Editing Pine Bluff, Arkansas (section)

==History==

===Indigenous peoples, European settlement and Quapaw Cession===
The area along the [[Arkansas River]] had been inhabited for thousands of years by [[indigenous peoples]] of various cultures. They used the river for transportation as did European settlers after them, and for fishing. By the time of encounter with Europeans, the historical [[Quapaw]] were the chief people in the area, having migrated from the [[Ohio River]] valley centuries before. {{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

Records dating back to 1801 show that “fifty miles up the Arkansas River on the Bonne Reserve lived Joseph Bonne, Michael Bonne and other taxpayers named Bonne.” Joseph Bonne was interpreter for the [[Federal government of the United States|United States government]] at the signing of the Quapaw Cession at [[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]], August 21, 1818.<ref>Arnold, Morris S. “Barthélémy Dit Charlot, a Colonial Arkansas Métis and Voyageur.” ''The Arkansas Historical Quarterly'', vol. 74, no. 1, Arkansas Historical Association, 2015, p. 12, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/24477497 JSTOR website] Retrieved December 4, 2021.</ref>

Due to a great flood in 1819, Bonne and his wife, Mary Imbeau, moved five miles upstream from the Bonne Reserve to the place later named Pine Bluff. This was the first bluff above the mouth of the river and was covered by towering pine trees, the eastern boundary of the coastal plain of [[South Arkansas]].<ref name="nwa2019">{{cite news |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=September 20, 2019 |title=Bess Jenkins Club discusses theme: Pine Bluff the Past, Present and the Future |url=https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2019/sep/20/bess-jenkins-club-discusses-theme-pine-bluff-the/ |work=Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette |location= |publisher=Northwest Arkansas Newspapers |access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref>

===Founding, Trail of Tears and the antebellum era (1832–1861)===
Bonne built a log cabin with a lean-to which served as his home... as well as a tavern with lodging accommodations for travelers. The settlement was officially named “The Town of Pine Bluff” by the county court on October 16, 1832.<ref name="nwa2019"/>

With its proximity to the Arkansas River, the town served as an [[inland port]] for [[steamboat]] travel and shipping. Steamboats provided the primary mode of transport, arriving from downriver ports such as [[New Orleans]]. From 1832 to 1838, Pine Bluff residents would see Native American migrants on the [[Trail of Tears]] waterway who were being forcibly removed by the [[United States Army]] from the [[American Southeast|Southeast]] to the [[Indian Territory]] west of the [[Mississippi River]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arkansas.com/city-listings/city_detail.aspx?city=Pine+Bluff|title=Arkansas City Listings|access-date=September 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430115552/http://www.arkansas.com/city-listings/city_detail.aspx?city=Pine+Bluff|archive-date=April 30, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

From 1832 to 1858, the town was a station on the Trail of Tears for the [[Seminole]] and their [[Black Seminoles|slaves]], who were forcibly removed from [[Florida Territory]] to the Indian Territory. They included the legendary Black Seminole leader [[John Horse]], who arrived in the city via the steamboat ''Swan'' in 1842.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/seminoles.pdf|title=The Seminoles|access-date=October 20, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707162541/http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/preservation-services/trail-of-tears/pdfs/seminoles.pdf|archive-date=July 7, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.johnhorse.com/|title=Rebellion: John Horse and the Black Seminoles|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/a_chronicle/seminole.htm#1842|title=Sequoyah Research Center: A Chronicle, 1830–1849|access-date=April 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204190434/http://anpa.ualr.edu/trail_of_tears/indian_removal_project/a_chronicle/seminole.htm#1842|archive-date=February 4, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Civil War, Reconstruction and the Gilded Age (1861–1902)===
Pine Bluff was prospering by the outbreak of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]; most of its wealth was based on the commodity crop of cotton. This was cultivated on large plantations by hundreds of thousands of [[slavery|enslaved]] Africans throughout the state, but especially in the Delta. The city had one of the largest slave populations in the state by 1860,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]]|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=1275|title=Slavery In Arkansas|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref> and [[Jefferson County, Arkansas]] was second in cotton production in the state.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/historic-properties/_search_nomination_popup.asp?id=973|title=Antioch Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Sherrill, Jefferson County|access-date=September 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707162555/http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/historic-properties/_search_nomination_popup.asp?id=973|archive-date=July 7, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

