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Ar·kan·sas (är'kən-sô') 
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
Arkansas |
For more information on Arkansas, visit Britannica.com.
US History Encyclopedia:
Arkansas |
Arkansas, located just west of the Mississippi River, straddles a border between the South and the West and encompasses something of both those regions in its history and customs.
Throughout most of the eighteenth century, the small white population was concentrated at Arkansas Post, located on the Arkansas River just a few miles above where it feeds into the Mississippi River. Arkansas Post was established by Henri de Tonti in 1686, but it was a small and primitive affair that had a difficult time surviving. It was abandoned in 1699, founded again in 1721, and then moved several times between 1749and 1780.
While Arkansas Post clearly had importance as a place for reprovisioning boats on the long journey on the Mississippi River, it had political and economic importance as well. Politically, it gave the French—and, after the Seven Years' War, the Spanish—a foothold in an otherwise undermanned region, and it provided them a means for establishing relations with Native Americans in the area, particularly the Quapaws.
Other native groups in Arkansas had less contact with whites at the post, but the Osages did make themselves known. While their home villages were in southwestern Missouri, the Osages claimed most of northern and western Arkansas as their hunting grounds and ferociously protected their prerogatives there, effectively inhibiting white settlement in western Arkansas until the early nineteenth century. When the Americans took over and began to resettle Cherokee and Choctaw Indians in west Arkansas, the Osages resisted and were themselves resettled to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma).
The American Era in Arkansas
The Louisiana Purchase ushered in the American era in Arkansas, and it had implications for the Indians there, some of whom had moved to Arkansas voluntarily in the late eighteenth century to escape the Americans. Cherokees, for example, settled along the Black and St. Francis rivers in the 1780s and 1790s. Although some eastern Indians, particularly the Cherokees, were "removed" to Arkansas in the late 1810s, they were later resettled in Indian Territory. Native groups would find themselves at a distinct disadvantage as the Americans spread across the Mississippi River; established plantation agriculture, particularly on Quapaw lands in southeastern Arkansas; and placed the state on a certain economic trajectory and a collision course with the Civil War.
As white settlers swept into the region in the first three decades of the nineteenth century, they found ample fertile land to develop in Arkansas and secured the cooperation of the federal government in removing all Indians from the territory by the mid-1830s. By the time that Arkansas applied for separate territorial status in 1819—it had been part of Missouri Territory until then—slavery was firmly established, and it came as a shock when New York Representative John Taylor proposed effectively banning slavery. The debate that ensued became intertwined with Missouri's application for statehood, and, in fact, the idea of a dividing line (36 degrees, 30 minutes—the border between Missouri and Arkansas), which became one of the key features of the great Missouri Compromise, was first articulated by Taylor in connection with the Arkansas bill. In the end, of course, slavery remained intact in Arkansas and became an important element in the delta's economy and in the state's political history.
Other differences existed between the southeast and northwest. While the southeast was given over to cotton cultivation, plantation agriculture, and a higher concentration of land ownership, a mixed agriculture of wheat, corn, livestock, and orchards predominated in the northwest, where land holdings tended to be much smaller. Part of the Arkansas Ozark Mountain range, northwest Arkansas was simply not suitable for plantation agriculture. The northwest was predominantly Whig in political orientation, and although some Whigs had interests in the delta, most planters there were Democrats.
A crucial factor in the ability of southeastern planters to control Arkansas politics was their influence upon the capital city. The first territorial capital, Arkansas Post, proved to be an inadequate location, and in 1820 a centrally located site farther up the Arkansas River, known as the "little rock," was chosen as the new territorial capital. Little Rock developed rapidly, and with significant ties to the southeastern Arkansas planters, Little Rock businessmen and politicians could be counted upon to support issues of importance to them.
Conflicts Over Statehood
Its central role in the political struggle between the southeast and the northwest became manifest when Arkansas drafted its first state constitution in early 1836. The drive for statehood in Arkansas had been influenced by the desire to maintain a balance on the national level between slave and free states. When it became clear in 1834 that the territory of Michigan was preparing to apply for state-hood in the near future, Arkansas territorial delegate Ambrose Sevier was determined that Arkansas would be paired with Michigan.
When delegates met in Little Rock to draft a state constitution, southeastern planters were defeated in their attempts to apply the three-fifths rule in counting slaves for purposes of representation, but they succeeded in carving out a three-district political structure: one made up of southeast counties, one of northwest counties, and one of three counties in the center of the state. The largest of those three counties in the central district was, of course, Pulaski, where Little Rock was located. Northwestern delegates largely opposed this arrangement because it was clear that this central district would support the southeast, but enough northwestern delegates voted in favor of it to secure its passage.
Arkansas in the Civil War
When the secession crisis of 1860 took place, some Southerners believed that President Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency alone was sufficient to justify immediate Secession, but most Arkansans were willing to give Lincoln a chance to prove that he was not, as he insisted, opposed to slavery where it existed. Those most in favor of immediate secession were from the southeastern delta; those most opposed were from the northwest. A secession convention was called in March 1861, just as Lincoln was taking the oath of office. The northwestern delegates succeeded in defeating the immediate secessionists, but the convention scheduled an election to take place the following August that would allow voters to decide the issue. Before that election could be held, however, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter on April 12, and in response Lincoln put out a call for troops to all the states. Arkansas's moment of truth had arrived. The secession convention called itself back into session and voted 69to 1 to secede and join the Confederate cause.
Although few important battles were fought in the state, the Civil War brought devastation to Arkansas. It was ill-positioned to fight a war. Due to banking problems, the state was in poor economic standing at the time the Civil War broke out. Meanwhile, state officials feared—with justification—that Arkansas troops would be transferred east of the river, leaving Arkansas relatively defenseless. Although the Confederate military never fully abandoned Arkansas, it remained a lower priority and suffered as a consequence.
Ironically, the largest battles fought in the state took place in northwest Arkansas, the area least in favor of secession. On March 7–8, 1862, Federal forces pushed into the state from Missouri, hoping to wipe out Confederate resistance in the northwest counties and possibly reach the Arkansas River valley. Confederate forces met the Union forces at Pea Ridge (or Elkhorn Tavern). After a seesaw battle with heavy losses on the Federal side, the Confederates were ultimately forced to retire south to the Boston Mountains, but the Federals failed to follow them. Neither side truly won the battle as neither achieved its objectives. Much of Arkansas was then embroiled in a relentless guerrilla war from which many civilians, particularly in northwest Arkansas, fled.
The Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction history of Arkansas is similar to that of other southern states. Initially Confederates regained political office under President Andrew Johnson's mild Reconstruction policies, only to be removed and disfranchised under congressional (or radical) Reconstruction. The Republican Party of Arkansas, like that of other southern states, attempted to build railroads, founded an educational system, and fell victim to charges of corruption. Ultimately, Reconstruction was overturned and a Redeemer Democrat, Augustus Garland, took over as Democratic governor in 1874.
One major issue emanating from the Civil War was what to do about the freedmen. The Freedmen'S Bureau functioned in Arkansas during its brief life, but planters soon regained the upper hand and reduced the Arkansas freedmen to a kind of peasantry through the sharecropping system. Meanwhile, the cotton economy sank into a long decline, although Arkansas planters remained locked into it through the system of advances they received from cotton factors, who demanded they grow cotton. The state legislature, now controlled by Democrats, forswore an activist role in addressing the economic problems facing farmers. By the early 1880s farmers in Arkansas were in such dire straits that they formed the Agricultural Wheel, an organization determined to influence the legislature to address their problems. By 1886 they mounted a candidate for governor who very nearly defeated the Democratic candidate.
The fact that blacks had voted for the "Wheel" candidate did not escape the attention of leading Democrats, and fearful of the threat from below, Democrats were motivated to conquer by dividing their enemies along racial lines. In 1891 the legislature enacted both segregation and disfranchising legislature. The Separate Coach law prohibited blacks from riding in first-class coaches within the state. The election law of 1891 discriminated against illiterate voters (by allowing only election officials to mark their ballots) and imposed a poll tax. A final disfranchising piece of legislation became effective in 1906 when the state Democratic Party declared a "white only" policy, whereby only whites could vote in the Democratic primary.
Industrial Development Emerges
The end of the nineteenth century also marked something of an economic renaissance in Arkansas, albeit of a very limited kind. Despite efforts on the part of Arkansas boosters to attract industry and development to the state, the only industries that emerged were extractive in nature. The lumber industry, for example, became extraordinarily important all over Arkansas, from the eastern delta to the Ouachita and Ozark mountains in the west. Northern financiers and entrepreneurs, eager to reach the wealth of the Arkansas forests, extended hundreds of miles of railroad into a state that on the eve of the Civil War had less than a hundred miles of rail line. Deforestation in eastern Arkansas led directly to the expansion of the plantation system there and an explosion of population growth in the early twentieth century. By the end of that century, coal mining had become important. In central Arkansas, meanwhile, bauxite mining emerged near Benton. But efforts to move beyond these extractive industries and broaden the economy past its dependence on agriculture failed.
Progressivism, Riots, and Flood
Just as the urge to reform and perfect swept across the rest of the country during the Progressive Era, it touched Arkansas as well. It was during the first decades of the twentieth century that the convict leasing system was eliminated, women got the right to vote, and the educational infrastructure was improved. Both the initiative and the referendum were adopted in Arkansas. Prohibition was implemented in 1916, three years before the national ban. As the automobile became a more important means of transportation, roads expanded. Unfortunately, many road improvement districts went bankrupt during the economic downturn following World War I. The governors of the 1920s and 1930s struggled with this legacy of debt.
But those two decades brought other significant problems that captured the attention of the state's governors and legislators. In 1919 a race riot in Phillips County brought unfavorable publicity. This was "red summer," when labor strife and race riots occurred across the country. In the Arkansas case, black Sharecroppers had formed a union and hired an attorney to represent them in suits they planned to file against planters for whom they worked. The planters learned of the union and purportedly concluded that the union was planning to murder them and appropriate their lands. After an incident outside a union meeting left a white man dead, a full-fledged race riot resulted, and Governor Charles Brough called on the president to dispatch troops from Camp Pike. Five whites and at least twenty-five blacks were killed, although unofficial reports suggest the number of blacks killed greatly exceeded that number.
While the Elaine Race Riot brought unfavorable publicity to the state, the sharp decline in prices paid for agricultural products that persisted throughout the 1920s brought ruin to farmers and many of the merchants and bankers who depended upon the agricultural economy. As if their economic woes were not problem enough, the great flood of 1927 inundated Arkansas. More than two million agricultural acres were flooded within the state. Arkansas had hardly recovered from this disaster and was reeling from the deteriorating economic conditions faced by Americans after the stock market crash of 1929 when the drought of 1930–1931 struck. Crops withered in the fields and livestock died while the Red Cross ruminated over whether a drought was the kind of natural disaster they should respond to. Finally, the Red Cross stepped in, but it was New Deal programs fostered under Franklin Roosevelt's presidency that began to improve the agricultural economy. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) launched its crop reduction program in 1933 and secured the cooperation of planters and farmers throughout the state in "plowing up" up to 30 percent of the planted cotton acres. Farmers were given a check for "renting" the plowed-up acres to the government, although they were free to raise certain unrestricted crops on those lands.
As it worked out, the AAA greatly advantaged planters and large farmers and brought further devastation to tenant farmers. Planters who no longer needed the services of tenant farmers simply evicted them. Many planters refused to share the crop payments with the tenants remaining on their plantation.
Some historians have credited the AAA program with being largely responsible for the demise of the tenancy and sharecropping system and the emergence of capital-intensive agriculture. But World War II played an important role in pulling labor away from agricultural areas—sending them to the military or to work in defense industries—and, in any case, the transition from labor-intensive to capital-intensive agriculture in the Arkansas delta depended upon the creation of a marketable mechanical cotton harvester. Those were developed during the war and began to come off assembly lines in sufficient numbers by the late 1940s to begin a revolution in southern agriculture. As chemicals, some of them developed during the war for other purposes, were put to use on the delta plantations to keep weeds down, the shift was further augmented. By the end of the 1950s the transition was all but complete, leaving in its wake a massive depopulation of the Arkansas delta that wreaked havoc on small-town economies.
Attracting Industry to the State
The state was not quiescent in the face of the changes transforming the delta. At Governor Orval Faubus's suggestion, the legislature created the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission in 1955. Despite more than fifty years of efforts to expand industrial production in the state, no industrial base of any significance had been established. Faubus appointed Winthrop Rockefeller, scion of the famous New York Rockefellers, who had settled in Arkansas after World War II, as the first director of the AIDC. He served as director for nine years and pursued industrial development with zeal and energy. He had some successes, but the kinds of industries that ultimately settled in Arkansas were of a character that did not promote further development. In fact, with more than six hundred new industrial plants located in the state during his tenure, providing more than ninety thousand new jobs, those factories paid low wages to largely unskilled workers. By the mid-1960s, moreover, it was clear that Arkansas was serving as a way station for those industries on a trek south in search of lower wages. Towns that secured factories in 1955 would likely be looking for replacement factories a decade later.
