt T. Rav
Ios Angclci, Celifornre

Hcnry T. Rcath
Philadclphir, Pcnnsylvanre

Noman C. Rcdlich
Ncw York, Ncw York

Charlcs B. Rcofrcw
San Francisco, California

Harvcy C. Russcll
Purchasc, Ncw York

William H. Schcidc
Princeton, Ncw Jcrscy

Frcdcricl A. O. Schwatz
Ncw York, Ncw York

Bcmard G. Scgal
Philadclphir, Pcnnsylvania

Jacob Shcinkman- 
Ncw York. Ncw York

Gcorcc C. Simkins. Ir.
Grlcnsboro. Nortl Carolina

Michacl I. Sovcrn
Ncw York , New York

Chuck Stonc
Philadclphir, Pcnnsylvania

Jay Topkis
New Yorh, Ncw York

Cyrus R. Vancc
Ncw York, Ncws York

Jamcs Vorcnbcrg
Cambridgc, Messachusctts

John W. Wallcr
Littlc Rqk. Arkansas

Robcrt C. Wcavcr
Ncw YorL, Ncw York

M. Moran Wcston
Ncw Rochcllc, Ncw York

Roger W. Wilkins
Washingtor, D.C.

Keren Hastie Willims
Washington, D.C.

E. Thomar Willims, Jr.
Bronx. Ncw YorL

Andrcw Young
Atlarta, Gcorgia

Hwary Bxd Mmba
Dorothy Roscnmen

Ncw York, Ncw YorI
..COMMITTEE OF IOO"
Hcnrv Aeron
StcviAllcn
Arthur R. Ashc
Iou Bacz
!irch Bavh
Vivian I. 

,Bcmon

Harry Sclafootc
Saul Bcllow
lohn C. Bcmctt
Lronc Bemctt, Ir.
Viola W. Bcmar-d
Lcourd Bcmstein
Hans A. Bcthe
lulian Bond
Hcnru T. Bourne
Georic P. Brockwav
Yvonhe Brathwaitc'Burhc
Hclcn L. Buttcnwiescr

Merilm Homc
Iohn fl. Iohason
Mrs. Pcrtv lulim
Horace M. kellcn
Ethel Kcmcdv
lames Lawrcntc, lr.
Mex kmcr
W. Arthur [rwis
lohn A. Mackav
Horacc S. Manircs
Hcnry L. MaTsEIII
Williim lucs McGill
Lrndr 8.l{cKcan
Karl Mcminccr
Charlcs Mcrrill
Arthur Mitchell
Paul Ncwman
Anthoay Ncwley

Chairman, BISHOP PAUL MOORE, JR
Elcenor Holmcs Norton
Richard L. Ortincer
Lcon E. Panctta "
Gordon A. B. Parhs
Sidncv Poitier
Iosco6 L. Rauh. Ir-
trrtT- Rowa.'
Ioho L. Saltonstall. lr.'twillim H. schcid.'
Arrhur Schlcsinlcr, lr.
Charlcs E. Silbc-mair
Iohn P. Spicccl'William Stvion
Tclford Trilor
Robcrt Pcnh Warren
Robcrt C. Wcavcr
Tom Wickcr
Myrlic Evcrs Williams

Diaham Carroll
Iames E. Chcck
Shirlev Chisholm
Ramriv Clark
Aaron Cooland
Bill Corbi
Maxwcll Danc
Ossie Davis
Rubv Dcc
Vicd ria Dctrc
Raloh Ellisoo
Iohir Hooc Frenklin
Mrs. A. tl. Gaston
Kemcth A. Gibson
Roland B. Gittchohn
Charlcs E. Gmdcll
Richard G. Hatchcr
Thcodore M. Hcsburgh

Thc "Comittec of 100," e voluntrry cmpcrative group of individuals hcadcd by Bishop Paul Mmrc, Jr.,
has sporoorcd thc appeal of thc NAACP Lcgal Dcfcmc and Educational Fund, Inc. sincc 1943 to cnablc the
Fund to put into opcration a progru derigncd to makc dcscgrcgation a rcality throughoui the Uoitcd Sterc!.

As ofJuly l, t988



I

Historic Barriers to Ehe Registration of Black
Voters in Arkansas

A Report Prepared by S. Charles Bolton for the
NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc. in

Connection with Acorn v. Arkansas

Draft of April 1, 1986



Contemporary barriers Eo voter registration in Arkansas

Eust be understood within the context of a century and a

half of discrimination against black Arkansans, which

't included slavery, Jim crow segregation, lynching, a variety
of efforts to eliminate or nullify black voting, and

opposition to the civil Rights Movement of the l95os and

60s.