When [[Federal government of the United States|Federal]] forces occupied [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]], a group of Pine Bluff residents asked commanding Major General [[Frederick Steele]] to send Federal forces to occupy their town to protect them from bands of Confederate [[bushwhackers]]. Federal troops under [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] [[Powell Clayton]] arrived September 17, 1863, and stayed until the war was over.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=908|title=Pine Bluff (Jefferson County)|access-date=September 7, 2010}}</ref>

{{main|Battle of Pine Bluff}}
On October 25, 1863, [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[Cavalry in the American Civil War|cavalry]], led by Brigadier-General [[John S. Marmaduke]], attempted to expel Federal [[occupation forces]] commanded by Colonel [[Powell Clayton]]; but were defeated by a combined force of [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] troops and [[Freedman|freedmen]] (former slaves freed by U.S. President [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s recent [[Emancipation Proclamation]]) near [[Jefferson County Courthouse (Pine Bluff, Arkansas)|Jefferson Court-House]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bismarcktribune.com/article_182d9210-25b7-11df-8adc-001cc4c002e0.html |title=Pine Bluff, Ark. |access-date=September 7, 2010}}</ref> In the final year of the Civil War, the [[1st Kansas Colored Infantry Regiment]] (composed primarily of escaped slaves from [[Arkansas in the American Civil War|Arkansas]] and [[Missouri in the American Civil War|Missouri]]),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.factasy.com/civil_war/content/facts-about-u.s.-colored-troops|title=Facts About U.S. Colored Troops: American Civil War|access-date=September 7, 2010|archive-date=January 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104212940/http://www.factasy.com/civil_war/content/facts-about-u.s.-colored-troops |url-status=dead}}</ref> was the first regiment of [[United States Colored Troops|U.S. Colored Troops]] to see combat. It was dispatched to guard Pine Bluff and eventually [[Muster (military)|muster]]ed out there.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/archives/1192 |title=1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry|access-date=September 6, 2010 |archive-date=February 5, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205010301/http://www.ozarkscivilwar.org/archives/1192 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Because of the Federal forces, Pine Bluff attracted many [[refugee]]s and freedmen after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in early 1863. The Federal troops set up a contraband camp there to house the runaway slaves and refugees behind Confederate lines.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=520|title=Action At Pine Bluff|access-date=September 8, 2010}}</ref> After the war, freed slaves worked with the [[American Missionary Association]] to start schools for the education of blacks, who had been prohibited from learning to read and write by southern laws. Both adults and children eagerly started learning. By September 1872, Professor [[Joseph C. Corbin]] opened the Branch Normal School of the Arkansas Industrial University, a [[historically black college]]. Founded as Arkansas's first black public college, today it is the [[University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff]].

Pine Bluff and the region suffered lasting effects from defeat, the aftermath of war, and the trauma of slavery and exploitation. Recovery was slow at first. Construction of [[railroad]]s improved access to markets, and with increased production of cotton as more [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]s were reactivated, the economy began to recover. The first railroad reached Pine Bluff in December 1873.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} This same year Pine Bluff's first utility was formed when Pine Bluff Gas Company began furnishing [[manufactured gas]] from [[Coke (fuel)|coke]] fuel for lighting purposes. The state's economy remained highly dependent on cotton and agriculture, which suffered a decline through the 19th century.

