A recent study of Little Rock municipal elections concluded that more minority and female candidates would win if the city elected all its city directors by districts. Currently, three of the 10 positions are filled with at-large elections. This study reminded me that in 1893 Little Rock abandoned its traditional district elections and went to an at-large system in order to purge blacks from the city council. From 1893 to 1969, no blacks served on the city council.
I am not sure who the first black member of the Little Rock city council was. Council members were not identified by race, but in 1871 four out of eight aldermen were black. I know this because the first Little Rock city directory was published that year, and residents were identified by race.
Black freedmen valued their new political rights, and they ran for office in surprisingly large numbers. Congressional passage of the Reconstruction Acts in 1868 provided a means for blacks to enter politics by overthrowing the all-white governments set up by the ex-Confederates following the peace. With large numbers of whites disfranchised by Reconstruction, blacks were able to win election to many posts.
In 1871, in addition to the four black city councilmen, blacks held the posts of city marshal and street commissioner. A black resident also won election to the city school board, which governed the city's newly created system of public education.
The black population of Little Rock grew dramatically during and following the Civil War. One of the ambitious young black men who came to the capital city was Green W. Thompson. Born a slave in Ouachita County, Thompson moved to Little Rock immediately after emancipation. He quickly set about making his mark, going into business as a grocer and later acquiring a large number of rental properties. He also turned his attention to politics.
Thompson won election to the Little Rock city council in 1875. At least one ward, the "bloody sixth" as the racist Arkansas Gazette called it, was majority black, and Thompson was one of two blacks who usually represented that area. Like almost all freedmen, Thompson was a Republican--though he was never satisfied with the GOP and on more than one occasion ran on a third ticket.
Thompson rankled the white elites by his assertive personality and refusal to defer to whites. For example, in April 1878, Thompson nominated a black friend and ally, William Rector, for the new position of city sanitation policeman. With most of the white aldermen supporting a white nominee, Thompson and his fellow black board member, Isaac T. Gillam, kept the debate going through numerous ballots before a white man was finally selected.
Thompson's penchant for confrontational debate caused him to be ejected from a council meeting in 1891. The debate revolved around a petty issue, but Thompson apparently became infuriated with Mayor W.G. Whipple, also a Republican. As the Gazette described it, the debate deteriorated, and the mayor ordered the chief of police to eject Thompson.
As the policeman took Thompson's arm to escort him from city hall, Thompson yelled: "You can have me put out, but you can't keep me out." The irate alderman was left in the hall, but "a moment later he appeared in the chamber again . . . The chief again removed the offending alderman, who again appeared in the room . . . and said again the mayor could not keep him out."
Thompson sued the mayor and police chief, and the state Supreme Court awarded the alderman a substantial $500 judgment.
Arkansas began legally disfranchising blacks after the 1888 elections, when black voters had joined in an unusual coalition with Republicans, labor, and disgruntled poor farmers to challenge Democratic hegemony. Still, Green Thompson managed to hang on to his seat, due to his ward being heavily black.
In 1893 exasperated white political leaders adopted a provision to begin electing aldermen through at-large elections rather than by ward. Thompson, along with another black politician, Asa Richmond, waged aggressive campaigns, but they were swamped by the lopsided vote in white precincts. Though he carried his own ward handily, Thompson lost by a total vote of 514 to 1,955.
A fighter to the end, Thompson immediately challenged the outcome of the elections, but the council proceeded to bury his challenge in a committee. Another black person did not serve on the Little Rock city council until Charles Bussey was elected in 1969, but by that point the city had switched back to electing aldermen by districts.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.
Editorial on 07/05/2015