One circumstance peculiar to Arkansas that has

conditioned rhis discrimination is Ehe geography of brack

residence. From the time of slavery to the present, Arkansas

blacks have lived in counties located in the eastern and

southern part of the st,ate; counties in the north and west

have been almost, entirely white. Even though the state has

had a reratively sma1l black popurat.ion by southern
standards, the geographic concentration of Arkansas blacks
has led to intense racial pressure in some counties

Discriminat,ion iEself began before st,atehood when '

slavery became an important institut.ion of Arkansas

Territory; it continued af ter the civir l.Iar when many white
Arkansans opposed the political rights being exercised by

freedmen; in the 1890s it resulted in Jim crow segregation
and the passage of legislation to eliminate or nulrify black
voEing; it showed itself in the sporadic violence committed

by white ciEizens and police officiars against black
cit,i-zens in the twentieth centur!r; and it led Eo a

well-known confrontation between Arkansas and the uniEed



States over the integration of public schools in Little

Rock.

To understand the operation of political discrimination

in the t,wentieth cent.ury, it is necessary Eo understand the

importance of count,y polit,ics. Arkansas has been a one-party

state, commiEEed to the.Democratic Party in an overwhelming'

manner. Thus poliEical campaigns have lacked issues, and

there have been no strong state-wide facEions. Power has

tended to reside at t.he 1ocal 1evel where county leaders and

machines have been able to conErol the vote, oft.en using

corrupt and fraudulent practices. In counties where there is

a large black population, black voters, whether voting for

themselves, disfranchised, or manipulated, have been a

significant fac tor.

During Reconstruction and for some time afEer, blacks

did vote in Arkansas, and in general Ehey supported the '

Republican Party. In 1891 the election 1aw was rewriEten and

voting made more conplicated, in part Eo eliminate black

voters, vho were often under-educated. The following year a

po11 tax was passed, disfranchising many potential voters

both black and white. Adoprion of the white primary by the

Democratic ParEy in 1906 removed black voEers from what were

the nost significant elections in Arkansas polit,ics. Despite

these Eeasures some blacks did vote, many of them under Ehe

auspices of county leaders who paid Eheir po11 t,axes and

controlled their vot,es.



Arkansas polltics changed eventually because of

pressure from the federal- government. An early manifestation

of this was the ruling in Smirh v. Allrighr in 1944 rhar

outlawed the white primary. Arkansas passed a fruiEless but

revealing rneasure to institute a double primary, but

eventually the Democratic Part.y opened its primaries Eo

black voters: In 1948 Arkansas approved the concept of voter

regist.ration, buE it 1956 it refused to abolish the po11

tax. OnIy Ehe 24th Amendment. to the United States

Constitution, approved in January L964, accomplished this

resu1t..

With t.he po11 tax amendment a reality, Arkansas passed

proposed AmendmenE 54, which became AmendmenE 51 to the

state constituEion of L874 and provided f or a comprehensive

system of voter registration withouE po11 tax. In many

respects, this was a reform measure. Significant is the f.act

that iE was opposed by many counEies in the east and souEh

wit.h large black popuJ.ations, most of whom had also opposed.

the repeal of the pol1 tax. Among these counties are many of

t,hose who Loday interpret Amendment 51 in ways that make it

difficult, for black citizens to regisEer to vote.

*********

The present, pattern of black and white counties in

Arkansas was created long ago as a result of Ehe natural



4

geography of Ehe sEate and the agricultural needs of the

early settlers. Arkansas is dlvided into highlands and

,, lowlands by a diagonal line running from Ehe northwest t.o

the southeast. that passes through Little Rock in the center

of the state. The highlands are Lhe Ozark Mountains Eo the

northwest and and the Ouachita Mountains in the sout,hwest,

Lhe lowlands consisL of the Mlssissippi delta along the

eastern border and the Gulf CoasEaI Plain in the south.

Settlers bringing slaves and intent on growing cotton were

attracted to the flat,ness of the lowlands and Eo their rich

alluvial soi1.

Arkansas became part of the UniEed States i n I803, but

it was not settled heavily unt.i1 after Lhe htar of 1812.

Arkansas Territory was creat,ed in fBl9, but the Federal

census of the following year enumerat,ed only 14,000 settrers
of whom L4 percent were slaves. Rapid growth in the next two

decades Ied to statehood in 1836 and a population of 98,000

ln 1840 that included 20 percent slaves. By thaE point the

geography of slavery was .1e.r.1

Among t.he 39 counties of Arkansas in 1840, there were

13 in which the percent.age of slaves uas above the 20

percent in the staEe as a whole. r.ncluded were the delta
counties of Mississippi (362), CritEenden (297"), phillips

(262), Desha (257") and chicoE (7Lz). on rhe lower Arkansas

River were Arkansas (272), Jefferson (392), and pulaski

(242). on the coastal plain Eo the south, were union (3oY"),



5

Hempstead (392) , sevier (267") and Lafayerre ( 7 5z) . These

counties were aLso the heart of cotton production in
Arkansas,9l percent of which was grown in the lowlands as a

whole. chicot county on the Mississippi in souEheast

Arkansas and LafayetEe county on the Red River in southwest
Arkansas together contained 2 percent of the white
population in the state, owned 22 percent of all the slaves,
and produced 43 percent of the cotton.2