As personal fortunes increased from the 1870s onward, community leaders constructed large [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]]-style homes west of Main Street. Meanwhile, the Reconstruction era of the 1870s brought a stark mix of progress and challenge for African Americans. Most blacks joined the Republican Party, and several were elected in Pine Bluff to county offices and the state legislature for the first time in history. Several black-owned businesses were also opened, including banks, bars, barbershops, and other establishments. But in postwar violence in 1866, an altercation with whites ensued at a refugee camp, and 24 black men, women and children were found hanging from trees in one of the worst mass [[lynching]]s in U.S. history.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alaskool.org/resources/teaching/socialstudies/reconstruct_historiography.htm|title=Reconstruction Historiography: A Source of Ideas|access-date=September 6, 2010|archive-date=September 30, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100930184512/http://www.alaskool.org/resources/teaching/socialstudies/Reconstruct_historiography.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Pine Bluff, Arkansas c. 1890.jpg|thumb|left|Pine Bluff c. 1890]]
The rate of lynchings of black males was high across the South during this period of social tensions and white resistance to Reconstruction. Armistad Johnson was lynched in 1889,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scribd.com/doc/7104660/Partial-List-of-Lynchings-in-the-United-States|title=A Partial List of Lynchings|access-date=September 10, 2010|archive-date=June 1, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601034831/http://www.scribd.com/doc/7104660/Partial-List-of-Lynchings-in-the-United-States|url-status=dead}}</ref> and John Kelly and Gulbert Harris in 1892 in front of the [[Jefferson County, Arkansas|Jefferson County]] Courthouse, after a mob of hundreds rapidly escalated to thousands of whites vehemently demanding execution, despite Kelly's pleas of innocence and lack of trial. The angry mob eventually forced over his custody from an Officer adamantly attempting to deliver the suspect to the jail house, then the crowd watched enthusiastically as he was hung and riddled with bullets.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1892/02/15/104119250.pdf|title=Two Murderers Lynched|access-date=September 6, 2010 | work=The New York Times|date=February 15, 1892}}</ref> That same year the state adopted a [[poll tax]] amendment that disenfranchised many African-American and poor white voters. The Election Law of 1891 had already made voting more difficult and also caused voter rolls to decrease. With the Democratic Party consolidating its power in what became a one-party state,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]]|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2244|title=Separate Coach Law of 1891|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref> the atmosphere was grim toward the end of the 19th century for many African Americans. Democrats imposed legal segregation and other [[Jim Crow]] laws.

Bishop [[Henry McNeal Turner]]'s  "Back to Africa" movement attracted numbers of local African-American residents who purchased tickets and/or sought information on emigration. Arkansas had 650 emigrants depart to the colony of [[Liberia]] in West Africa, more than from any other state in the United States. The majority of these emigrants came from the black-majority Jefferson, St. Francis, Pulaski, Pope, and Conway counties.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]] |url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4|title=Back to Africa|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref><ref name=hope>Barnes, Kenneth C. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cweGpOWk9jYC&dq=Pine+Bluff%2C+Arkansas+to+Liberia&pg=PA138 Journey of Hope: The Back-to-Africa Movement in Arkansas in the Late 1800s.] [[Chapel Hill, NC]]: [[The University of North Carolina Press]], 2004. {{ISBN|0807828793}}. ''Google Books.'' Retrieved June 6, 2014.</ref>

According to historian James Leslie, Pine Bluff entered its "Golden Era" in the 1880s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Leslie |first=James W. |date=1981 |title=Pine Bluff and Jefferson County: A Pictorial History|location=Norfolk, Va. |publisher=Donning Co. |isbn=978-0898651485}}</ref> Cotton production and river commerce helped the city draw industries, public institutions and residents to the area, making it by 1890 the state's third-largest city. The first telephone system was placed in service March 31, 1883. [[Wiley Jones]], a freedman who achieved wealth by his own business, built the first mule-drawn, street-car line in October 1886.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1889 |title=Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring Counties, Arkansas |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalhistpjlf00good |location=Chicago, Nashville and St. Louis |publisher=[[Goodspeed Publishing|Goodspeed Publishing Co.]]}}</ref> The first light, power and water plant was completed in 1887; a more dependable light and water system was put in place in 1912. Throughout the 1880s and 1890s, economic expansion was also fueled by the growing [[lumber industry]] in the region.

