Editing Monroe County, Arkansas (section)

==History==
[[File:Louisiana Purchase State Park 008.jpg|left|thumb|Marker to commemorate the point at which a national survey began of lands in this area, in order to allocate lands of the Louisiana Purchase to veterans of the War of 1812.]]
Shortly after the United States had completed the [[Louisiana Purchase]], officials began to survey the territory at a site near the intersection of Monroe, [[Phillips County, Arkansas|Phillips]], and [[Lee County, Arkansas|Lee]] counties. From forested [[wetlands]] in what would become southern Monroe County, approximately {{convert|900000|sqmi|km2}} of land would be explored after President [[James Madison]] commissioned a survey of the purchase area. The point was commemorated in 1961 by the [[Arkansas General Assembly]] as part of [[Louisiana Purchase State Park]].

Settlement in Monroe County began when Dedrick Pike settled in 1816 where the [[Cache River (Arkansas)|Cache River]] enters the [[White River (Arkansas)|White River]].<ref>Bateman p. 1.</ref> The settlement was named Mouth of the Cache, and a post office by that name was opened years later. The community renamed itself [[Clarendon, Arkansas|Clarendon]] in 1824 in honor of the [[Earl of Clarendon]]. Monroe County was established under the [[Arkansas Territory|Arkansas territorial]] legislature in 1829, and the [[county seat]] was established at [[Laurenceville, Arkansas|Lawrenceville]], where a jail and courthouse were erected. A ferry across the White River was founded in 1836.

In 1857 the county seat was moved to [[Clarendon, Arkansas]]. The new brick courthouse was nearly finished by the outbreak of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861. The county sent five units into [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] service. After [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops captured Clarendon in 1863, they destroyed the small city. The Union had completely dismantled the brick courthouse and shipped the bricks to [[De Valls Bluff, Arkansas|De Valls Bluff]].<ref>Bateman p. 2.</ref> 
 
After the war, during Reconstruction, there was a high level of violence by insurgent whites seeking to suppress the rights of freedmen and to keep them from voting. After Republican Congressman [[James M. Hinds]] was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in Monroe County in October 1868, Governor [[Powell Clayton]] established [[martial law]] in ten counties, including Monroe County, as the attacks and murders were out of control. Four military districts were operated for four years in an effort to suppress [[guerrilla]] insurgency by white paramilitary groups, such as the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and others. They continued to challenge enfranchisement of blacks and the increasing power of Republicans in the county. The ''Monroe County Sun'' newspaper was established in 1876.<ref>Bateman p. 3.</ref>

Violence continued after Reconstruction, when Democrats had regained control of the state legislature. Whites struggled to re-establish white supremacy, by violence and intimidation of black Republican voters. At the turn of the century, the state legislature passed measures that effectively [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most blacks]] for decades. The [[Equal Justice Initiative]] reported in 2015 that the county had 12 [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings]] of African Americans from 1877 to 1950,<ref name="lynching">[https://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching-in-america-third-edition-supplement-by-county.pdf ''Lynching in America''/ Supplement: Lynchings by County: Arkansas - Monroe County]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 3rd Edition, 2015, p. 2</ref> most in the decades near the turn of the 20th century. This was the fourth-highest of any county in the state.<ref name="lynching"/> To escape the violence, thousands of African Americans left the state in the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] to northern and western cities, especially after 1940.

Mechanization of farming and industrial-scale agriculture have decreased the need for workers. The rural county has continued to lose population because of the lack of work opportunities. There has been a decrease in population every decade since 1940.