“It
would seem that in Arkansas, more than in almost any other southern state,
social and economic issues of significance to the people have lain ignored in
the confusion and paralysis of disorganized factional politics.”
-V.O.
Key, “Southern Politics in State and Nation”-
The
Arkansas electorate has a history of multi-factionalism more frequently
composed of personal proclivity than political penchant. When V.O. Key wrote his dissection of the
southern electorate, “Southern Politics in State and Nation” in 1949, he
recognized how these ideological factions almost always led to the inertia of
government where important social, economic, and political issues were
concerned. From the Civil War Era to
present-day, the electorate and state politics of Arkansas share similarities
and long-term effects of this type of one-party system wherein the debate lies
not in which policies to adopt, but the means by which to carry out policies
never debated for lack of opposition. Unlike
many southern states, Arkansas politics rarely manifested a political candidate
with vastly different ideas about policy except for Jeff Davis, who was
described by a conservative publication, The Helena
Journal, as “a carrot-headed, red-faced, loud mouthed, strong-limbed,
ox-driving mountaineer lawyer, and a friend to the fellow who brews forty-rod
bug-juice back in the mountains.” (Key,
183) A
polarizing character and self-describes segregationist, Davis kicked up a fair
amount of dust, but settled as quickly as it rose and lay untouched for
decades. Arkansas’s long history of homogeneity ultimately produced a myriad of
social and economic problems for its citizens, including educational
disparities, mass incarceration of minorities, and questionable voting
practices still plaguing the Arkansas electorate in the modern era. Relative to other southern states, Arkansas
is often overlooked for its seeming lack of racial issues, but this certainly
does not mean it is exempt. In fact, the
relationship between Arkansas’s electoral history and the state’s history of
racial inequality is quite contiguous when examined empirically.
Arkansas
was the 25th state to join the Union and one of the last to secede
from it during the Civil War. When the
war ended, and the Union emerged victorious, President Andrew Johnson set into
motion a plan for Reconstruction. The
Reconstruction era in Arkansas was tumultuous as Arkansans revolted against the
new order. Prior to Reconstruction, the
South, and in this case specifically, Arkansas, was staunchly Democrat. Southerners
saw the party of Lincoln and/or Unionist Republicans as a threat to their right
to own slaves. Arkansas’s third
constitution, drawn up under President Abraham Lincoln’s wartime reconstruction
plan, was ratified in 1864. In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution was ratified which abolished slavery, and in 1866, Arkansas’s
black codes were enacted preventing blacks from voting, integrating into
educational institutions, serving on juries, owning land, testifying against or
suing their white counterparts, and many more brazenly discriminatory
stipulations. In August of that same
year, after much resistance to the Union’s presence, ex-Confederates regained
control of the state, including the legislature, and refused to ratify the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which ensured blacks equal
protection under the law. (Butler Center) As Radical Republicans began to
challenge President Johnson’s unapologetically racist policies, he becomes
sideline while Radicals overrode every veto he makes against legislation such
as the Freedmen’s Bureau Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Radicals brought moral sensibility to
reconstruction. Though the vision was
considered utopian, it was quite simply a bid for equality, and Radicals felt
that granting Black Suffrage was critical.
They embraced war-time expansion of the federal government, and the core
of ideology was a powerful national state guaranteeing blacks equal standing
and opportunity in a free labor economy.
With the South’s collective rejection of the 14th amendment,
Radicals seized legislative initiative, commandeering Reconstruction policy
once and for all. They set out to remove
Johnson from office, and after the President violated the Tenure of Office Act,
Radicals succeeded in his impeachment.
Republican Ulysses S. Grant filled the office of the President, and
shortly thereafter, corruption within his administration caused banks to fail
and unemployment to rise. Voters turned
against Republicans, and Democrats regained control of the South.
In
October 1874, Arkansas voters approved a new constitution which catered to the
redemption of southern Democrats, and subsequently elected officials to serve
under it. The Democratic party won both
houses of legislature, and Augustus Garland, an elite of the planter class, was
elected governor. As farmers had seen a
decline in revenue during the war, Garland and those who supported him were
intent on holding their position at all cost.
These “redeemers” instigated the lethargy of internal evolution,
educational degeneracy, and an overall feeble government. These leaders, such as Garland, former
Confederate ranking officers Thomas Churchill and James Eagle, sought to
preserve the status quo by keeping property taxes low. The government of Arkansas often outright
resisted progress in order to ensure blacks did not gain political power, and
“Redemption” set the stage for Arkansas’s lack of economic advancement for many
years after. (Harris, “Redeemers Post-Reconstruction”)
Post-Reconstruction,
Arkansas’s political system
was one V.O. Key described as “one-party politics in its most undefiled and
undiluted form” (Key, 183), and it remained solidly Democratic until 1966. The
state retained the highest rural farm population in the South, and one of
lowest in voter participation. The
electorate consisted largely of like-minded individuals creating a political
climate wherein negligence of important issues was the norm. Arkansas politicians preferred to label
counties either “machine” or crooked. A
machine county was not necessarily crooked nor was a crooked county necessarily
a machine county. In a nutshell, a
machine county was one in which local leaders could not be bought. The leaders of a crooked county, on the
other hand, manipulated counts and returns at any price. Most machine counties were delta counties
along the Mississippi where the highest population of black citizens resided. The machines of the delta largely depended on
the relationship between landlord and tenant.