===Early 20th century and the Great Depression (1902–1941)===
Situated on the Arkansas River, Pine Bluff depended on river traffic and trade. Community leaders were concerned that the main channel would leave the city. The [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] built a [[levee]] opposite Pine Bluff to try to keep the river flowing by the city.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arkansas Municipal League 90th Annual Convention – Arkansas Municipal League |url=https://local.arkansas.gov/local.php?agency=Pine%20Bluff |access-date=March 15, 2024 |website=local.arkansas.gov}}</ref>

During a later flood, the main channel of the river moved away from the city, leaving a small oxbow lake (later expanded into Lake Pine Bluff). {{Citation needed|date=May 2017}} River traffic diminished, even as the river was a barrier separating one part of the county from the other. After many years of regional haggling, because the bond issue involved raised taxes, the county built the Free Bridge, which opened in 1914. For the first time, it united the county on a permanent basis. {{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

African Americans in Pine Bluff were damaged by the state's [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchisement]] in 1891–1892 and exclusion from the political system. But they continued to work for their rights; they joined activists in Little Rock and Hot Springs in a sustained boycott of streetcars, protesting passage in 1903 of the Segregated Streetcar Act, part of a series of [[Jim Crow]] laws passed by the white-dominated legislature. They did not achieve change then.<ref name="civil">[http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4704 John A. Kirk, "Civil Rights Movement (Twentieth Century)"], ''Encyclopedia of Arkansas,'' 2015</ref>

Development in the city's business district grew rapidly. The Masonic Lodge, built by and for the African-American chapter in the city, was the tallest building in Pine Bluff when completed in 1904.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arkansas.com/things-to-do/history-heritage/afric_amer.aspx |title=Things To Do: African American History |access-date=September 7, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205132421/http://arkansas.com/things-to-do/history-heritage/afric_amer.aspx |archive-date=February 5, 2010 }}</ref>  The Hotel Pines, constructed in 1912, had an intricate marble interior and classical design, and was considered one of Arkansas' showcase hotels.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=1189|title=Hotel Pines|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref> The 1,500-seat [[Saenger Theater (Pine Bluff, Arkansas)|Saenger Theater]], built in 1924, was one of the largest such facilities in the state; it operated the state's largest pipe organ.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=1106|title=Saenger Theater|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref> When [[Dollarway Road]] was completed in 1914, it was the longest continuous stretch of concrete road in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=5237|title=Dollarway Road|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref> The first radio station (WOK) broadcast in Arkansas occurred in Pine Bluff on February 18, 1922.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=5755|title=WOK Radio Station|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref>

Two natural disasters had devastating effects on the area's economy. The first was the [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927|Great Flood of 1927]], a [[100-year flood]]. Due to levee breaks, most of northern and southeastern Jefferson County were flooded. The severe drought of 1930 caused another failure of crops, adding to the problems of economic conditions during the [[Great Depression]]. Pine Bluff residents scrambled to survive. In 1930, two of the larger banks failed. During the 1933 Mississippi River flood, country singer [[Johnny Cash]] evacuated to Pine Bluff.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Streissguth|first1=Michael|title=Johnny Cash: The Biography|date=2006|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0-306-81368-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/johnnycashbiogra00stre_0/page/15 15]|url=https://archive.org/details/johnnycashbiogra00stre_0|url-access=registration|quote=johnny cash evacuate to pine bluff flood.|access-date=January 22, 2015}}</ref>

The state's highway construction program in the later 1920s and early 1930s, facilitating trade between Pine Bluff and other communities throughout southeast Arkansas, was critical to Jefferson County, too. After the inauguration of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1933, he launched many government programs to benefit local communities. Through the [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA) and public works funding, Pine Bluff built new schools and a football stadium, and developed Oakland Park as its first major recreation facility. To encourage diversification in agriculture, the county built a [[Meat packing industry|stockyard]] in 1936 to serve as a sales outlet for farmers' livestock.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}

