Editing Pine Bluff, Arkansas (section)

===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}}