The percentage of Arkansans who were black increased
over time and then became sma11er, but the geography of
black residence remained much the same. slaves were 26

percent of all Arkansans in 1860, and the black proportion
of Ehe states population continued to grow untir 1910 when

it was 28 percent. After that black Arkansans, along with
other southern blacks, began Eo seek economic opportunity
and social freedom in the North. since lgzo, the black .

population of Arkansas has decreased in percentage terms in
each census, and by 1980 it was only 16 percent.3

rn 1980 29 of 75 counties in Arkansas had black
popurations greater than Ehe state average of l6 percent. As

in 1840, they were located in the east and Ehe south and

along t.he lower Arkansas River. chicot (532) and Lafayerte
(4lz) were sril1 heavily black as was phirlips (532). Lee

county, formed in 1873 and located on the Mississippi just
above PhilLips county, was 55 percent b1ack, the highest
percentage in the st.ate.



6

over 140 years new counties were created and the
boundaries of the old ones were changed, slaves became free
and were succeeded by generations of black citizens, but the
Arkansas brack belt remained almost stationary. Moreover,
the massive inequarity of slavery is echoed in modern

statistics showing that black counties are 1ow in income and
edcational attainment and high in i.ncome inequatity.4

*****:(i***

contemporary barriers to the registration of black
voters in Arkansas are related to an historicar pattern of
racial discrimination that began with slavery. A srave was

noE a citizen, nor did he or she have regar rights that he

or she could enforce in a court of law. crassified as
chattel, a species of movable property, the slave was armost
entirery at the will of the master. Since there were f er.r

incentives for the slave and 1ittle restraint on che master.,
brutality was not uncommon. columbus r,Iil1iams, a f ormer
slave in union county, Arkansas, remembered the punishments
administered by his master, Ben Heard: "Strip tem down to
their waist and let their rags hang down from their hips and
Eie them down and lash them tilr the blood ran all down over
their crothes. yes sir, herd wourd vhip the rdomen the same

as he vould the men.r,5



7

slavery ended as a result of the civil I'Iar, and blacks

in Arkansas as elsevhere began a long struggle for civil
equality. l.Ihile President Andrew Johnson controlred
Reconstruction, former Confederates served in the Arkansas

legislature, and they refused to approve the l4th Amendment.

rnstead they passed a bi11, signed into law by the unionist.
Governor rsaac Murphy, that accepted the citizenship of
blacks, buE denied them the right to vote or to sit on

juries and prohibited inter-racial marriage and the mixing

of races in the public schoo1".6

With the coming of Congressional, or Radical,

Reconstruction, the f ree6ugr of Arkansas regist.ered to vot,e.

They supported the constitutional convention of lg68 and the

constituEion it produced. Their votes put Ehe newly formed

Republican Part,y into power. rn July of 1867 the Republican

administration of Governor Powe11 Clayton passed a measurL

giving blacks Ehe same civil rights as whites and providing
strong penalties for racial discrimination in housi.g,
public transportation, or public places.

Federal intervention, black voting, and the t.hreaL of
social equaliEy, and the fiscal pracEices of Ehe clayton
administrat,ion created a great deal of opposition among

conservatives (former confederates, and mosEly former

Democrats). The KIu Klux Klan arose to combaE Radical
Reconstruction, and it was opposed by the union League. A

number of violent incidents occurred, and blacks appear Eo



8
have been special targets. rn the summer of rg6g an officer
of the Freedmenrs Bureau in Lafayette county reported that
eight blacks had been killed by white men within the past
month, and another reported the burning of a brack church in
Mississippi County.

The end of Reconstruction in Arkansas followed the
Brooks-Baxter ,oar between rival Republican governors.
ttRedeemert'Democrat,s 

came back into power and wrote the
constitution of r874 underwhich the sEate stil1 0perates. rt
provided for a new system of apportionment that weakened Ehe
black counties of the state, but it did nothing to lessen
the civil rights of black citir"n".7

whatever Eheir legal rights, blacks suffered from
discrimination during the Gilded Age. rn rgg3 a black man
aEtempting to buy land in Faurkner county was abducted by
,hite men in disguise and warned: ,,Mr. Nigger, just as sho.1e
as you l0cate your self here--deaEh is your potion.r, rn 1gg5
in Hempstead county a riot led to the imprisonnent. of the
blacks involved while the whites vere alrowed to go free. At
a gaEhering of black political leaders in Lit.le Rock i.n
1883, Mifflin Gibbes, a leading black atrorney and
Republican, not,ed that the courts of Arkansas as uell as
other institutions were unwilling to accept and enforce the
civil rights of black p.op1..8

rn the 1890s things changed for the uorse. Faced with
an agrarian political revolt, t,he Democratic party responded



9

by raising the issue of racisn and calling for the passage

of a measure that would int,roduce segregation on railroad

cars. Supporting the measure in January 1891, a Fort Smith

paper told its readers that they t'had no conception of the

degree of offensiveness borne by respectable people at the

hands of drunken, insolent blacks in the black district of

the state.r A meeting of 600 black people at the First.

