African-Americans
Reconstruction/Progressive Era - Page 3
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The post-war years were especially brutal on African-Americans. During the Reconstruction years, the Ku Klux Klan was active in the state and had the support of many ex-Confederates. They terrorized the ex-slaves and bullied them into not voting and sometimes they committed murder. When it ended in 1874, the Democratic party returned to power and cut off many of the civil rights that African-Americans had gained in the years following the Civil War.
African-American migration into the Arkansas Delta from other parts of the country was at its height between 1870 and 1900.
In the 1890s, a series of laws were passed to keep African-Americans from taking part in the political process. The Jim Crow laws, as they were called, required African-Americans to pay a poll tax in order to vote and segregated the races in public places such as railroads, streetcars and schools. In 1891, the General Assembly passed the Arkansas Separate Coach Law to force separation of the white and African-American passengers. The U.S. government did nothing to stop this segregation, as their own buildings were divided between "white" and "black". In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court endorsed this with the passage of Plessy v. Ferguson, the case that coined the phrase, "separate but equal." White and African-American communities were angered at these actions and the result was often clashes in the form of lynchings and mob violence.
Despite the segregation, many African-Americans rose to fight the injustice and make a life for themselves. Leaders like Mifflin Gibbs and Scipio Jones became well-known members of the legal community. Scott Bond, who began as a sharecropper near Forrest City, owned 21 farms and 1200 acres of land, five cotton gins and a general store. Wiley Jones began his career as a barber in Pine Bluff, built the city's first streetcar line, and ran a racetrack. Each year, his track was the host to the Colored State Fair, which featured music and art, farm produce and livestock.
By the end of the 19th century, many African-American communities could boast of their own banks, hospitals and other businesses. They were involved in religion, education, medicine, law and other professions. Fraternal organizations, such as the Mosaic Templars Society, were founded in Arkansas and served as a social focal point for many African-Americans nationwide. The African-American community also began to serve the higher education needs of their community. In 1875, the Branch Normal College (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff) was founded to train African-American teachers, Philander Smith College was established by the Methodist Church, and Arkansas Baptist College was created in 1884. Shorter College in North Little Rock opened its doors in 1887 and Southland College was founded at Helena in 1863.