Ironically, it was in part the fear of losing industrial development possibilities that influenced Little Rock businessmen to take a stand on the Central High School crisis that began in 1957. Governor Orval Faubus had taken an extreme segregationist position just when it seemed the Little Rock school board had worked out a reasonable plan of gradual integration. He called out the National Guard to prevent nine black children from entering the school in the fall of 1957, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower was ultimately forced to nationalize the state guard and send in troops to enforce integration. The next year, Faubus elected to close the schools rather than allow them to be integrated.
For their part, the businessmen recognized that the crisis had drawn national and international attention that threatened their efforts to encourage industrial development in the city. They wanted an end to the bad publicity. By the early 1960s, even Faubus was changing his tune. With black voters gaining strength, particularly in the Arkansas delta, he began courting them and forswearing his segregationist past. When he decided not to run for office in 1966, his former AIDC director, Winthrop Rockefeller, secured the Republican nomination and defeated Jim Johnson, an avid race baiter. Clearly, Arkansas had had enough of the politics of race.
The Republican Rise to Power
The last six decades of the twentieth century witnessed a dramatic economic and political transformation in Arkansas. The emergence of the Republican Party and an economic boom in northwest Arkansas, two events that were not entirely unrelated, changed the face of the Arkansas political and economic landscape. While the delta struggled economically in the wake of the transformation of the plantation system, it reinvented itself politically as black voters made themselves felt at the polls. For the first time since Reconstruction, blacks were elected to important political positions on the local level in Arkansas.
Meanwhile, the rise of four economic giants in northwest Arkansas put that region on a phenomenal growth trajectory. Sam Walton, a retail genius, founded Wal-Mart, with its headquarters in Bentonville. John Tyson began his chicken business in Springdale, and his son, Don Tyson, expanded it dramatically and made it a worldwide enterprise. J. B. Hunt, who began as a simple trucker, founded a trucking empire and moved his headquarters to northwest Arkansas. John A. Cooper, who had founded a successful retirement community known as Cherokee Village, worked his magic in Bella Vista beginning in the 1960s, at approximately the same time that Walton, Don Tyson, and Hunt were laying the foundation for their businesses. The three business enterprises attracted a number of vendors and allied industries, and the population growth that followed generated an unprecedented construction boom.
Most of those who moved into northwest Arkansas and crowded into the growing suburbs of Little Rock were conservative in orientation. Only the presence of three moderate Democrats who could speak the language of fiscal conservatism kept the state otherwise in the hands of the Democrats. Dale Leon Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton all served as governor between 1972 and 1992 (with the exception of a two-year period when a maverick Republican, Frank White, occupied the state house). Bumpers and Pryor would go on to have distinguished careers in the Senate, and Clinton, of course, went to the White House. In fact, his departure may have played a significant role in the Republican resurgence in Arkansas. Not only did he take with him many young Democrats who might have positioned themselves for elective office had they remained in Arkansas, but he also left the state in the hands of his Democratic lieutenant governor, Jim Guy Tucker, who proved to be more vulnerable than any one could have imagined. Within two years, Tucker faced serious charges arising from the Whitewater investigation and resigned, giving the seat over to Mike Huckabee, a popular Republican. Meanwhile, Republicans were experiencing a political renaissance elsewhere in the state, claiming a congressional seat in 1992 and a Senate seat in 1996. Clearly, by the end of the twentieth century, the Republican Party had become a force to be reckoned with, and the massive demographic changes that had occurred in the previous fifty years were a major factor in bringing that about.
Bibliography
Bolton, S. Charles. Arkansas: Remote and Restless, 1800–1860. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1998.
Donovan, Timothy P., Willard B. Gatewood, and Jeannie Whayne, eds. Governors of Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1995.
Dougan, Michael B. Arkansas Odyssey: The Saga of Arkansas from Prehistoric Times to the Present. Little Rock, Ark.: Rose, 1993.
Johnson, Ben F. III. Arkansas in Modern America, 1930–1999. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.
Moneyhon, Carl. Arkansas and the New South, 1874–1929. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
Reed, Roy. Faubus: The Life and Times of an American Prodigal. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997.
Whayne, Jeannie, Tom DeBlack, George Sabo, and Morris S. Arnold. Arkansas: A Narrative History. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2002.
Whayne, Jeannie, and Willard B. Gatewood, eds. The Arkansas Delta: A Land of Paradox. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1993.
—Jeannie Whayne
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Arkansas |
Facts and Figures
Area, 53,104 sq mi (137,539 sq km). Pop. (2000) 2,673,400, a 13.7% increase since the 1990 census. Capital and largest city, Little Rock. Statehood, June 15, 1836 (25th state). Highest pt., Magazine Mt., 2,753 ft (840 m); lowest pt., Ouachita River, 55 ft (17 m). Nickname, Land of Opportunity. Motto, Regnat Populus [The People Rule]. State bird, mockingbird. State flower, apple blossom. State tree, pine. Abbr., Ark.; AK
Geography
The Arkansas River flows southeast across the state between the Ozark plateau and the Ouachita Mountains and runs down to the southern and eastern plains to empty into the Mississippi River. The other rivers of the state also flow generally SE or S to the Mississippi; these include the Saint Francis (which forms part of the E Missouri line), the White River, the Ouachita, and the Red River (which forms part of the Texas line). The state's transportation network is based on rivers as well as roads, railroads, and air travel. The 440 mi (708 km) Arkansas River Navigation System links Oklahoma and Arkansas to the Mississippi River.
The capital and largest city is Little Rock; other important cities are Fort Smith, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, and West Memphis.
The climate of Arkansas is marked by long, hot summers and mild winters. The state's many lakes and streams and its abundant wildlife provide excellent hunting and fishing. The mineral springs at Hot Springs also attract many visitors to Arkansas, where tourism is an important industry.
Economy
A major cotton-producing state in the 19th cent., Arkansas has since diversified its agricultural production and overall economy. Cotton is still an important crop, but ranks below soybeans and rice. Arkansas has become a leading producer of poultry, raising over one billion broiler chickens a year; turkeys, dairy goods, and catfish are also important. The state's most important mineral products are petroleum, bromine and bromine compounds, and natural gas, and it is the nation's leading bauxite producer. Principal manufactures are food products, chemicals, lumber and paper goods, electrical equipment, furniture, automobile and airplane parts, and machinery. The Pine Bluff Arsenal is among military installations contributing to the Arkansas economy.
Government and Higher Education
The state constitution (1874) provides for an elected governor and bicameral legislature, with a 35-member senate and a 100-member house of representatives. Arkansas sends two senators and four representatives to the U.S. Congress and has six electoral votes.