Baptist church in Little Rock condemned the separate coach

bill because it had for its ttobject the forcible separation

of . citizens upon the railroads of this State upon the

basis of color or race o, which has no place in our

country.rr Nonetheless the measure passed with overwhelming
.9supporE.

The growing significance of racism in Arkansas poliLics

is illust.rated in the career of Jeff Davis, who was elected
governor in 190O, served three terms, and then was t.wice _,

elect.ed to the United States SenaEe. There were many reasons

for Davist" rppeal wit.h the Arkansas elect,orate, but his
virulenE racism was surely one. In 1903 the governor earned

a national reputation when, angered by opposit,ion of Massa.

chuset,t,s Womenrs Club members to the segregated policy of

clubs in Ehe South, he pardoned a black convicL charged with
assault to kilI, on the condition that the man move

immediately to Massachusetts. Davis was also a vehement

opponent of funding black schools vith white Eax money, one

of his slogans being ttevery time you educate a tniggerr you



spoil a good field

Theodore Roosevelt

Rock during which

lynching blacks. 10

10

1895 Davis engaged President

publicized debate in Little

defended the concept of

hand. tt In

in a highly

the governor

As an opponent of black poliEical rights, Davis had no

peers. He told a campaign crowd in r904 that tttnigger

domination will never prevail in this beautiful Southland of
oursr tls long as shotguns and rifles lie around 1oose, and

we are able to pull the trigger.rr rn L9L2 Davis made the
fo1-lowing public stat,ement on black suffrage: rtThe negroes

ought to be disfranchised, because you cantt educate a

Iniggerr, r would be glad to see the uniEed States deport,

them. They look like Apes." Davis also Ied Ehe move for a

mandatory white primary rure that was adopted by Ehe State
Democrat.ic Central Committee in I906.11

The atmosphere of racism in the Jeff Davis years was,

stil1 in existence after t{or1d l.Iar r when the so calred
ttELaine Race Riot,stt occurred in a tiny community south of
Helena in Phillips county. The shooEing of a white man in an

environment in which black tenant, farmers were organizing to
improve their economic condit.ions led to Ehe mobilizat,i_on of
an 800 man white posse, the death of five whites and 23

blacks, and Ehe indict,ment of L2 blacks for murder. The 12

were speedily Eried and convicted in Ehe phillips counry

courthouse, surrounded by angry crowd of whites. rn

overturning t.he verdicts, Ehe u.s. Supreme court agreed with



I1

allegations that *there never was a chance for the

petitioners to be acquitted; no juryman .ourd have voted for
acquittal and continued to live in phillips County and if
any prisoner by any chance had been acquitEed by a jury he

could not have escaped the mob .nI2 l

The lynching mentarity that was part of white attitude.s
t,owards blacks surfaced again in Little Rock in rg27. Lonnie
Dixon, a young black man was arrested for the rape and

murder of a young white gir1. A crowd of thousands

surrounded city hall demanding Dixon be turned over to them. 
.

rnstead Dixon was removed to the state penitentiary and

later tried, convicted, and executed. Some weeks after
Dixonrs arrest, a rumor spread in Little Rock thaE anot,her

white woman had been assaulted. A group of white vigilantes
seized a black man named John carterr lynched him, fired 200

shots into the body, dragged it through the streets behind a.
car' set it afire, and left it. burning on a corner in the
black business district.l3

Thirty years later, a young black girl walked to
central High school, where there was another mob of angry
whites. Itlhen she reached the school door, she was t,urned

alray by soldiers wiEh bayonet,s fixed on their rifles.
hlalking back down the steps she heard ttLynch her ! tt trLynch

her!tt t'No nigger bitch is going to get in our schoo1."14

Governor orval Faubus, who calred out the national
guard rather than a110w integration to take p1ace, reaped



L2

political benefits from the racism of Arkansas voters. when

the President of the united States and the Supreme cour
made it impossible to avoid integrat,ion, l2 percent of
Little Rock voters supported the governor in closing the
public schools rather than having blacks in classes with r

whites. Arkansas voters responded to the identification
between 0rva1 Faubus and resist,ance to integration by

reelecting him i-n 1958 and three times thereafter, the last
rvith 57 percent of the votes. 15

*********

The importance of polit,ics aE Ehe county lever in
Arkansas grows out of the statets one-party tradition. No

Republican presidential candidate carried Arkansas between

Grant and Nixon. Democratic majorities; or the other han!,
uere often overwhelming. Bryan Eook 74 percent of the
Arkansas vote in 1896, FDR carried g6 percent in Lg32, and

Truman von 62 percent in 1948. The Repubrican party that had

been so powerful during ReconstrucEion continued to exi.st,
but it had Iittle oo*"..16