Plantation owners and the ruling class usually controlled the votes of
their many tenants. Outside the delta, a
few additional “machine” counties were scattered about the state. (Key, 196)
In 1966, Winthrop
Rockefeller, grandson of John D. Rockefeller, moved to Arkansas on the suggestion
of a friend to escape the rat race. He brought
substantial industry and funding to the state, and in the wake of the
1957 Little Rock school desegregation crisis and subsequent economic spiral, he
decidedly ran office. In 1965, the Voting
Rights Act was passed, and Winthrop Rockefeller’s 1966 gubernatorial victory
over “Justice” Jim Johnson was a defining moment in Arkansas politics. The black vote was
paramount to Rockefeller’s success. Rockefeller, a progressive Republican, ran
against "Justice" Jim Johnson who campaigned on a pro-segregation
platform, but Johnson would pay a price for his stance on civil rights. Rockefeller defeated Johnson by approximately
49,000 votes but received 67,000 more black votes than his opponent. To this end, Rockefeller’s victory was solely
constructed of the black vote. He was the first
Republican elected to public office in Arkansas in 94 years. (Kirk, “The Election That Changed Arkansas
Politics”)
In the early 20th
century, black Arkansans were fighting for their freedoms along side most
African Americans in the South. In the
Mississippi Delta region of the state, blacks were customarily confined to the
land by underhanded peonage contracts with white landowners and were
increasingly segregated and disenfranchised.
In response to the Streetcar Segregation Act of 1903,
black citizens in Pine Bluff, Hot Springs, and Little Rock launched a boycott
which was at long last futile. In 1906, black voters were completely ousted
from participating in the political process when all-white primaries were
established by Arkansas’s Democratic party.
This meant black voters were no longer free to choose a candidate even
if they could afford the poll tax. (Kirk,
“Civil Rights and Social Change”)
In 1957, the
desegregation of Little Rock Central High School ignited crisis when then
governor, Orval Faubus called in the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine
black students from entering the school.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower responded by sending the Army’s 101st
Airborne Division to escort the Nine to class.
When busing was implemented in the 1970’s, whites began leaving the
county or establish suburban private schools so as not to have to
integrate. (Kirk, Beyond Little Rock, 13)
Arkansas upheld the
poll tax until 1954 along with only 4 other U.S. States, and finally abolished
it when the federal government amended the U.S. Constitution forbidding
it. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was
set into place, and literacy tests were also halted. The VRA also caused an uptick in progressive
policy, candidates, and elected officials, and in the late 1970’s, Arkansas had
elected 99 black officials and 94% of black Arkansans of voting age were
registered. Though Arkansas is often
thought to have a milder racial climate than its Deep South counterparts, this
is clearly not the case. Arkansas is
rather litigious regarding voting rights violations and vote dilution. For instance, in 1989 black voters filed suit
against the state for passing an apportionment plan under the VRA (1981) that
they alleged violated the act, denoting an absolute lack of black legislators
from a non-majority black district despite an African American state population
of 16%. Also in 1989, a federal court in
Jeffers v. Clinton ordered several racial “majority-minority” congressional
districts so minorities would have a fairer chance to elect the candidate of
their choice. Consequently, more black
candidates have been elected to the Senate and House in Arkansas. In a Voting Rights Act case in 2012, there
was evidence of voting discrimination in jurisdictions to include
Arkansas. The Jeffers v. Beebe case
challenged reapportionment of Senate lines because of alleged Voting Rights Act
violations, and gerrymandering on the basis of race. (Kladky, “Voting and
Voting Rights”
Despite Arkansas’s
enactment of its first modern Civil Rights Act in 1993, it is still one of the
few states in the U.S. that has not implemented a commission on civil rights
for the purpose of safeguarding the voting process. As recently as 2013, the General Assembly
mandated that prospective voters provide picture identification to poll workers
before they can gain access to the ballot.
The bill was vetoed by then Governor Mike Beebe, the veto was overridden
by a legislative Republican majority, and ultimately struck down as
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Arkansas in 2014 citing Rison et al v.
Farr. (Kladky, “Voting and Voting
Rights”)
Voting issues continue to plague Arkansas’s
electorate in the modern era. Mass incarceration of minorities becomes a subtle but effective way to disenfranchise black voters.
Arkansas is ranked fourth
highest in the nation for incarceration rates at 599 per 100,000 people. It wasn’t until January 2018 that Arkansas
passed legislation allowing convicted felons a reinstated right to vote after
completion of their sentence. (Prison Policy Initiative)
Some would argue that
the “War on Drugs” was just that, a war against illegal substances. The data shows the implications to be much
more far reaching. Since 1978 when
Richard Nixon announced the commencement of the “War on Drugs” and Ronald
Reagan pushed for its proliferation, incarceration rates have skyrocketed,
racial disparities of the imprisoned are glaring, and prisons have become a
profitable industry for state governments, primarily in the south. Based on these outcomes, a more accurate
assessment is that the “War on Drugs” may well be one of the most elaborate and
effective tools to date for disenfranchising minorities and maintaining the
status quo.