Bill Clinton was elected governor five times between 1978 and 1990. Jim Guy Tucker, a Democrat, succeeded Clinton but resigned in 1996 when he was convicted of fraud in a Whitewater-related scheme; Republican Mike Huckabee, the lieutenant governor, became governor, and was reelected in 1998 and 2002. In 2006, Mike Beebe, a Democrat, was elected to the post. The state legislature has long been heavily Democratic, but Arkansas's congressional delegation is more bipartisan.
Among the institutions of higher education in the state are the Univ. of Arkansas, at Fayetteville; Arkansas State Univ., at Jonesboro; Hendrix College and the State College of Arkansas, at Conway; Ouachita Baptist College and Henderson State College, at Arkadelphia; the College of the Ozarks, at Clarksville; Arkansas College, at Batesville; and Harding College, at Searcy.
History
Early History to Statehood
A people known as the Bluff Dwellers, who inhabited caves, probably lived in the Arkansas area before 500. They were followed by the Mound Builders, who received their name from the mounds they constructed, apparently for ceremonial purposes. The first Europeans to arrive in Arkansas (1541-42) were probably members of the Spanish expedition under Hernando De Soto. Later the French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet came S along the Mississippi to the mouth of the Arkansas River. A number of Native American groups, such as the Osage, Quapaw, and Caddo, lived in the vicinity.
In 1682, Robert La Salle's lieutenant, Henri de Tonti, established Arkansas Post, the first white settlement in the Arkansas area. La Salle claimed the Mississippi valley for France, and the region became part of the French territory of Louisiana. The French ceded the Louisiana territory to Spain in 1762 but regained it before it passed to the United States under the Louisiana Purchase (1803).
Arkansas became part of the Territory of Missouri in 1812. The cotton boom of 1818 brought the first large wave of settlers, and the Southern plantation system, moving west, fixed itself in the alluvial plains of S and E Arkansas. In 1819 the area was made a separate entity, and the first territorial legislature met at Arkansas Post. The capital was moved to Little Rock in 1821. Arkansas achieved statehood in 1836.
The Civil War
As the Civil War began, poorer farmers were generally indifferent to questions of slavery and states' rights. The slaveholding planters held the most political power, however, and after some hesitation, Arkansas seceded (1861) from the Union. In the Civil War, Confederate defeats at Pea Ridge (Mar., 1862), Prairie Grove (Dec., 1862), and Arkansas Post (Jan., 1863) led to Union occupation of N Arkansas, and General Grant's Vicksburg campaign separated states W of the Mississippi from the rest of the Confederacy. In Sept., 1863, federal troops entered Little Rock, where a Unionist convention in Jan., 1864, set up a government that repudiated secession and abolished slavery. Because the state refused at first to enfranchise former slaves, Arkansas was not readmitted to the Union until 1868, when a new constitution gave African Americans the right to vote and hold office.
Reconstruction
Reconstruction in Arkansas reached a turbulent climax in the struggle (1874) of two Republican claimants to the governorship, Elisha Baxter and Joseph Brooks. Baxter's apparent success in the election was not accepted by Brooks, and followers of the two men resorted to violence in what became known as the Brooks-Baxter War. After President Ulysses S. Grant declared Baxter to be governor, Baxter called a constituent assembly dominated by Democrats to frame a new state constitution. The convention adopted (1874) the constitution that, in amended form, still remains in force.
During Reconstruction the so-called carpetbaggers and scalawags were detested by most Arkansas whites, but their administrations brought advances in education and (at exorbitant costs caused by corruption) railroad construction. Because of high cotton prices and the failure to give the freed slaves any economic status, the broken plantation system was replaced by sharecropping and farm tenancy. The lives of the people of the Ozarks remained largely unchanged; they retained the customs, skills, and superstitions that have given the hill folk their distinctive regional characteristics. In the late 19th cent., as railroad construction proceeded, Arkansas's population grew substantially, and bauxite and lumbering industries developed. Oil was discovered in Arkansas, near El Dorado, in 1921.
Hard Times
Disaster struck in 1927 when the Mississippi River overflowed, flooding one fifth of the state. With the fortunes of the state pegged to the price of cotton, the depression of the early 1930s (see Great Depression) struck hard. Dispossessed tenants, black and white, formed (1939) the Southern Tenant Farmers Union; after trouble with the authorities, it moved its headquarters to Memphis, Tenn. A strike called in 1936 spread to other regions before its strength waned. Other impoverished farmers migrated west to California as "Arkies"-like the "Okies" from neighboring Oklahoma. After World War I, African Americans left the state in a steady stream to the industrial North. World War II brought further loss of population as workers left Arkansas for war factories elsewhere. The war, however, created a boom for new industries in the state, notably the processing of bauxite into aluminum.
The Postwar Era
The decline of industrial output after the war was offset by the vigorous efforts of a state development commission formed in 1955 to attract new industry to Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas became a center of national and world attention in 1957 when he resisted the desegregation of public schools in Little Rock (see integration). Arkansas has long been dominated by the Democratic party, but in 1966 Winthrop Rockefeller (see under Rockefeller, John Davison was elected the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Although reelected in 1968, Rockefeller lost the governorship to a Democrat, Dale Bumpers, in 1970.
In 1971, Arkansas and Oklahoma joined in the Arkansas River Navigation System, a project that developed the Arkansas River basin to provide water transportation to the Mississippi. In the early 1990s, the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart merchandise chain, founded by Arkansan Sam Walton in 1962 as a small-town discount store, became the largest retailer in the United States. Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas (1979-81, 1983-92), was elected president of the United States in 1992. In the mid- to late 1990s national attention focused on Arkansas as Clinton associates, including Jim Guy Tucker, his successor as governor, were embroiled in Whitewater and other scandals.
Bibliography
See L. J. White, Politics on the Southwestern Frontier: Arkansas Territory, 1819-1836 (1964); H. S. Ashmore, Arkansas (1984); I. J. Spitzberg, Racial Politics in Little Rock, 1954-1964 (1987); G. T. Hanson and C. H. Moneyhon, Historical Atlas of Arkansas (1989).
Geography:
Arkansas |
State in the south-central United States bordered by Missouri to the north, the Mississippi River to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its capital and largest city is Little Rock.
Local Time:
Arkansas |
Wine Lover's Companion:
Arkansas |
In the early 1900s, Arkansas enjoyed abundant vineyards, mostly of concord grapes, an indigenous American variety of the vitis labrusca species. Unfortunately, wines from these grapes don't have the popular appeal of vitis vinifera species (the basic European varieties like cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay). Today, Arkansas winemaking is mostly from hybrids and Vitis vinifera grapes. The state has three american viticultural areas all located in the northwestern portion of the state-the large ozark mountain ava (which Arkansas shares with missouri and oklahoma) and the smaller AVAs of altus and Arkansas Mountain, both subzones of the Ozark Mountain AVA. Area wineries produce a variety of still wines from Cynthiana (norton) grapes or hybrids (like niagra and seyval blanc) as well as from Cabernet Sauvignon, merlot and Chardonnay grapes. Arkansas also produces sparkling wines. The Wiederkehr Winery, which was started in the late 1800s, is in operation today by the founder's descendants. It has shifted from American varieties and hybrids to grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon, riesling and muscat.
