History of Arkansas - Reconstruction

Reconstruction

See also: Reconstruction Era, Arkansas Militia in Reconstruction, and Brooks–Baxter War

Following the war, the Southern economy was in shambles, including Arkansas. The cost of the war effort, loss of human capital, and Confederate currency losing value were serious issues for the south in addition to the destruction of property, infrastructure, and crops. Emancipated blacks also rushed out of the south following the war. Abraham Lincoln's moderate ten percent plan allowed the Confederate states to return once 10% of their 1860 voters pledged allegiance to the United States and emancipation. Arkansas returned to the Union before 1864 along with Louisiana and Tennessee. A constitutional convention elected Isaac Murphy provisional governor, the lone vote against secession in the 1861 convention. Confederate loyalists quickly labeled Murphy as a traitor and compromised his effectiveness. Confederate governor Flanigan brought state documents back from Washington and retired after the war. The Arkansas Constitution was redrawn in 1864 with the provisions necessitated by the 10% plan.

Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress readmitted Arkansas in June 1868. With the right to suffrage, freedmen began to participate vigorously in the political life of the state. From 1869 to 1893, more than 45 African American men were elected to seats in the state legislature. As in other states, they were already leaders in their communities: often ministers or teachers, or literate men who had returned from the North. Some had both white and African-American ancestors.

In 1874, the Brooks-Baxter War shook Little Rock. The dispute about the legal governor of the state was settled when President Ulysses S. Grant ordered that Joseph Brooks to disperse his militant supporters.

In 1881, the Arkansas state legislature enacted a bill that adopted an official pronunciation for the state, to combat a controversy then raging.

During the late 1880s and 1890s, the Democrats worked to consolidate their power and prevent alliances among African Americans and poor whites in the years of agricultural depression. They were facing competition from the Populist and other third parties. In 1891, state legislators passed a statute requiring a literacy test for voter registration, when more than 25% of the population could not read or write. In 1892 the state passed a constitutional amendment that imposed a poll tax and associated residency requirements for voting, which combined barriers sharply reduced the numbers of blacks and poor whites on the voter rolls, and voter participation dropped sharply.

Having consolidated power among its supporters, by 1900 the state Democratic Party began relying on all-white primaries at the county and state level. This was one more door closed against blacks, as the primaries had become the only competitive political contests; the Democratic Party primary winner was always elected. In 1900 African Americans numbered 366,984 in the state and made up 28% of the population - together with poor whites, more than one-third of the citizens were disenfranchised. Since they could not vote, they could not serve on juries, which were limited to voters. They were shut out of the political process.