Arkansas's Black Legislators: Then and Now

Between 1868 and 1874, Arkansans elected blacks to the General Assembly 43 times. Black Republican legislators dominated the state's plantation regions, which had large black populations. Seven black legislators came from Little River, Lafayette, Hempstead, and Nevada counties. Eight black legislators emerged from the regions surrounding Pulaski and Jefferson counties. The vast majority (25) came from eastern Arkansas.

Black legislators pushed through two civil rights acts in 1868 and 1873. The end of Republican rule in 1874 and the return of former Confederates to state politics contributed to the return of second-class status of black Arkansans. The Democratic led General Assembly began an assault on black rights with the Separate Coach Act of 1891, Election Law of 1891, Streetcar Segregation Act of 1903, Witt Bill of 1903, and the failed Separate School Tax proposal of 1905.

By the early 1970s, the seeds of African American political participation began to bloom with the election of the state's first black state senators and representatives since 1893. In 1972, Arkansans elected 99 African Americans to positions at the state, county and local levels, including Dr. Jerry Jewell as state senator, along with Richard Mays and Dr. William H. Townsend, both of Pulaski County, and Henry Wilkins III, of Jefferson County, as state representatives. By 1976, 94 percent of eligible black voters were registered to vote in Arkansas.

Click here for a full list of black legislators