The most inportant political campaigns in the state
were in the democratic primaries, and the candidat,es,
menbers of the same party, rarely differed on significant
issues- Nenspapers often did not bother t,o endorse a

candidate. winning the election was usually a mat,ter of



13
gaining support from locar leaders who could deliver votes
at the county or even precinct 1eve1. Analyzing Arkansas
elections is difficult because the popular vote in many
counties depended on the virr of a locar leader rat,her than
on socio-economic or demographlc variab1e..l7

One way local leaders delivered the vote was to
manipulate the po11 tax receipts that made individuals
eligible to vote. rn hrhite county early in the century it
was common practice to pay the poll tax for many peopte who
would not pay their own and then turn the receipts over to
individuals who wourd vote the way the machine wanted,
erasing the old name and replacing it wiEh the new. Election
officials in white county occasionally furnished addirional
votes when necessary.lS

Absentee ba110Es uere another vehicle for election
fraud' An Election Research council, funded in part by f
hlinthrop Rockefe1ler, estimaEed that among the more than
30,000 absenree ba1lot.s casr in Lg64 only I0rOO0 were
genuine- rn phillips county g35 absentee ba110ts were cast
on the basis of only 3ol applications for such bal1ots.l9

Machine counties could generate l0psided voLes. rn
1930' for example, a proposed Bible Reading Amendment to the
Arkansas constitution was passed by a majority of 5r
percent' rn Mississippi county, however, it received only 33
percent and in crittenden county only 1B percent. county
leaders opposed other amendments that were on the ba1loE and



l4
apparently instructed their support,ers Lo vote against them

all. rn a 1954 senatorial primary, John Mcclellan won 51

percent of the vote on a state wide basis. rn Mississippi
county he got 76 percent, in crit.tenden county 8r percent,

and in clark county 73 percent. 0ne opponent., sid McMath.,got

only 40 percent across the state, but 77 percent in Madison

county and 85 percent in Newton county. Two years later
Madison and Newton counties, both in north Arkansas, went,

for Faubus by 96 and 98 percent respectivel y.2O

According Eo V. O. Key, the respected authoriEy on

southern politics, mosE of the machine counties in Arkansas

were ttdelta countiesrr with plantat.ion economies and rarge

black populations. In addition ro Mississippi and

crittenden, he identified cross, st. Francis, Lee, phi11ips,

and Deshea. rn a 1948 election the Arkansas GazeEte made

t.hings easier for it,s readers by explaining thaE *plantaEion

owners in the delta counties usuarry control the votes of
their many tenants who cast, their vot.es in boxes set up in
the owners commissaries .,,2L

*********

Black Arkansans became involved in poliEics in 1g67

when congress took over Reconstruct.ion and placed Arkansas

along with Mississippi in Ehe Fourt.h Military District under

the command of Maj. Gen. E. o. c.0rd, whose headquarters



15

was ln Vlcksburg. Ordrs task was to oversee Ehe creation of

new governments based on the voting rights of all males,

black as well as white, who were aL least 2l years old, had

lived in the state at leasE one year, and had not previously

Laken an oath to the Unit.ed States and violated it by

joining the Confederacy. Three registrars were appointed for

each Arkansas county, two miliEary officers and one

civilian, and instructed to t'Eo divide the county into

precincts convenient for the voters; . visiE each

precinct, after a five day not.ice, and remain there until

a1l qualified voters should have an opportunity Eo

regis te, ."22

As a result of voter registrat,ion by Ehe military,

66,805 voLers were enro1led, 2L,696 of whom (32 percenE)

were black. In the ensuing election for delegaEes Eo a

consEitutional convenEion, eight blacks were among the 75

delegates chosen. Several of them, in particular Willirro'

Grey of Phillips County, played an imporcant role in the

debates over Ehe ConstiEution of 1868. Blacks also played an

importanE part in the Republican Party thaE tras organized in

1867. They vot,ed almost exclusively for Republicans and

received some patronage from Powe11 ClayEon and his

Republican predeces"o.".23

Nor did black political participation end wiEh the

return to power of the DemocraEs. Black suffrage remained

intacE until the 1890s, and black voters sent 49 state



16
legislarors to Little Rock between 1g74 and Lgg2. The
counties they represented uere Mississippi, crittenden, Lee,
Phillips, Desha, and chicot on Ehe r.{ississippi; Lincorn,
Jefferson, and pulaski on the lower Arkansas; and Lafayette
in southwest Arkansas. rn these same counties, Republican
blacks often practiced fusion politics with Denocrats )

making agreements to share county offices. rn exchange for
supporting a few Democrats in Jefferson count,y, for example,
1oca1 bracks r.ron protection f rom racial vior"n.".24

The disfranchisement of blacks occurred as a resurt of
Republican support for discontented farmers. when union
Labor candidates supported by Ehe brack votes of che
Republican Party shoved erect,oral strength in Iggg and 1g90,
the Democrats decided to fight back. Raising the issue of
racism, they pushed for segregating blacks and taking away
their right to vote

The first sEep in discouraging black voting r.ras an
election ,av passed in rB91- rn nany ways a reform, the
measure cent,ralized control 0ver elections, regulated
procedures in polling pracesr o'd introduced the AusErarian
ballot. rt also struck hard at illiterate voters in a state
r*here one in four persons courd not read. The new barloEs
were long and complicated, there was no party emblem that an
illiterate might use to identify his ticket, and voters were
allowed to seek help only from erection officials who would
clear the polling place before answering any questions.



t7
Many black voters felt the system was degrading and refused

Lo participate. A Democratic campaign song used in lggz
included the following lines

The Australian ba11ot works like a charm,

It makes them think and scratch,

And when a Negro gets a ballot

He has certainly got his match.