Stats:
Arkansas |
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Wikipedia:
Arkansas |
Arkansas (
i /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw)[4] is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.
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The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word "Arkansas" itself is a French pronunciation ("Arcansas") of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word "akakaze" meaning "land of downriver people" or the Sioux word "Akakaze" meaning "people of the south wind". The pronunciation of Arkansas was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881, after a dispute between the two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the name /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-KAN-zəs and the other wanted /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw.[5]
In 2007, the state legislature officially declared the possessive form of the state's name to be Arkansas's.[6]
The Mississippi River forms most of Arkansas's eastern border, except in Clay and Greene counties where the St. Francis River forms the western boundary of the Missouri Bootheel, and in dozens of places where the current channel of the Mississippi has meandered from where it had last been legally specified.[7] Arkansas shares its southern border with Louisiana, its northern border with Missouri, its eastern border with Tennessee and Mississippi, and its western border with Texas and Oklahoma.
Arkansas is a land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. The so-called Lowlands are better known by names of their two regions, the Delta and the Grand Prairie. The Arkansas Delta is a flat landscape of rich alluvial soils formed by repeated flooding of the adjacent Mississippi. Further away from the river, in the southeast portion of the state, the Grand Prairie consists of a more undulating landscape. Both are fertile agricultural areas.
The Delta region is bisected by an unusual geological formation known as Crowley's Ridge. A narrow band of rolling hills, Crowley's Ridge rises from 250 to 500 feet (150 m) above the surrounding alluvial plain and underlies many of the major towns of eastern Arkansas.
Northwest Arkansas is part of the Ozark Plateau including the Boston Mountains, to the south are the Ouachita Mountains and these regions are divided by the Arkansas River; the southern and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands. These mountain ranges are part of the U.S. Interior Highlands region, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.[8][9] The highest point in the state is Mount Magazine in the Ozark Mountains; it rises to 2,753 feet (839 m) above sea level.
Arkansas is home to many caves, such as Blanchard Springs Caverns. More than 43,000 Native American living, hunting and tool making sites, many of them Pre-Columbian burial mounds and rock shelters, have been catalogued by the State Archeologist. Arkansas is currently the only U.S. state in which diamonds are mined—although by members of the public with primitive digging tools for a small daily fee, not by commercial interests.[10][11] (near Murfreesboro).
Arkansas is home to many areas protected by the National Park System. These include:[12]
The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail also runs through Arkansas.[12]
Arkansas is home to a dozen Wilderness Areas totaling around 150,000 acres (610 km2). These areas are set aside for outdoor recreation and are open to hunting, fishing, hiking, and primitive camping. No mechanized vehicles are allowed in these areas, some of which are rarely visited and can provide a good experience of feeling as if you are the only person to have ever stepped foot there.
Arkansas generally has a humid subtropical climate, which borders on humid continental in some northern highland areas. While not bordering the Gulf of Mexico, Arkansas is still close enough to this warm, large body of water for it to influence the weather in the state. Generally, Arkansas has hot, humid summers and cold, slightly drier winters. In Little Rock, the daily high temperatures average around 90°F with lows around 70°F in the month of July. In January highs average around 49°F and lows around 30°F. In Siloam Springs in the northwest part of the state, the average high and low temperatures in July are 89°F and 67°F and in January the average high and lows are 44°F and 23°F. Annual precipitation throughout the state averages between about 40 and 60 inches (1,000 and 1,500 mm); somewhat wetter in the south and drier in the northern part of the state.[13] Snowfall is common, moreso in the north half of the state, which usually gets several snowfalls each winter. This is not only due to its closer proximity to the plains states, but also to the higher elevations found throughout the Ozark and Ouachita mountains. The half of the state south of Little Rock gets less snow, and is more apt to see ice storms, however, sleet and freezing rain are expected throughout the state during the winter months, and can significantly impact travel and day to day life.
Arkansas is known for extreme weather. A typical year will see thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, snow and ice storms. Between both the Great Plains and the Gulf States, Arkansas receives around 60 days of thunderstorms. As a part of Tornado Alley, tornadoes are a common occurrence in Arkansas, and a few of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history have struck the state. While being sufficiently away from the coast to be safe from a direct hit from a hurricane, Arkansas can often get the remnants of a tropical system which dumps tremendous amounts of rain in a short time and often spawns smaller tornadoes.
High water pouring down the White River caused historic flooding in cities along its path in eastern Arkansas.
The first European to reach Arkansas was the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, a veteran of Pizarro's conquest of Peru who died near Lake Village on the Mississippi River in 1542 after almost a year traversing the southern part of the state in search of gold and a passage to China. Arkansas is one of several U.S. states formed from the territory purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase. The early Spanish or French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling of the Illinois tribe's name for the Quapaw people, who lived downriver from them.[14] Other Native American tribes who lived in Arkansas before moving west were the Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage nations. In their forced move westward (under U.S. Indian removal policies), the Five Civilized Tribes inhabited Arkansas during its territorial period.
The Territory of Arkansas[5] was organized on July 4, 1819. On June 15, 1836, the State of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state and the 13th slave state. Planters settled in the Delta to cultivate cotton; this was the area of the state where most enslaved African Americans were held. Other areas had more subsistence farmers and mixed farming.
Arkansas played a key role in aiding Texas in its war for independence from Mexico; it sent troops and materials to Texas to help fight the war. The proximity of the city of Washington to the Texas border involved the town in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36. Some evidence suggests Sam Houston and his compatriots planned the revolt in a tavern at Washington in 1834.[15] When the fighting began, a stream of volunteers from Arkansas and the southeastern states flowed through the town toward the Texas battle fields.
When the Mexican-American War began in 1846, Washington became a rendezvous for volunteer troops. Governor Thomas S. Drew issued a proclamation calling on the state to furnish one regiment of cavalry and one battalion of infantry to join the United States Army. Ten companies of men assembled here, where they were formed into the first Regiment of Arkansas Cavalry.
