Other Days

100 years ago May 12, 1914

• Plans are being made by Mrs. W.H. Barrett, with the co-operation of Governor Hays, the Penitentiary Commission and Warden Hodges, to place a library in the penitentiary for the benefit of the prisoners. The books will be donated by residents of the state. "We do not want the people to think that we are going to put this library in the penitentiary to lighten the labors of the prisoners, or that we feel sorry for them because of their imprisonment," said Mrs. Barrett yesterday. "We have a far higher aim. It is to send the prisoners out on the world better and more desirable citizens. If they can spend an hour or two every day reading good literature, they must of necessity gain some education or improve that which they have, and the educated man generally is a good citizen."

50 years ago May 12, 1964

• Little Rock school officials today officially ruled Central High School "off limits" to former Gen. Edwin A. Walker. Russell Matson, school board president, backed Supt. Floyd Parsons' stand to prohibit a press conference by Walker on the steps of CHS. Walker was in charge of military units sent to Central High during the integration crisis in 1957. The controversial former general has since said that he was on the "wrong side" in 1957. His visit to Little Rock this weekend, with a speech slated Monday night in Robinson Auditorium, is being sponsored by segregationist groups.

25 years ago May 12, 1989

• McDonald's "country style" McChicken sandwich, introduced in Central Arkansas in October 1988 for test-marketing, will be available at McDonald's restaurants nationwide beginning May 19, the company says. The sandwich is McDonald's first new product in two years. The Central Arkansas cooperative of McDonald's Restaurants is composed of 16 owner/operators with 40 restaurants in 25 communities.

10 years ago May 12, 2004

• The Pulaski County Special School District will try to ease some of its building needs by asking voters in September to approve a reorganization of the district's debt that will generate more than $13 million for new classrooms and possibly a new school. According to the financial proposal, the district's 40.7-mill property tax rate would not change, nor would the district's payments on its construction debt change. But payments on the debt would be extended over a longer period of time, to 31 years.

Metro on 05/12/2014

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