Curtis is now and has always been a small Clark County community just 3 to 5 miles south of Gum Springs on U.S. 67, but the number of black families in the community was probably as many as whites.
Even though the numbers of black families are greatly diminished now, some families of the first settlers still reside there. There is quite an extensive history on the white community, but the history of the black community is very little to nonexistent. I feel it's extremely important to preserve our black history and our black communities.
The two black elementary schools in operation were Curtis No. 10, which was located in the southern part of Curtis where the old Thomas Mill was located, often referred to as Curtis Junction, whereas the other (the one I attended) was Curtis Industrial No. 64, a one-room schoolhouse in the northern part of Curtis, closer to the Richwood community. There isn't a clear history of when these schools were built, but they are estimated to have started in the early 1920s.
The No. 10 school had two rooms and first through eighth grades were taught. Some early teachers were Mr. Nathaniel B. Cooke, who later became principal of Peake High School in Arkadelphia, and his wife, Mrs. Cooke; Mrs. Roland Jones, Mrs. Taleese Pearce, and Mrs. Pearlena Allen.
The school burned down in 1952. It was rumored to have been set afire by someone because school was in session the day it burned, as were two other suspicious fires the same year. Those students were then bused to the Arkadelphia Peake School system, one of the National Historic Rosenwald Schools.
Curtis Industrial No. 64 remained open until 1961, after which all students from Curtis were bused to Arkadelphia Peake School. This school taught first through eighth grades, and the primary teacher was Mrs. Berta Horton. It is not known whether the two black schools in the small Curtis community were Rosenwald Schools, but my guess is that they were. Few people know anything of the existence of these schools other than the people who attended them.
According to a column by Ernest Dumas in the Arkansas Times, "The bio of Li Hongzin, the president and founder of Shandong Sun Paper, boasts that he is a member of the Communist Party and the 993rd richest person in the world." His pulp mill is slated for the heart of Clark County's black community.
Why would the state of Arkansas or even Clark County invest taxpayers' hard-earned dollars in a company like this? Why not invest in the U.S. companies that are closing, or in the education of our future--our children's educations? The job security of American workers fighting to keep their jobs far outweighs the promise of speculative jobs from a foreign entity.
Why would we sacrifice our precious lands, water (and Arkansas has the best) and taxpayers' monies for companies who will never embrace the significance of preserving Arkansas? They'll do exactly what all foreign entities do, use up every resource, and when they've fattened their pockets, simply fold up, lay off the workers and move on to the next project without regard to the laid-off workers' livelihood.
Do we want this for our next generation?
The black communities of Clark County still have history that has never been recorded. It's like a part of our lives never existed. Invest in preservation of Arkansas history.
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Linda Pennington Black is a writer, poet and public speaker. Read her @LindaKBlack Twitter feed, or her blog at lindawriteright.blogspot.com.
Editorial on 08/20/2016