Editing Pine Bluff, Arkansas (section)

===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.