AR History

In the final episode of the Taking What They Can Carry: Forced Migration in Arkansas series, we're joined by Dr. Michael Pierce at the HumanitiesAR Next Gen(eration) Humanities Conference.

Join us for a lecture presented by Dr. Kenneth Barnes, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Central Arkansas. Dr. Barnes covers a history of the Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas from the 1890s through the 1900s and how this history continues to resonate today.

On this episode of Taking What They Can Carry, we're joined by Dr. Blake Perkins to discuss a brief history of Lawrence County, Arkansas. Dr. Perkins details the actions of a group of white men who used nightriding, mob violence, and other terrorism tactics in their attempts to make the town of Walnut Ridge all white. Despite being unsuccessful in completely removing the area's Black residents, these events led to the 1912 Walnut Ridge Race War.

Join Stephanie Harp, an independent researcher, as she uncovers the historical impacts of the Flood of 1927, a surge of mob violence that resulted in the last lynching in Little Rock, and the how both lead to an exodus of Black residents from Arkansas's capitol city.

Join Phoenix Smithy for Spatial Segregation in Central Arkansas: A Brief Examination of Dark Hallow, Urban Renewal, and the Construction of I-630 in Little Rock and North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Join Dr. Joseph Key for a discussion on the expulsion of Indigenous Peoples from Arkansas. Dr. Key begins in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase and from there shows how various treaties effectively caused dispossession and expulsion, including the Treaty of 1824 that removed the Quapaw from the Arkansas Territory, and how settlers coming from the east led to forced displacement of Indigenous Peoples and later the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Dr. Brian Mitchell has returned to discuss the Arkansas Act 151 of 1859 (Act to Remove the Free Negroes and Mulattos from the State). Also known as Arkansas's Free Black Expulsion Act of 1859. Dr. Mitchell provides insight into the justification behind the exile of Arkansas's free Black population and what happened to those communities as a result.

Join Dr. Heather Zbinden as she discusses Japanese internment camps Rohwer and Jerome. During WWII, the U.S. government forcibly removed over 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes on the West Coast. They were incarcerated in camps throughout the nation, where many remained until the end of the war. Located in Southeast Arkansas, Rohwer and Jerome held nearly 17,000 Japanese Americans between 1942 and 1945. Dr. Zbinden provides details of the internment and showcases artwork created during this time.

Join Dr. Brian Mitchell as he discusses his research into Frank Moore, a leader of the Elaine branch of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America and one of the Elaine Twelve sentenced to death but whose sentence, along with the other eleven Elaine defendants, was commuted. Moore and the other defendants were freed from jail upon receiving indefinite furloughs. Dr. Mitchell shows how the primary resources recently uncovered provide more details of the massacre and answers more questions of what happened.

Throughout Arkansas’s history, various racial and ethnic groups have been forcibly displaced as a result of racism and hate. Focusing on a number of these historical events, Taking What They Can Carry: Forced Migration in Arkansas, examines what happened, the aftermath, and how these events shaped the affected communities.