The state developed a cotton culture in the east in lands of the Mississippi Delta. This was where enslaved labor was used most extensively, as planters brought with them or imported slaves from the Upper South. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, enslaved African Americans numbered 111,115 people, just over 25% of the state's population.[16]
Arkansas refused to join the Confederate States of America until after United States President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to respond to the Confederate attack upon Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The State of Arkansas declared its secession from the Union on May 6, 1861. While not often cited in historical accounts, the state was the scene of numerous small-scale battles during the American Civil War. Arkansans of note who contributed to the Civil War included Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne. Considered by many to be one of the most brilliant Confederate division commanders of the war, Cleburne was often referred to as "The Stonewall of the West." Also of note was Major General Thomas C. Hindman. A former United States Representative, Hindman commanded Confederate forces at the Battle of Cane Hill and Battle of Prairie Grove.
Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress restored Arkansas to the Union in June 1868. The Reconstruction legislature established universal male suffrage while disenfranchising former Confederates (mostly Democrats), a public education system, and other general issues to improve the state and help more of the population. The state came under almost exclusive control of carpetbaggers lead by newly elected Governor Powell Clayton, marking a time of great upheaval and racial violence in the state between state militia and the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1874, the Brooks-Baxter War, a political struggle between factions of the Republican Party shook Little Rock and the state governorship. It was settled only when President Ulysses S. Grant ordered Joseph Brooks to disperse his militant supporters.[17]
Following the Brooks-Baxter War, a new state constitution was ratified re-enfranchising former Confederates.
In 1881, the Arkansas state legislature enacted a bill that adopted an official pronunciation of the state's name, to combat a controversy then simmering. (See Law and Government below.)
After Reconstruction, the state began to receive more immigrants and migrants. Chinese, Italian, and Syrian men were recruited for farm labor in the developing Delta region. None of these nationalities stayed long at farm labor; the Chinese especially quickly became small merchants in towns around the Delta. Some early 20th century immigration included people from eastern Europe. Together, these immigrants made the Delta more diverse than the rest of the state. In the same years, some black migrants moved into the area because of opportunities to develop the bottomlands and own their own property. Many Chinese became such successful merchants in small towns that they were able to educate their children at college.[18]
Construction of railroads enabled more farmers to get their products to market. It also brought new development into different parts of the state, including the Ozarks, where some areas were developed as resorts. In a few years at the end of the 19th century, for instance, Eureka Springs in Carroll County grew to 10,000 people, rapidly becoming a tourist destination and the fourth largest city of the state. It featured newly constructed, elegant resort hotels and spas planned around its natural springs, considered to have healthful properties. The town's attractions included horse racing and other entertainment. It appealed to a wide variety of classes, becoming almost as popular as Hot Springs.
In the late 1880s, the worsening agricultural depression catalyzed Populist and third party movements, leading to interracial coalitions. Struggling to stay in power, in the 1890s the Democrats in Arkansas followed other Southern states in passing legislation and constitutional amendments that disfranchised blacks and poor whites. Democrats wanted to prevent their alliance. In 1891 state legislators passed a requirement for a literacy test, knowing that many blacks and whites would be excluded, at a time when more than 25% of the population could neither read nor write. In 1892 they amended the state constitution to include a poll tax and more complex residency requirements, both of which adversely affected poor people and sharecroppers, and forced them from electoral rolls.
By 1900 the Democratic Party expanded use of the white primary in county and state elections, further denying blacks a part in the political process. Only in the primary was there any competition among candidates, as Democrats held all the power. The state was a Democratic one-party state for decades, until after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed.[19]
Between 1905 and 1911, Arkansas began to receive a small migration of German, Slovak, and Irish immigrants. The German and Slovak peoples settled in the eastern part of the state known as the Prairie, and the Irish founded small communities in the southeast part of the state. The Germans were mostly Catholic and the Slovaks were Lutheran. The Irish were mostly Protestant from Ulster.
After the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954, the Little Rock Nine brought Arkansas to national attention when the Federal government intervened to protect African-American students trying to integrate a high school in the Arkansas capital. Governor Orval Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to aid segregationists in preventing nine African-American students from enrolling at Little Rock's Central High School. After attempting three times to contact Faubus, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent 1000 troops from the active-duty 101st Airborne Division to escort and protect the African-American students as they entered school on September 25, 1957. In defiance of federal court orders to integrate, the governor and city of Little Rock decided to close the high schools for the remainder of the school year. By the fall of 1959, the Little Rock high schools were completely integrated.[20]
Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was born in Hope, Arkansas. Before his presidency, Clinton served as the 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas, a total of nearly twelve years.
| Historical populations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Pop. | %± | |
| 1810 | 1,062 |
|
|
| 1820 | 14,273 | 1,244.0% | |
| 1830 | 30,388 | 112.9% | |
| 1840 | 97,574 | 221.1% | |
| 1850 | 209,897 | 115.1% | |
| 1860 | 435,450 | 107.5% | |
| 1870 | 484,471 | 11.3% | |
| 1880 | 802,525 | 65.6% | |
| 1890 | 1,128,211 | 40.6% | |
| 1900 | 1,311,564 | 16.3% | |
| 1910 | 1,574,449 | 20.0% | |
| 1920 | 1,752,204 | 11.3% | |
| 1930 | 1,854,482 | 5.8% | |
| 1940 | 1,949,387 | 5.1% | |
| 1950 | 1,909,511 | −2.0% | |
| 1960 | 1,786,272 | −6.5% | |
| 1970 | 1,923,295 | 7.7% | |
| 1980 | 2,286,435 | 18.9% | |
| 1990 | 2,350,725 | 2.8% | |
| 2000 | 2,673,400 | 13.7% | |
| Est. 2009[2] | 2,889,450 | 8.1% | |
As of 2006, Arkansas has an estimated population of 2,810,872,[21] which is an increase of 29,154, or 1.1%, from the prior year and an increase of 105,756, or 4.0%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 52,214 people (that is 198,800 births minus 146,586 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 57,611 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 21,947 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 35,664 people. It is estimated that about 48.8% is male, and 51.2% is female. From 2000 through 2006 Arkansas has had a population growth of 5.1% or 137,472.[22] The population density of the state is 51.3 people per square mile.
The center of population of Arkansas is located in the far northeast corner of Perry County.[23]
According to the 2008 U.S. Census Estimates, Non-Hispanic White Americans made up 75.6% of Arkansas' population. African Americans made up 15.8% of Arkansas' population. Native Americans made up 0.9% of the state's population. Asian Americans made up 1.1% of the state's population. Pacific Islander Americans made up 0.1% of the population. Multiracial Americans made up 1.4% of the state's population. Hispanics and Latinos (of any race) made up 5.6% of Arkansas' population.[24]
According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey,[25] the ten largest ancestry groups in the state African American (15.5%), Irish (13.6%), German (12.5%), American (11.1%), English (10.3%), French (2.4%),Scotch-Irish (2.1%), Dutch (1.9%), Scottish (1.9%) and Italian (1.7%).
