Political History Commons^™

Little Rock’S Unique Political Opportunities For Black Arkansans, 1865-1905, Isaac J. Cross

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Little Rock, Arkansas offered unique political opportunities in the late nineteenth century. Unlike the rest of the state, Little Rock housed a prominent middle-class black community that earned political office positions in local and state government. The current historical scholarship on the state’s African American political power in these years lacks detailed treatment of the political power of black Arkansans in Little Rock. Using newspapers, census data, and local and state government documents, this thesis argues for the unique position of the state’s capital for black Arkansans. In the late nineteenth century, the black middle class was especially strong in …