From 1936 to 1938, the WPA through the [[Federal Writers' Project]] initiated a project to collect and publish oral histories of former slaves. Writers were sent throughout the South to interview former slaves, most of whom had been children before the Civil War.<ref name="WPA Slave Narratives">{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4041|title=WPA Slave Narratives|access-date=September 8, 2010}}</ref> When the project was complete, Arkansas residents had contributed more oral slave histories (approximately 780) than any other state, although Arkansas' slave population was less than those of neighboring Deep South states.<ref name="WPA Slave Narratives"/> African-American residents of Pine Bluff/Jefferson County contributed more oral interviews of Arkansas-born slaves than any other city/county in the state.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bearing Witness:Memories of Arkansas Slavery|isbn=1557287473|last1=Project|first1=Federal Writers'|date=January 2003}}</ref>  The city served to compile a valuable storehouse of oral [[slave narrative]] material.

===World War II and the Cold War (1941–1991)===
[[File:Desegregated Freedom Train Line in Pine Bluff Arkansas.png|thumb|Mixed race line of [[Freedom Train]] visitors waiting in line two hours before the exhibition opened, January 1948.]]
[[World War II]] brought profound changes to Pine Bluff and its agriculture, timber and railroad-oriented economy. The Army built Grider Field Airport which housed the Pine Bluff School of Aviation and furnished flight training for air cadets for the [[U.S. Army Air Corps|Army Air Corps]]. At one time 275 aircraft were being used to train 758 pilots. Approximately 9,000 pilots had been trained by the time the school closed in October 1944.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5761|title=Grider Army Airfield|access-date=November 30, 2010}}</ref>

The Army broke ground for the [[Pine Bluff Arsenal]] on December 2, 1941, on {{convert|15,000|acre|km2}} bought north of the city. The arsenal and Grider Field changed Pine Bluff to a more diversified economy with a mixture of industry and agriculture. The addition of small companies to the industrial base helped the economy remain steady in the late 1940s. {{Citation needed|date=May 2017}} Defense spending in association with the [[Korean War]] was a stabilizing factor after 1950.

In 1957, Richard Anderson announced the construction of a [[kraft paper]] mill north of the city.{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} International Paper Co. shortly afterward bought a plant site five miles east of Pine Bluff. Residential developments followed for expected workers. The next year young minister [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] addressed students at the commencement program for Arkansas AM&N College (now the [[University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff]]).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scipio.uark.edu/civilrights/posters/MLKingAtPodiumPineBluff.pdf|title=Geleve Grice:1922–2004|access-date=September 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613075816/http://scipio.uark.edu/civilrights/posters/MLKingAtPodiumPineBluff.pdf|archive-date=June 13, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The decade of the 1960s brought heightened activism in the civil rights movement: through boycotts and demonstrations, African Americans demanded an end to segregated public facilities and jobs.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://scipio.uark.edu/cdm4/index_Civilrights.php?CISOROOT=/Civilrights|title=Land of Unequal Opportunity|access-date=September 6, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609224220/http://scipio.uark.edu/cdm4/index_Civilrights.php?CISOROOT=%2FCivilrights|archive-date=June 9, 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> Whites responded with violence, attacking demonstrators, and bombing a black church in Pine Bluff in 1963.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/WaronTerrorism/churchburn01a.htm |title=What Does it Mean to See a Black Church Burning |author= Michele M. Simmsparris |journal= 1 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law |pages=127–151 |date=Spring 1998|access-date=September 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091117193712/http://academic.udayton.edu/race/06hrights/WaronTerrorism/churchburn01a.htm |archive-date=November 17, 2009}}</ref> Some civil rights demonstrators were shot.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]]|url= http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4704|title=Civil Rights Movement: 20th Century History|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref> Local leaders worked tirelessly, at times enlisting the support of national figures such as [[Dick Gregory]] and [[Stokely Carmichael]], to help bring about change over the period.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crmvet.org/docs/sv/sv640225.pdf|title=Leaders call 72 Hour Truce|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crmvet.org/nars/rbcbking.htm|title=Driving for Attorney C.B. King|access-date=September 6, 2010|archive-date=September 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100922081806/http://www.crmvet.org/nars/rbcbking.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Voter registration drives that enabled increased black political participation, selective buying campaigns, student protests, and a desire among white local business leaders to avoid damaging negative media portrayals in the national media led to reforms in public accommodations.