European Americans have a strong presence in the northwestern Ozarks and the central part of the state. African Americans live mainly in the southern and eastern parts of the state. Arkansans of Irish, English and German ancestry are mostly found in the far northwestern Ozarks near the Missouri border. Ancestors of the Irish in the Ozarks were chiefly Scotch-Irish, Protestants from Northern Ireland and the Scottish lowlands, part of the largest group of immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland before the American Revolution. Scots-Irish settled throughout the backcountry of the South and in the more mountainous areas.[26]
According to the 2006-2008 American Community Survey, 93.8% of Arkansas' population (over the age of five) spoke only English at home. About 4.5% of the state's population spoke Spanish at home. About 0.7% of the state's population spoke any other Indo-European language. About 0.8% of the state's population spoke an Asian language, and 0.2% spoke other languages.
In 2006, Arkansas has a larger percentage of tobacco smokers than the national average, with 24.0% of adults smoking.[27]
Arkansas, like most other Southern states, is part of the Bible Belt and is predominantly Protestant. The religious affiliations of the people are as follows:[28]
The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2000 were the Southern Baptist Convention with 665,307; the United Methodist Church with 179,383; the Roman Catholic Church with 115,967; and the American Baptist Association with 115,916.[29]
The state's gross domestic product for 2005 was $87 billion. Its per capita household median income (in current dollars) for 2004 was $35,295, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.[30] The state's agriculture outputs are poultry and eggs, soybeans, sorghum, cattle, cotton, rice, hogs, and milk. Its industrial outputs are food processing, electric equipment, fabricated metal products, machinery, paper products, bromine, and vanadium.
As of January 2010, the states unemployment rate is 7.6%.[31]
Several global companies are headquartered in the northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007),[32] J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result.
In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states.
Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day.
According to Forbes.com[33] Arkansas currently ranks 21st for The Best States for Business, 9th for Business Cost, 40th for Labor, 22nd for Regulatory Environment, 17th for Economic Climate, 9th for Growth Prospects, 34th in Gross Domestic Product, and positive economic change of 3.8% or ranked 22nd.
Arkansas imposes a state income tax with six brackets, ranging from 1.0% to 7.0%. The first $9,000 of military pay of enlisted personnel is exempt from Arkansas tax; officers do not have to pay state income tax on the first $6,000 of their military pay. Retirees pay no tax on Social Security, or on the first $6,000 in gain on their pensions along with recovery of cost basis. Residents of Texarkana, Arkansas are exempt from Arkansas income tax; wages and business income earned there by residents of Texarkana, Texas are also exempt. Arkansas's gross receipts (sales) tax and compensating (use) tax rate is currently 6%. The state has also mandated that various services be subject to sales tax collection. They include wrecker and towing services; dry cleaning and laundry; body piercing, tattooing and electrolysis; pest control; security and alarm monitoring; self-storage facilities; boat storage and docking; and pet grooming and kennel services.
Along with the state sales tax, there are more than 300 local taxes in Arkansas. Cities and counties have the authority to enact additional local sales and use taxes if they are passed by the voters in their area. These local taxes have a ceiling or cap; they cannot exceed $25 for each 1% of tax assessed. These additional taxes are collected by the state, which distributes the money back to the local jurisdictions monthly. Low-income taxpayers with a total annual household income of less than $12,000 are permitted a sales tax exemption for electricity usage.
Sales of alcoholic beverages account for added taxes. A 10% supplemental mixed drink tax is imposed on the sale of alcoholic beverages (excluding beer) at restaurants. A 4% tax is due on the sale of all mixed drinks (except beer and wine) sold for "on-premises" consumption. A 3% tax is due on beer sold for off-premises consumption.
Property taxes are assessed on real and personal property; only 20% of the value is used as the tax base.
U.S. Route 49
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In March 2008, The American State Litter Scorecard, presented at the American Society for Public Administration national conference, rated Arkansas a national "Worst State" for removing litter and debris from highways and public properties. The state has an above national average fatality rate from litter and debris-related vehicle accidents, based on NHTSA statistics.[34]
Little Rock National Airport (Adams Field) and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill in Benton County are Arkansas's main air terminals. Passenger service is also available at Fort Smith, as well as limited service at Texarkana, Russellville, Pine Bluff, Harrison, Ozark Regional Airport Mountain Home, Hot Springs, El Dorado and Jonesboro. Many air travelers in eastern Arkansas use Memphis International Airport.
The Amtrak Texas Eagle passenger train makes several stops in Arkansas daily on its run from Chicago to San Antonio to Los Angeles.
The current Governor of Arkansas is Mike Beebe, a Democrat, who was elected on November 7, 2006.[35][36]
Both of Arkansas's U.S. Senators are Democrats: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. The state has four seats in U.S. House of Representatives. Three seats are held by Democrats—Robert Marion Berry (map), Vic Snyder (map), and Mike Ross (map). The state's lone Republican congressman is John Boozman (map).
| Year | Republican | Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 58.72% 638,017 | 38.86% 422,310 |
| 2004 | 54.31% 572,898 | 44.55% 469,953 |
| 2000 | 51.31% 472,940 | 45.86% 422,768 |
| 1996 | 36.80% 325,416 | 53.74% 475,171 |
| 1992 | 35.48% 337,324 | 53.21% 505,823 |
| 1988 | 56.37% 466,578 | 42.19% 349,237 |
| 1984 | 60.47% 534,774 | 38.29% 338,646 |
| 1980 | 48.13% 403,164 | 47.52% 398,041 |
| 1976 | 34.93% 268,753 | 64.94% 499,614 |
| 1972 | 68.82% 445,751 | 30.71% 198,899 |
| 1968* | 31.01% 189,062 | 30.33% 184,901 |
| 1964 | 43.41% 243,264 | 56.06% 314,197 |
| 1960 | 43.06% 184,508 | 50.19% 215,049 |
| *State won by George Wallace of the American Independent Party, at 38.65%, or 235,627 votes |
||
The Democratic Party holds super-majority status in the Arkansas General Assembly. A majority of local and statewide offices are also held by Democrats. This is rare in the modern South, where a majority of statewide offices are held by Republicans. Arkansas had the distinction in 1992 of being the only state in the country to give the majority of its vote to a single candidate in the presidential election—native son Bill Clinton—while every other state's electoral votes were won by pluralities of the vote among the three candidates. Arkansas has become more reliably Republican in presidential elections in recent years. The state voted for John McCain in 2008 by a margin of 20 percentage points, making it one of the few states in the country to vote more Republican than it had in 2004. (The others were Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and West Virginia.)[37] Obama's relatively poor showing in Arkansas was likely due to a lack of enthusiasm from state Democrats following former Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton's failure to win the nomination, and his relatively poor performance among rural white voters. However, the Democratic presence remains strong on the state level; in 2006, Democrats were elected to all statewide offices by the voters in a Democratic sweep that included the Democratic Party of Arkansas regaining the governorship, and in 2008, freshman Senator Mark Pryor was re-elected with nearly 80% of the vote against Green candidate Rebekah Kennedy with no Republican opposition.