Shortly aft.er passing Lhe new election 1aw, the

Arkansas legislature referred to Ehe peopre a constiEutional
amendment to establish a po11 tax. under the measure,

prospective voters had to show a receipt indicating that
they had paid a poll rax. Passed in 1892, the poll tax was

amended in IB95 to require payment a furl year before the

election and to provide for the taxpayerts race being

designated on the receipt. Because the original act had been

passed by a majority of those vot,ing on it but not a t

ma jority of those Eaking part in the election, a r,rhole new

amendment, was passed in 1908.

The election 1aw and the pol1 tax vere remarkably

effective. Between the gubernatorial erections of lg90 and

1894 the number of Arkansas voters dropped by nearly a

third. The Democratic vote, however, decreased less than

other parties. rn Ehe six most heavily black counties
(chicot, crittenden, Desha, Jefferson, Lee, and phillips),

Denocratic gains vere particulary high, and that party



18

gained control of all county offices for the first time

since the beginning of Reconstruction.

As one-party government came int,o being, blacks were

also denied the right to participate in the Democratic

primary , by Ehen the only elecEoral- show in town. Arkansas r'

Democrats have never made determined efforts to exclude

Republicans from their primaries, but a Clark County

DemocraEic committee limited its primary to rrwhite qualified

electorstr in L9O2, and in 1906 the state leadership ordered

the same restriction put into ef fecE throughout Arkansa ".25
A furEher attempE Eo restricE black poliEical

privileges came in l912 r.rhen Arkansans vot,ed on truo

constituEional amendments that would have imposed a literacy

test for voting and provided a grandfather clause by which

whites might have escaped it.s provisions. In part because of

opposition in the black community, the measures did not t

26pass.

Growing black opposiEion to poIiEical conditions in

Arkansas was illustrated in the l-ate 1920s when two black

attorneys, Scipio A. Jones and John A. Hibbler, filed suit

against the white primary on behalf of a group called the

Arkansas Negro Democratic Association. In March of 1930 Ehe

Arkansas Suprene Court, in Robinson v. Holman, ruled that

t.he Democratic Party had the same right to exclude blacks as

did a masonic organization.2T



19

The long road back to furl political participat.ion for
Arkansas blacks began in rg44 nhen the u.s. supreme court
ruled j.n the Texas case of Smith v. Allwright that the
Democratic Primary was an integal part of the election
process and that citizens could not be refused participation
on the basis of their race. For a time, however, Arkansas

was not willing to accept defeat.

rn February L945, the Arkansas legisrature passed a

measure sometimes known as the double primary. rntroduced by

a legislator from Phillips county, the bill separared
primaries involving federal offices from t.hose involving
state and loca1 offices, apparently on the grounds that the
Allwright decision did not apply to the latter. of dubious
1ega1ity, the law also required addiEionar election expenses
Lhat many counties refused to supply. Despite opposition in
some quarters' notably coLumbia county, the 1aw fe11 into,

28o].suse.

0ther changes in Arkansas electoral practices awaited
the period after the Brovn Decision of 1954, known as the
Second Reconstruction.

*********

Beginning with president Trumanrs civil rights
initiatives, the federal governnent slowly began to move

against racial segregation and Lhe disfranchisement. of black



20

voters. Limited civil rights acts that included voting
provisions uere passed in Lgsr and r960, and congress passed
the poll tax amendment in 1962 and sent it to the states for
ratification. Meanwhile black Americans became energized to
push for changes on their own, and with the llontgomery Bus

Boycott of 1955 a civil Rights Movement was born. r.Ihite
resistence r+as strong in the south, hor.rev€rr and the Little
Rock Crisis of lg57 was only one of a number of
confrontation ,.29

Arkansas began to nove away from the polr tax as early
as l94B when it passed an amendmenE to the state
constitution to a110w voter registration. rn 1g56, however,
an amendment that would have abolished the pol1 Eax was

soundly defeated. Receiving only 43 percent of the statewide
vote' it did less well in bldck counties, getting be10w 30
percent of the votes in Lee, cross, crittenden, IIempst.ead,,
st. Francis, and philrips. Despite the growing momenEum of
the nat.ional po11 tax amendment, the Arkansas legislature in-
1961 and 1963 refused to take action on vot,er
registration.3o

