Editing Calhoun County, Arkansas (section)

==History==
This area was initially developed for plantation agriculture, based on large gangs of slave workers. The population was majority enslaved African Americans before the American Civil War. After the Reconstruction era, there was increasing white violence against blacks as the minority attempted to assert dominance over the [[freedmen]]. From 1877 to 1950, whites [[Lynching in the United States|lynched 10 African Americans]] in the county, mostly in the decades around the turn of the century. Several other counties in the state had higher rates of such murders.<ref name="supp">[http://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-second-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf ''Lynching in America/ Supplement: Lynchings by County''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627005306/https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-second-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf |date=June 27, 2018 }}, Equal Justice Initiative, 2015, p. 6</ref>

In September 1892, what became known as the [[Hampton Race War]]—also referred to as the Calhoun County Race War in many sources—broke out across the southern part of the county. In 1891 the Democratic-dominated state legislature had passed laws to make voter registration more difficult for illiterate people both black and white, which effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] many of the poorer residents. But tensions were rising in this period, and the economy was poor. Whites resented that freedmen would work for lower wages, even if they knew the latter men seldom had a choice. [[Whitecapping|Whitecappers]], also called night riders, were poor white farmers and workers who acted as vigilantes, attacking various residents to enforce their moral views. They met in secret societies to patrol both black and white communities. Their reasons were also economic; they hoped to drive out the black workers.<ref name="griffith">[http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6491 Nancy Snell Griffith, "Hampton Race War of 1892 aka: Calhoun County Race War of 1892"], ''The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture'', 2012; accessed June 5, 2018</ref>

The African Americans resented these attacks. Newspapers printed rumors of armed blacks planning attacks against whites, as was typical in tense times, inflaming existing tensions. There was also violence associated with the September election. Some newspapers reported that a white man named Unsill, an ex-convict Republican, led 42 armed blacks to the polls, "where they demanded to vote."<ref name="griffith"/> Accounts of this period are contradictory, but agree that major events seemed to take place within several days, beginning about September 17, while incidents were reported over the month of September. An estimated five to eight African Americans were killed during the violence, with one or more described as lynched. At least two whites were killed in these encounters; more men on both sides were wounded. Among the dead was a black man murdered by two whites; as he was a key witness in a trial in which they were defendants, this appeared to be a "murder of convenience" done while other violence was prevalent.<ref name="griffith"/>

===20th century to present===
Due to such violence, social oppression, economic problems, and mechanization of agriculture, many African Americans and whites left the county in the first half of the 20th century. Population declined in every census after 1920 through 1970, as may be seen in the table in the Demographics section below. African Americans left in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] to northern and midwestern industrial cities for work before World War II; during and after that war, many others went to the West Coast, where defense industries had more jobs.

The [[Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot]] in Calhoun and Ouachita counties operated from 1945 until 1957.

The [[Southern Arkansas University Tech]] is a two-year college specializing in technical training.

====The Lost 40 Acres of Timber====
There are 40 acres of timber that have never been cut along the Wolf Branch (a tributary of Moro Creek) in southeast Calhoun County. Some of its large trees are over 200 years old.