Photo by Melissa Tucker

I asked Guy Lancaster, editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture why he was so interested in Sundown towns.  Sundown towns started in the late 19^th century and were places in Arkansas and our nation that blacks were not welcome after dark.  In fact the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture notes that sundown towns didn’t reach their peak until the 1970’s.

“Many people will tell you that the reason there were no blacks in various places throughout Arkansas was simply because blacks didn’t want to be there,” says Mr. Lancaster.  He believes that if we understand that we created sundown towns then we might be more mindful of the ways in which we develop our communities in the future.

Surely, making good use of our history has got to be one of the salient themes spackled in the walls of the new Arkansas Studies Institute in downtown Little Rock.  The institute along with other Arkansas historical troves, open to the public, like the Arkansas History Commission, The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and Philander Smith College Library to name a few are devoted to both recording and making Arkansas history accessible.  In fact the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture is available online.

I like to think of myself as a history detective and I love researching the proverbial who, what, where, when, why and how especially when the answers to those questions take me back a generation or more.  Recently, I was asked to find out what African-American life was like in 1904 Little Rock for an Emmy Award winning playwright based in Los Angeles.

I was charged with finding out what the social scene was like at the time.  What were the funeral traditions, foods, natural aesthetics like trees and vegetables that would be planted in a 1904 Little Rock backyard garden?  What were the names of interesting works of fiction and nonfiction from Arkansans writing at the time?

The greatest boon for me in working on this research project was discovering the very special places and people who document and freely share our collective history.  I learned that although 39 years had passed since the 13^th amendment to the Constitution was enacted purportedly ending slavery, Little Rock and many other communities throughout the country were creating laws to segregate blacks from whites.  The lynching of African Americans was rampant and widespread and sundown towns were growing in number and becoming a fixed fact among us.

Nevertheless, the rhythmic quake of ragtime, ushered in by Arkansan, Scott Joplin was taking shape and making its way up north.  In 1904, Little Rock had three black colleges Shorter, Arkansas Baptist and Philander Smith.

Downtown’s West Ninth Street had African American businesses like The Children’s Drug Store, a pharmacy owned by African American Frank Barbour Coffin, who was also a published poet and The Mosaic Templars of America, an organization that provided financial, medical and social aid to African Americans in Arkansas and throughout the nation.  Known for its mutual aid, insurance and self help programs, The Mosaic Templars also established a nursing school.

Like Atlanta’s Auburn Avenue and Harlem’s 125^th Street, African American beauty salons, pool halls, butchers and restaurants were all found downtown on Little Rock’s West Ninth Street.

A recent transplant to Little Rock from Atlanta, Georgia this research project availed me the opportunity to learn something of the rich and vibrant history of this great unassuming place called “The Natural State.”  But all you budding history detectives don’t need an out of state playwright to get you started…all you need is a question like why are there so many ranch styled houses in Little Rock? or who was Daisy Bates? or when and where was the first Christian Science church erected in Arkansas? or how did hot tamales become the Arkansan comfort food of choice, next to barbecue and where are they now?

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*This article first appeared in The Sync Weekly, April 1, 2009