"There Are Not Many Colored People Here": African Americans in Polk County, Arkansas, 1896-1937
2011; Arkansas Historical Association; Volume: 70; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2327-1213
Autores Tópico(s)Latin American and Latino Studies
ResumoPOLK COUNTY IN WESTERN ARKANSAS has long had a reputation for being hostile to the presence of African Americans. Historian Shirley Manning recalls incidents of racial harassment in Mena, the county seat, in the 1960s, in which local boys verbally threatened black travelers passing through town, warning that they better not let the sun set on your black ass in Mena, Arkansas.1 In fact, according to one local writer in 1980, the county's lack of racial and ethnic diversity had motivated some white people to settle in the area: It is not an uncommon experience in Polk County to hear a newcomer remark that he chose to move here because of 'low taxes and no niggers.' And there is a staunch body of citizens who take pride in the fact that this is an 'all-white' county.2 This reported antipathy toward black people dates to the year of Mena's establishment. In 1896, white locals teamed with immigrant laborers to drive off African Americans hired to work on the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railway (later reorganized as the Kansas City Southern [KCS]). following year, notices were posted across town warning African Americans to leave the area. In 1898, a dozen people were arrested for similarly posting notices and conducting a campaign of harassment against the town's black population. However, the 1901 lynching of Peter Berryman has generally been cited as the reason that African Americans left Mena and Polk County, though there was no mob violence directed against the larger black community preceding or following this murder, which was condemned by local authorities and the press.3 In contrast to Harrison, Arkansas, in 1905 and 1909, and Cotter, Arkansas, in 1906, Mena apparently never hosted a coordinated, conscious attempt at the extirpation of African Americans.4 But, by 1920, the local newspaper boldly advertised the town as 100% white, and, by 1937, the same newspaper reported that the last remaining black resident of the county had died. While it is thus tempting to see the bleaching of Mena as a deliberate project-especially given such public approbation of the city's all-white status, and while a closer examination will indeed uncover acts of violence directed at black residents- the eventual exodus of African Americans from the city and county had no single cause but was instead probably the result both of harassment and a changing local economy. Polk County, created on November 30, 1844, was sparsely populated prior to the coming of the railroad and the founding of Mena. 1850 population was but 1263, of which 67 were slaves.5 This rose the following decade to a total population of 4262, of which 172 were slaves, but the county remained among the least populous in the state.6 After the war, the population dropped, recording only 3368 in 1870, including 45 African Americans.7 next decade saw the population surpass its antebellum levels (5857, including 61 African Americans), but 1890 marked the start of a real boom. population reached 9283, though the African-American proportion of the figure declined to only 46.8 A first-anniversary edition of the Mena Star published on August 18, 1897, reported: The population of Polk county is now about 15,000 people, nearly all native Americans, and a large majority of them were born in the Southern States; but with the exception of nine negro families (forty persons) the people are all Anglo Saxon.9 In 1900, four years after the city of Mena was established, the county population had nearly doubled the 1890 figure, rising to 18,352, of which 177 were African American.10 city of Mena owes its existence to the railroad-specifically, Arthur E. Stilwell's Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf, which was to stretch from Kansas City, Missouri, to the namesake town of Port Arthur, Texas. Mena was one of many towns founded along this route. first train pulled into Mena on August 19, 1896, and the town incorporated the following month.11 Only four years after it came into existence, Mena boasted some 3423 inhabitants. …
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