Tag: Arkansas

Why We Are Reopening

By Erik Loomis

In General

On June 2, 2020

Monica Potts’ columns from rural Arkansas are more useful than most of the “what is the white working class thinking” columns because she actually knows the region well and isn’t just Beltway reporters finding blowhards in diners they can get good quotes from. People who actually understand the white working class because they come from […]

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This Day in Labor History: January 3, 1931

By Erik Loomis

On January 3, 2020

On January 3, 1931, farmers converged on England, Arkansas to demand poverty relief. This led to Will Rogers’ poverty tour and a greater national conversation about conditions in rural America i

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The Elaine Massacre: 100 Years Later

By Erik Loomis

On October 1, 2019

I have not yet covered the Elaine Massacre in the This Day in Labor History series, but it’s on the list. It’s 100th anniversary was yesterday. 1919 was an atrocious year in American histo

Advances in American Statues

By Erik Loomis

In General

On April 18, 2019

One of the most pernicious parts of Civil War memory is how Confederate leaders became part of American iconography, literally in the case of the many statues placed around the South. In the U.S. Capitol, the Statuary Hall grants each state 2 statues to represent figures from its state. Even in Arkansas, the limits of […]

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Recreating the Jim Crow Electorate in Arkansas

By Erik Loomis

On February 10, 2018

John Roberts, writing his decision in Shelby County: “There is no denying … that the conditions that originally justified these measures no longer characterize voting in the covered jurisdictions.

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In Which I Confess I Am a Coastal Elite Looking Down on the Crazy White People of Flyover States

By Erik Loomis

On November 24, 2017

I have no idea what goes on in Arkansas except for white people voting for Donald Trump. And I guess my contempt for them is why they vote Trump instead of their racism. But I don’t care. Becaus

This Day in Labor History: September 25, 1891

By Erik Loomis

In General

On September 25, 2017

On September 25, 1891, a battle broke out in Lee County, Arkansas, in the Mississippi Delta, between members of the Colored Farmers Alliance and others, both black and white, who opposed their organizing for better wages in cotton picking. This led to the death of two black men who did not want to join the […]

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The Pull of Pollo

By Erik Loomis

On February 8, 2016

I don’t listen to a lot of podcasts, but one that I do like is Gravy, the podcast of the Southern Foodways Alliance. This podcast on how the chicken industry has utterly transformed Springdale,

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Arkansas Heroes

By Erik Loomis

On January 19, 2015

MLK Day in Arkansas:

Unions Shouldn’t Fund Their Enemies

By Erik Loomis

In General

On October 8, 2014

Talked about this last week, but Arkansas electing Tom Cotton is going to be horrible. So I don’t blame liberals and unions going all in for Mark Pryor, bleh as he is. On the other hand, I do think unions should have some baseline standards before they give a politician money. For instance, should teachers’ […]

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The Republican Party: Where Facts and Evidence Don’t Matter

By Erik Loomis

On October 1, 2014

Chait has a good profile of Tom Cotton, quite possibly the next senator from Arkansas. This despite his vote against the farm bill that many Arkansas citizens rely upon: Yet farm subsidies have lived

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This Day in Labor History: July 11, 1934

By Erik Loomis

On July 11, 2014

On July 11, 1934, the Southern Tenant Farmers Union formed when eleven white farmers and seven black farmers met in Tyronza, Arkansas to form a union of sharecroppers to fight for poor farmers’

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