Most Republican strength lies mainly in the northwestern part of the state, particularly Fort Smith and Bentonville, as well as North Central Arkansas around the Mountain Home area. In the latter area, Republicans have been known to get 90 percent or more of the vote. The rest of the state is more Democratic. Arkansas has only elected one Republican to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, Tim Hutchinson, who was defeated after one term by Mark Pryor. The General Assembly has not been controlled by the Republican Party since Reconstruction and is the fourth most heavily Democratic Legislature in the country, after Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Connecticut. Arkansas is one of only two states among the states of the former Confederacy that sends two Democrats to the U.S. Senate (the other being Virginia).
Although Democrats have an overwhelming majority of registered voters, Arkansas Democrats tend to be slightly more moderate than their national counterparts, particularly outside Little Rock. Two of Arkansas' three Democratic congressmen are members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which tends to be more pro-business, pro-military, and socially conservative than the center-left Democratic mainstream. Reflecting the state's large evangelical population, the state has a strong social conservative bent. Under the Arkansas Constitution Arkansas is a right to work state, its voters passed a ban on same-sex marriage with 74% voting yes, and the state is one of a handful that has legislation on its books banning abortion in the event Roe v. Wade is ever overturned.
In Arkansas, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor and thus can be from a different political party.
Each officer's term is four years long. Office holders are term-limited to two full terms plus any partial terms before the first full term. Arkansas governors served two-year terms until a referendum lengthened the term to four years, effective with the 1986 general election. Statewide elections are held two years after presidential elections.
Some of Arkansas's counties have two county seats, as opposed to the usual one seat. The arrangement dates back to when travel was extremely difficult in the state. The seats are usually on opposite sides of the county. Though travel is no longer the difficulty it once was, there are few efforts to eliminate the two seat arrangement where it exists, since the county seat is a source of pride (and jobs) to the city involved.
Arkansas is the only state to specify the pronunciation of its name by law (AR-kan-saw).[5]
Article 19 (Miscellaneous Provisions), Item 1 in the Arkansas Constitution is entitled "Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness," and states that "No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court." However, in 1961, the United States Supreme Court in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), held that a similar requirement in Maryland was unenforceable because violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution. The latter amendment, per current precedent, makes the federal Bill of Rights binding on the states. As a result, this provision has not been known to have been enforced in modern times, and it is understood that it would be struck down if challenged in court.
The Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area had 862,520 people in the 2009 census estimates. It is the largest in Arkansas.
The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan area is increasingly important to the state and its economy. The US Census estimated the population of the MSA to be 464,623 in 2009 (up from 347,045 in 2000), making it one of the fastest growing areas in the nation.
See also Arkansas Metropolitan Areas.
Largest Cities Above 10,000 as of 2007
| Rank | City | 2007–2008 Pop. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Little Rock | 189,515 | Central |
| 2. | Fort Smith | 84,716 | Northwest |
| 3. | Fayetteville | 73,372 | Northwest |
| 4. | Springdale | 68,180 | Northwest |
| 5. | Jonesboro | 63,690 | Northeast |
| 6. | North Little Rock | 59,430 | Central |
| 7. | Conway | 57,544 | Central |
| 8. | Rogers | 56,726 | Northwest |
| 9. | Pine Bluff | 50,408 | Southeast |
| 10. | Hot Springs | 39,467 | Southwest |
| 11. | Bentonville | 35,526 | Northwest |
| 12. | Jacksonville | 31,351 | Central |
| 13. | Texarkana | 30,087 | Southwest |
| 14. | Benton | 29,452 | Central |
| 15. | Russellville | 27,602 | Northwest |
| 16. | West Memphis | 27,070 | Northeast |
| 17. | Paragould | 24,800 | Northeast |
| 18. | Sherwood | 24,542 | Central |
| 19. | Cabot | 23.614 | Central |
| 20. | Van Buren | 22,543 | Northwest |
| 21. | Searcy | 22,299 | Central |
| 22. | El Dorado | 19,905 | Southeast |
| 23. | Bella Vista | 16,388 | Northwest |
| 24. | Maumelle | 16,201 | Central |
| 25. | Blytheville | 16,105 | Northeast |
| 26. | Bryant | 15,040 | Central |
| 27. | Siloam Springs | 14,825 | Northwest |
| 28. | Forrest City | 13,281 | Northeast |
| 29. | Harrison | 13,108 | Northwest |
| 30. | Mountain Home | 12,592 | Northwest |
| 31. | Marion | 12,217 | Northeast |
| 32. | Magnolia | 11,766 | Southwest |
| 33. | Camden | 11,512 | Southeast |
| 34. | Arkadelphia | 11,130 | Southwest |
| 35. | Hope | 10,378 | Southwest |
These population numbers are according to the US Census of July 2008. They are the current city population numbers.
Names in bold have populations greater than 20,000.
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Whereas, confusion of practice has arisen in the pronunciation of the name of our state and it is deemed important that the true pronunciation should be determined for use in oral official proceedings.
And, whereas, the matter has been thoroughly investigated by the State Historical Society and the Eclectic Society of Little Rock, which have agreed upon the correct pronunciation as derived from history, and the early usage of the American immigrants.
Citizens of the State of Kansas often pronounce the Arkansas River as /ærˈkænzəs ˈrɪvər/, in a manner similar to the common pronunciation of the name of their state.Be it therefore resolved by both houses of the General Assembly, that the only true pronunciation of the name of the state, in the opinion of this body, is that received by the French from the native Indians and committed to writing in the French word representing the sound. It should be pronounced in three (3) syllables, with the final "s" silent, the "a" in each syllable with the Italian sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables. The pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable with the sound of "a" in "man" and the sounding of the terminal "s" is an innovation to be discouraged.
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Coordinates: 34°48′N 92°12′W / 34.8°N 92.2°W
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Translations:
Arkansas |
Français (French)
n. - Arkansas
Deutsch (German)
n. - Arkansas
Português (Portuguese)
n. - Arcansas
Español (Spanish)
n. - Arkansas
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
阿肯色州
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 阿肯色州
한국어 (Korean)
아칸소 (미국 중남부의 주; 주도 Little Rock; (약) Ark., AR; 속칭 The Land of Opportunity, Bear State), (Colordo 주에서 남류하는) Mississippi 강의 지류
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