Arkansas senator revisits race-panel idea after events in Charlottesville

‘Join us,’ Elliott urges peers

Hot Springs sanitation workers place large trash bins around a Confederate memorial on Friday ahead of a rally today.
Hot Springs sanitation workers place large trash bins around a Confederate memorial on Friday ahead of a rally today.

State Sen. Joyce Elliott, spurred on by a violent clash in Virginia last weekend, on Friday pleaded again with her legislative colleagues to figure out ways to foster discussions about race relations.

Two months ago, a legislative panel was skeptical about a proposal by Elliott and Sen. Jim Hendren to form a subcommittee to study race relations.

Elliott said Friday that she is worried about the possibility of a clash at the Confederate Square Group's demonstration today in Hot Springs National Park. That demonstration is aimed at showing support for preserving monuments to Confederate history.

Elliott's remarks came nearly a week after one woman was killed and 19 people were injured in Charlottesville, Va., after a car, reportedly driven by a white nationalist, plowed into a group of counterprotesters. Video taken over two days in that city showed white supremacists carrying torches, chanting Nazi-style slogans and yelling racial epithets at passers-by.

In June, Elliott, a Democrat from Little Rock, and Hendren, a Republican from Sulphur Springs, proposed creating a race relations subcommittee of the Legislative Council to conduct a study "with the goal of providing recommendations on ways to address historic and current divisions within the state." The recommendations would be made in advance of the 2019 regular legislative session.

At that time, the Legislative Council's executive subcommittee questioned the necessity of creating another subcommittee and held off on making a final decision.

"I may not be doing things the right way, but I am going to do something, and I am asking you to join us," Elliott said in impassioned remarks Friday that referred to the scar of slavery and institutionalized racial bias.

"Sen. Hendren and I made an effort to start a conversation that went nowhere," she told the Legislative Council.

"Let's not do what Langston Hughes reminded us of in a poem called 'A Dream Deferred,' when he asked the question: What happens to dreams deferred? The person that you look down on the most has dreams, most of which have been deferred. What happens to those dreams? Do they dry up like a raisin in the sun or do they just fester like a sore that finally gets so much pus in it that it just runs? Or does it just get so heavy it just finally explodes? We don't have to have an explosion, but that's where we're headed."

Referring to the Confederate Square Group's planned demonstration today on Arlington Lawn in Hot Springs National Park, Elliott said, "We have something that could be a potential clash.

"We don't have to have it at all," she told lawmakers. "All I am asking is could we be the leaders? Maybe we need to start among ourselves. I am not bashing. I'm asking for help."

Members of the Legislative Council didn't discuss her request, and no action was taken.

Rep. Jeff Williams, R-Springdale, later tweeted that Elliott "spoke eloquently about the need to face up to and address issues about racism. I'll stand w/ her @JimHendren1."

Asked about the possibility of a clash today, Hot Springs National Park Superintendent Josie Hernandez said the group has held three previous rallies, and "we are prepared for anything that we haven't experienced in the past."

City Manager David Frasher told the Hot Springs Board of Directors that the city was working with other agencies to be prepared for today's event.

Demonstration organizer James Brock of Hot Springs told The Sentinel-Record on Thursday that today's demonstration from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. will focus on the preservation of monuments to Confederate history and will not support neo-Nazism, white supremacy or white nationalism.

The chairman of the Garland County Democratic Party, Hayden Shamel, announced Friday that "after consulting with the police department, members of the Hot Springs clergy, and city and county officials, the Democratic Party of Garland County will be cancelling Saturday's 'No Home for Hate' event that was originally planned to be held at St. Luke's Episcopal Church today.

"We will not contribute in any way, shape, or form to individuals wishing to create or provoke a violent situation in the community we all call home," Shamel said in a written statement.

Also Friday, the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock announced that it was hosting a multifaith prayer service at 9 a.m. today at St. Mary of the Springs Catholic Church in Hot Springs.

"This prayer service is open to people of all faiths who would like to pray for unity and peace in our communities and an end to violence, bigotry, hatred and racism," the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock said in a written statement. "It is a response to the rally scheduled to take place in Hot Springs National Park later the same day by a group that supports Confederate monuments, and near a Confederate monument that was also the site where two black people were lynched in 1913 and 1922."

Meanwhile, in an interview, Elliott said that after she and Hendren made their proposal, "it has been absolute crickets since that time.

"Nobody [said] 'I didn't really like that, but let's try this,'" she said.

Hendren said he and Elliott are still considering whether to resurrect their proposal or modify it.

"There is great support for some sort of effort to start facing problems and doing something," he said. "It is not about statues and monuments."

Hendren said lawmakers could begin discussing matters such as the crime rate, improving education for everybody and providing greater opportunity in areas of the state where that's not traditionally available.

"There are a lot of folks that talk about each other. Let's get all the folks in a room to talk to each other," he said.

House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, who asked two months ago why the study could not be done by an existing committee or an informal group of lawmakers, on Friday said Elliott and Hendren haven't brought up the idea since it was discussed in June.

"I don't know what the status of that is. That was a Senate initiative, and I haven't heard talk about it in the last couple of months," he said.

"There is nothing to prevent legislators from getting together [informally as a group] on a particular issue. You have an education caucus that is separate from the education committee that talks about issues," Gillam said.

Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, said he doesn't know whether the Legislative Council needs to create a subcommittee on racial relations, but a task force could be created to handle the matter.

"I think her heart is in the right place to do better," Rice said, referring to Elliott. "I do, too."

Metro on 08/19/2017

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