During the 1960s and 1970s, major construction projects in the region included private and public sponsors: Jefferson Hospital (now Jefferson Regional Medical Center), the dams of the [[Arkansas River#Riverway commerce|McClellan-Kerr Navigation System]] on the Arkansas River (which was diverted from the city to create Lake Langhofer), a Federal building, the Pine Bluff Convention Center complex including The Royal Arkansas Hotel & Suites, Pine Bluff Regional Park, two industrial parks and several large churches.

The 1980s and 1990s brought a number of significant construction projects. Benny Scallion Park was created, named for the alderman who brought a [[Japanese garden]] to the Pine Bluff Civic Center. The city has not maintained the garden, but a small plaque remains. {{citation needed|date=May 2017}} In the late 1980s, The Pines, the first large, enclosed shopping center, was constructed on the east side of the city. The mall attracted increased shopping traffic from southeast Arkansas. {{Citation needed|date=May 2017}}

===Contemporary (1991–present)===
The most important construction project of the 1990s was completion of a southern bypass, designated part of [[Interstate 530]]. In addition, a highway and bridge across Lock and Dam #4 were completed, providing another link between farm areas in northeastern Jefferson County and the transportation system radiating from Pine Bluff. Through a private matching grant, a multimillion-dollar Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas was completed downtown in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2527|title=Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas – Encyclopedia of Arkansas|website=www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net|access-date=August 3, 2018}}</ref>

In 2000, construction was completed on the {{convert|43000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} Donald W. Reynolds Community Services Center.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5248/is_15_17/ai_n28771640/pg_3/|title=Lights Not Out Yet at Pine Bluff|access-date=September 6, 2010}}{{dead link|date=February 2024|bot=medic}}</ref> Carl Redus became the first African American mayor in the city's history in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arblackhistoryquiz.com/home_files/2010%20Black%20History%20Study%20Guide.doc |title=Arkansas Black History Quiz Bowl Association |access-date=September 6, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026003859/http://www.arblackhistoryquiz.com/home_files/2010%20Black%20History%20Study%20Guide.doc |archive-date=October 26, 2011 }}</ref> The [[University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff]] recently opened a $3&nbsp;million business incubator in [[downtown]] Pine Bluff.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Hopes+for+downtown+Pine+Bluff+pinned+on+two+new+projects-a098752861|title=Hopes for Pine Bluff Pinned on Two Projects|access-date=September 21, 2010}}</ref>  Also, a new $2&nbsp;million [[farmers market]] pavilion was opened in 2010 on Lake Pine Bluff in downtown Pine Bluff.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/br/articles/?id=610|title=Market on Lake Part of Revitalization Plan|access-date=September 21, 2010|archive-date=December 20, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101220141933/http://stlouisfed.org/publications/br/articles/?id=610|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Shirley Washington was elected as the first female African American mayor. She was elected in 2016.<ref>{{cite news|title=Arkansas black mayors talk election, job ahead|url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2019/feb/26/arkansas-black-mayors-talk-election-job/|date=February 26, 2019|first=Rachel|last=Herzog|work=Arkansas Democrat Gazette}}</ref> Beginning around 2020, Utah based entrepreneur John Fenley, owner of the music streaming service [[Murfie]], began buying properties in Pine Bluff for redevelopment.<ref>{{cite news|title=Meet a man who's been buying up Pine Bluff cheap|url=https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2022/08/17/meet-a-man-whos-been-buying-up-pine-bluff-cheap|date=August 17, 2022|first=Max|last=Brantley|work=Arkansas Times}}</ref>