Finally in June 1964, four months after the pol1 tax
became unconstitutionar, a voter registration amendment was
placed on the Arkansas ba11ot. The citizens group thaE
collected signat,ures was led by Dr. H. D. Luck and included
the League of women vot,ers, the American Association of



2l
university 1'lomen, t.he Arkansas Educational Association, the
AFL-CIO, and the Republican Scate Commiaau".3l

Di-scussing the amendment,rs chances, Luck and others
cited opposition among county courthouse officials and from
those who feared bloc voting by blacks. The Er Dorado

chamber of commerce in corumbia county came out in
opposition, citing the expense of registration machinery and

also the possibility of *minori.ty bloc votiDg.tr The Arkansas
Farm Bureau Association also opposed the amendment.

rn the decade prior to 1964, black voting had increased
in Arlcansas, in part because of pressure associated vrith Ehe

civil Rights Movement. rn 1963 B percent of the porl Eax

receipEs were labeled t'colored." rn the summer of Lg64

Arkansas was stilr selling porl tax receipts, although free
receipts were avairable for use only in the federar
elections- Efforts were made t,o register more blacks, buE

they met with resistence in eastern Arkansas. Three sEudent
Non-violent coordinaEing committee (sNCc) vorkers involved
1n voEer regist.ration work were arrested for vagrancy in
Phillips county in August, and another SNCC worker was

beaten outside a polling place in Lincoln county in
November- There were also numerous charges of po11 tax abuse
in 1964. one way or another, the totar number of paid
receipts issued rose 13 percent above that in 1963 and

several thousand free receipts were arso iss,red.33



22

Proposed Amendment 54 passed with a majority of 56

percent, eventually becoming Amendment 51 to the

constitution of 1874. Despite its impressive supporE, a

nurnber of counties were strongly opposed. positive votes in
Ehe following counties were as follows: Chicot (4gZ),

Crittenden (477"), Deshea (432), Lafayerre (452"), Lee (3gZ),

Monroe (417.) , st. Franci s (492) , union (462) and t,Ioodruf f
(457"). rndicat.ing significant opposition to reform in the

brack counties of eastern and southern Arkansas, this
pattern is remarkably similar t.o that produced by the vote

on the anti-po11 t,ax amendment of 1956. The county tot,als
produce a Pearson correlaLion of .78, indicat.ing Ehat about

61 percenE of the variaEion on the vot,e among counties on

one amendment may be explained in terms of voting behavior

on the other amendment.

The change from pol1 tax to voter registration withott
poI1 tax had a marlced effect on the Arkansas electorate. In
1960, t,he number of paid po11 tax receipt.s amounted to 5g

percent of all Arkansans over 21. Ten years later the number

of registered voters in Arkansas vas 70 percent of those

over 2L. 0n a counEy basis, however, there were still some

areas of under. regist,rat,ion. criEtenden and Mississippi
counties, for example, were at 60 and 61 percent

respectively.

********



23

while it rras a commendable reform, Amendment 5I depends
on I'oca1 officials to be effecLive. Arkansas has a tradition
of racism, however, and in particular a history of hostirity
to the free exercise of suffrage by black citizens. Both of
these factors have been particularly signlficant in counties
where there is a large black popuration. rf registrars in
these counties interpret the law so as to thwart black
registration, they acE in accordance nith values and customs-
that are deeply rooted.



24

1s.
T. Hanson
aE Little

2s a"
compu te d
D. C. , 184

Notes

Charles Bolton, Ca1 Ledbetter Jr., and Gerald
,_ArFanggg_9ecomes a St.ate (University of Arkansas
Rock,

Eistics on slavery and cotton production were
f rom Sixth Censgs _o:f the United States (Washington,
1), p

3Hi-"toricaI Statistics of the United St.ates fromColonial Times to the Present 2 vo 1s . ( I,Ias ington, D.C.,

Characterist ics

L975), 1224.
4rggo

Inc., l9B2), 1:108-i10; Tom
of fncome in Arkansas, 1950-
Economic Review, Spring 1978

5c. Fred
of Arkansas (
1984), p. 72.

Wi1liams, et.,,u1., eds., 4 Documentarv HistorvFayetteville: University offis,

U.S. Census Population & Housin4 vo1s. Encinitas, Ca1if.: National Dec i sionE-SlETGl,
S. Sa1e, III,ttThe Distribution
l970r rr Arkansas Business &
, pp. 1-11.

in Historical
3 vo1

- 
6Gu9rg9 H. Thompson, ,rReconstruction,,'

Report of rhe Eecretafy_of State, Arkansas
3:100-I01.