While increasing efforts to derail minority voting and
progressive policy, the state hung on to its democratic loyalties where
gubernatorial elections were concerned.
Arkansas’s political culture where disputes are settled factionally rather
than institutionally, along with the state’s populist leaning, helped maintain
its Democratic tendencies approaching the 21st century. While voters saw the national party developing
a more liberal stance in the 1970’s-80’s, the state’s “Big Three”, Dale
Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton, helped keep the state in the democratic
camp. Bumpers and Pryor consecutively occupied the Governor’s Mansion from
1971-1981. Clinton served as Governor from 1983-1992. Clinton again served
as Governor from 1983-1992
and subsequently
served two terms as POTUS beginning in 1992.
Arkansas Democrats now, however, are
experiencing minority status due to an impasse between the national party’s
more liberal leaning and the state’s mostly conservative electorate. Since the election of George W. Bush in 2000,
Arkansas has not cast its electoral votes for a Democratic candidate in a
Presidential election.
The
2016 Presidential election was on par with this record. In the primaries, Democratic candidate and
former first lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton, was selected in an overwhelming
margin of 36% over Bernie Sanders, and in the Republican primaries, reality TV
personality Donald Trump was selected in an underwhelming margin of 2% over Ted
Cruz. In the general election, Trump
emerged victorious with 69% of the vote despite Arkansas’s status as Clinton’s
home state. Turnout
for the Republican primary was the highest ever for the party. And though the Democratic party was out in
force for Clinton, requests for Democratic ballots were far exceeded by requests
for Repub. Ballots. This is also the
first election that the state has simultaneously voted for a Republican
presidential candidate and an incumbent Republican senate candidate. Trump's
60.57% of the vote is tied with Mitt Romney's 60.57% in the 2012
election, making both candidate's performances the
best result for the Republican Party in Arkansas since Richard Nixon in 1972,
although Trump bested Romney in terms of margin, winning by 26.92% versus
Romney's 23.69%. These numbers are none
too surprising given the success of the Republican party in Arkansas and the fact
that no non-southern democrat has won Arkansas in a presidential election. (Cohen, “Arkansas Elections”) All of the counties in favor of Clinton were
in or on the periphery of the delta where, as aforementioned, the largest
population of black citizens reside.
To break the Republican supermajority in 2018,
Democrats would need to gain two seats. Republicans are strongly favored to
hold all four congressional seats in Arkansas, but Little Rock-based Rep.
French Hill faces a solid Democratic challenger in state Rep. Clarke Tucker.
CNN rates it as likely Republican. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is up for re-election as
well and is widely seen as a safe bet for Republicans too.
(Cohen, “Arkansas Elections”) Arkansas
also now has an official third-party as Liberterians have a consistently strengthen
the presence of their party throughout the state. In
recent years, conservatives have dominated Dems when filing for candidacies
which translates to Democrats having almost no chance at all to regain a
majority in the state legislature. This
was certainly the case in the 2016 presidential election.
In
conclusion, any demographics point to Republican dominance for the foreseeable
future, but because Arkansas is a state with a weak tea party presence and some
progressive policy such as the legalization of marijuana, there may still be a
sliver of hope for Democrats. Still inequality
is the great equalizer among states in the south and none are exempt, certainly
not Arkansas. Ongoing civil rights
issues include the marginalization of a growing Latino population, human rights
issues plaguing the LGBTQ community, police brutality, pay inequality, women’s
reproductive rights, mass incarceration of minorities, languishing public
education, and so on. These are just a
few ways Arkansas’s history of negligence on important issues has caused
systemic problems for its citizens.
Black political power in Arkansas is evolving ever slowly if at all some
days, and African American Arkansans remain at a deficit to their white
counterparts in almost every aspect of life.
Works
Cited
Key,
V.O. Southern Politics in State and
Nation. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press.
1984.
Harris,
Rodney. “Redeemers
(Post-Reconstruction)”. The Encyclopedia
of Arkansas History and
Culture. January 2017.
Kirk, John. “The Election That Changed Arkansas
Politics”. The Arkansas Times. March
2012.
Kladky,
William P. “Voting and Voting
Rights”. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas
History and
Culture. December 2017.
Kirk,
John A. Beyond Little Rock. Fayetteville:
The University of Arkansas Press.
2007.
Brown,
D. and Webb, C. Race in the American
South. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
2007.
U.S.
Census Bureau. “Demographics and
Economic Profiles of the Arkansas Electorate”.
U.S. Census Bureau. February
2018.
Weiland
M. and Wilsey, S. State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America. New York, NY:
Harper Collins Publishers. 2008.
Cohen,
Jeff. “Arkansas Elections”. U.S. Elections. May 2018.
Couloute,
Lucius. “Arkansas Profile”. Prison Policy Initiative. March 2018
Bullock,
C. and Rozell, M. The New Politics of
the Old South. London: Rowman And Littlefield.
2018.
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