Editing Arkansas (section)

===Rise of the Jim Crow laws and early 20th century===
{{See also|Elaine massacre}}
[[File:Colored boys playing on top of Coca Cola stand. Little Rock, Arkansas.jpg|thumb|upright|right|A group of [[African American]] boys in [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] in 1938.]]
In the late 1880s, the worsening agricultural depression catalyzed Populist and third party movements, leading to interracial coalitions. Struggling to stay in power, in the 1890s the Democrats in Arkansas followed other Southern states in passing legislation and constitutional amendments that [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disfranchised]] blacks and poor whites. In 1891 state legislators passed a requirement for a [[literacy test]], knowing it would exclude many blacks and whites. At the time, more than 25% of the population could neither read nor write. In 1892, they amended the state constitution to require a [[Poll tax (United States)|poll tax]] and more complex residency requirements, both of which adversely affected poor people and sharecroppers, forcing most blacks and many poor whites from voter rolls.

By 1900 the Democratic Party expanded use of the [[white primary]] in county and state elections, further denying blacks a part in the political process. Only in the primary was there any competition among candidates, as Democrats held all the power. The state was a Democratic one-party state for decades, until after passage of the federal [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] to enforce constitutional rights.<ref>[http://www.oldstatehouse.com/educational_programs/classroom/arkansas_news/detail.asp?id=800&issue_id=36&page=3 "White Primary" System Bars Blacks from Politics—1900, ''The Arkansas News'', Old State House, Spring 1987, p.3. Retrieved March 22, 2008.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115152140/http://www.oldstatehouse.com/educational_programs/classroom/arkansas_news/detail.asp?id=800&issue_id=36&page=3 |date=January 15, 2009 }}</ref>

Between 1905 and 1911, Arkansas began to receive a small immigration of [[Germans|German]], [[Slovaks|Slovak]], and Scots-Irish from Europe. The German and Slovak peoples settled in the eastern part of the state known as the [[Prairie]], and the Irish founded small communities in the southeast part of the state. The Germans were mostly Lutheran and the Slovaks were primarily Catholic. The Irish were mostly Protestant from [[Ulster]], of Scots and Northern Borders descent. Some early 20th-century immigration included people from eastern Europe. Together, these immigrants made the Delta more diverse than the rest of the state. In the same years, some black migrants moved into the area because of opportunities to develop the bottomlands and own their own property.

Black sharecroppers began to try to organize a farmers' union after World War{{spaces}}I. They were seeking better conditions of payment and accounting from white landowners of the area cotton plantations. Whites resisted any change and often tried to break up their meetings. On September 30, 1919, two white men, including a local deputy, tried to break up a meeting of black sharecroppers who were trying to organize a farmers' union. After a white deputy was killed in a confrontation with guards at the meeting, word spread to town and around the area.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} Hundreds of whites from Phillips and neighboring areas rushed to suppress the blacks, and started attacking blacks at large. [[governor of Arkansas|Governor]] [[Charles Hillman Brough]] requested federal troops to stop what was called the [[Elaine massacre]]. White mobs spread throughout the county, killing an estimated 237 blacks before most of the violence was suppressed after October 1.<ref name="encyclopediaofarkansas.net">[http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1102 Elaine Massacre, Arkansas Encyclopedia of History and Culture]; accessed April 3, 2008.</ref> Five whites also died in the incident. The governor accompanied the troops to the scene; President [[Woodrow Wilson]] had approved their use.

[[File:Arkansas State Planning Board Areas Inundated by Flood in 1927.jpg|thumb|Map of the flood of 1927 in Arkansas]]
The [[Great Mississippi Flood of 1927]] flooded the areas along the Ouachita Rivers along with many other rivers.

Based on the order of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] given shortly after [[Imperial Japan]]'s [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], nearly 16,000 [[Japanese Americans]] were forcibly removed from the [[West Coast of the United States]] and incarcerated in two internment camps in the [[Arkansas Delta]].<ref name="encyclopedia">{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2273|title=Japanese American Relocation Camps—Encyclopedia of Arkansas|website=encyclopediaofarkansas.net}}</ref> The [[Rohwer War Relocation Center|Rohwer Camp]] in [[Desha County]] operated from September 1942 to November 1945 and at its peak interned 8,475 prisoners.<ref name="encyclopedia" /> The [[Jerome War Relocation Center]] in [[Drew County]] operated from October 1942 to June 1944 and held about 8,000.<ref name="encyclopedia" />