7tuia. , L02-L25; Thomas Staples, Reconstruc tion inArkansas. 1862-187 4Arkansaf- -lB7+ (New York: Columbia Uni ity Press------"eevr ^vv& rv,- \r!sw rur,.; uuJ_umula unrverslcy rressr',L923; reprint ed. Groucest,er, Mass.: peter Smith, 1964),chap. x; Wi11iams, Documentary History, pp. tt1_if:;
o
"carl H. Moneyhon, "Brack porit,ics in Ehe Gilded Age,1876-1900," Arkansas Historical Quarterlv 34 (Autumn l9B5),.2227,235-n-
o'John [,'Iilliam Graves, ,The Arkansas separate coach Lawof 1891rn in [Iaddy I'Iilliam Moore, ed.r Arkansas in Ehe

9*rrata Aee. -1821-1?00,.( Litrle Rock: no"ffipanr rl?to), pp. 79-82; J. Morgan Kousser, t'A Black protEst in thetEra of Accomodat,ionsr t ""Arkansas Hist,oricar Quarterlv 34

I oR"y*ond ArsenaulE, The Wild Ass of the 0zarks: Jeff

S

Davis and the Social Bases of ou t.hern olitics(Philadelphia: Temple Universi
205-206, 2LL-2L2.

llruia. , 2r4.

Ey Press, 1984), pp. r68-169,



25
l2John Barker, rtBlood in the Delta, the Elaine RaceRiots of 1919r'r Arkansas Times, April 1983.
1.)
"Leu l{i11iams, ttrTell rEm Wetre Risinr: Black

Arkansans and the Quest for Fu1fi11ment, lgOO-LgS4,tl(unpublished manuscript nade available to the author), pp.
3-4.

14M".tin Duberman, In White America,.A DocumentarvPlav, (New York: New Amei

15^--corinne silverman, The Little Rock storv (university,
Alabama: University of efa ZA; TimothyP- Donovan and l'Iillard B. Gatewood, The Governor" of
$.!.ur,"r": 8"""v" in poriti..l Biogr"@", TheUniversity of Arkansas Press, I981), Z2L.

l6Hi"aorical Report of the Secretar of SEate, l:67-72.
l7V. O. K.y, Southern politics (New york: Alfred E.

Knopf , L949),I83-187, t9S:tg8.
1Bn. H. Abington, Back Roads Bicarbonate: Theand

4gtgDioeraphv of a. Counriv DoC-oilNew
1955), p. 145-147.

York: Vantage Press,

l9Ri.hurd C. Yates, "Arkansas, r ndependent and
Unpredictablert
Politics of the

in William C. Ilavard, ed., The Changin
South, ( BaEon Rouge : Louisiana State

UniversiEy Press , 1972), pp. '243-246.

2os. char
Bible Reading
Fundamentalism
1 983 ) :67 4-67 5 ;

1es Bolton and Ca1 Ledbetter Jr., "Compulsoryin Arkansas and the Culture of Southern ,

,rt Social Science Quarterlv 64 (September
Yatesr t'Arkansasr" pp. ZdT-202.

"*.r, Southern polirics, pp . Lg7 , tgg.
22St.p1"", Reconstruct,ion r pp. 154-157.
23Jo""ph M. St. Hil-aire, r,The Negro Delegates in the

Arkansas constitutional convention of 1g6g: A Group
l:rI11., " Arkgnsas Hisroric-"1 Quarteru., 33 (sprini L9r 4) :38-69; fom Eleptrant: [acialconflict in the Arkansas Republican partyrt' ArkansasHistoricaL Quarrerlv 33 (Spring t974): 3-5.

24Mon"yhon, r'Black polit.icsr't pp. 227-22g, 232.
25John l,Iil1iam Graves, ,rNegro Disfranchisement inArkansas4'r Arke_E_q_e_q Hrsrorical Quarrerlv 26 (Autumn 196l):

1 99- 22s .



26

q-kalsee (tqmkansas Gazet!e, 3,

- 
29 e,lf red Kerly and winf red Harbison, The American9on,sriru_tior: its Orieins and&_y_eropmeni rffi" (NewYork g8l_1900.
30_---Yat,es, ttArkansas, rr 242-243; election analysis isbased on returns available at the Elections office of theSecretary of State.

26tUiq. p:,223 n10g; Arsenaulr, lrlild Ass , 2!4, 2493trilliamflT'rerr Em t,le're Ri;i;;;-;: ifzt
27 williams, ,,Te11 Em I,Ie r re Risin, r'

Reports. Vo1. 181 ( I93O) , pp. 42g-433:

"*.I, $grlrhern politicsr pp. 620, 624

3lArkansas GazeEte, June 27, Lg64.
32tuia.,Sept . 20, Oct . zg; and Nov
33Ibrd., August 9, Sept . 27, ocr.Nov. 3, and November 4, L964. '

Fr - - ^ 

34voaing analysis is based on election returns from theElections office of the secretary of state and the StareAuditorts 0ffice. percentages for those purchhsing-por1 taxreceiprs in t960 and rhose i"'ei"a;.;;-i;1970 are based onthe population over 2L in the respectir" u.s. census,-

29-30; Arkansas

, 627;
April I

. 2, L964.

2L , Oct. 27 , Oct. 3I ,