Before I let fade the matter of Los Angeles professional video agitator Rob Bliss coming to my hometown of Harrison to intentionally smear the community as racist, allow me to share the city's many notable achievements in race relations.
I'd hope facts matter more than the indefensible responses of about 20 of some 80,000 motorists who drove past Bliss' camera over the three days he spent on Walmart's private property apparently capturing only the ugliest reactions to the Black Lives Matter sign he held (and any related provocations).
Bliss, originally from Michigan, also asserted without evidence to millions of social media viewers and several major newspapers that Harrison is "America's Most Racist Town."
Truth clearly played no part in this man's payday. Facts would spoil his narrative, since he makes a living off the negative reactions in videos for YouTube that pay him for how many are watching them. Plus, Bliss establishes GoFundMe pages for each of his video hit jobs.
If facts matter, below are some of Harrison's most meaningful accomplishments he didn't bother to video. How many Arkansas (or American) cities of 13,000 can claim the following achievements in race relations?
The Harrison City Council twice has adopted resolutions denouncing racism. The first was passed in 2006. As a follow-up, more than 800 interested citizens signed individual statements submitted to the mayor's office.
It included the following: "We pledge that we will no longer remain silent in the face of acts, policies or comments that exclude, discriminate or demean others on the basis of race, culture or ethnic origin."
Moreover, two full-page ads were placed in the local paper with that affirmation and additional statements.
The second resolution was passed in 2012 as the city encouraged all citizens to "denounce any and all forms of hatred, racism or bigotry."
Harrison has twice welcomed scores of Black and white students from around the state to Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission Nonviolence Youth Summits. The two-day sessions taught students how to incorporate the principles of nonviolence in the fight for social justice.
The first summit concluded with a peace march through the streets of Harrison denouncing racism. The second gathering featured a "burial" of racism with a custom-made casket symbolizing racism carried through the community and buried in a marked grave beside City Hall. (I helped former Mayor Jeff Crockett fill it in after the sun had set that day.)
Harrison was honored to receive the top award from the Arkansas MLK Jr. Commission in 2016 for its extensive work in combating racism. Harrison Community Task Force on Race Relations member Kevin Cheri, a former Buffalo National River superintendent and a resident of Harrison who is Black, was also honored when he received the commission's Trailblazer Award in 2019.
Harrison honored the 60th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine/Central High integration with a series of posters throughout town and media links celebrating the students and declaring, "Never again will we be silent when racism is manifested in our community, whatever its form." The community also raised money to include the message in the commemorative program to share our appreciation and commitment to change.
The Harrison mayor immediately and publicly denounced hatred, bigotry and white nationalism after the Charlottesville riots in 2017. Part of his statement, published on social media and the city's website stated: "Hatred and bigotry are not welcome in Harrison, Ark. We condemn the White Nationalist groups that spread prejudice and intolerance among us. The City of Harrison has repeatedly denounced racism. We are proud of the efforts of our community to stand against hatred and we stand in support of the good people of Charlottesville, Va."
Harrison citizens then signed commitment cards, pledging to stand in support of Charlottesville residents against racism and bigotry. Those were forwarded to the Charlottesville mayor.
The Ozarks community hosted a screening for the film "Mississippi Innocence." That award-winning documentary detailed the wrongful convictions of two Noxubee County, Miss., men, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, who until they were exonerated through the Innocence Project combined spent over 30 years behind bars for crimes they didn't commit.
Both Brooks and Brewer joined the producers in Harrison for the community event where their story opened the eyes of many to the unequal justice system often experienced by the Black community.
Local lawyers have worked with landowners to fully understand their property rights and how they could legally prevent racist signs created by a few from being erected on their properties. The only racist billboard still standing in the area was installed by Harrison Sign Company on land owned by its president, Claude West. Neither West nor his business partner, David Frye, live in the Harrison area.
The Harrison task force worked with the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission to arrange for Dr. Bernice King to be the speaker for our MLK Beloved Community Festival in April 2020. The visit by the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and CEO of The King Center in Atlanta was delayed by covid-19 until Sept. 24 (covid willing).
If all this doesn't make the point about what a caring and tolerant city Harrison is, since 2003 the Harrison Task Force on Race Relations, which meets regularly, has been dedicated to the mission of fostering the perception and reality of Harrison as a warm, welcoming community to all people, regardless of race.
City leaders, business people, faith leaders, volunteers, retirees and schoolchildren have all had a voice in denouncing racism and bigotry in Harrison. They have leased billboards and produced yard signs with positive statements honoring Martin Luther King Jr. while encouraging others to "Love Your Neighbor" and declaring "Hate Has No Home Here."
"The dedication has been rightly described as fierce. We know of no other small, rural community that has done as much to combat racism as Harrison," said Layne Wheeler, public information director of the task force who maintains a file on such activities and achievements.
There is more, but I believe readers get my point about how this community has fought for decades now to overcome and refute its unfair reputation, based largely on the actions and provocations of one national Ku Klux Klan leader from Zinc, 15 miles distant.
Perhaps readers also can understand why I become defensive when a profit-motivated YouTuber parachutes into Harrison and films outside a Walmart to provoke a relative handful of passers-by among tens of thousands over three days into making indefensible emotional reactions to his sign, then passes that off as being the country's "Most Racist City."
I'm also betting Bliss couldn't care less about the well-being of Black lives, unlike Harrison.
Based on what other communities may do to combat racism and racist people in their own backyards, I'd say this community of 13,000 souls might well lead the nation in actively fighting bigotry and intolerance. Believe me, I'd feel the same way if it wasn't my hometown.
As further indication of the kind and accepting nature of Harrisonites, an anonymous donor emerged the other day to cover the unpaid water bills of everyone in the community regardless of race.
And Clayton Leonard of Harrison told me that when he stopped in town last week to assist father and son motorcyclists (who were Black) touring the Ozarks, they told him about the local Airbnb owner who had given them two free days because of the unexpected rain and an older woman who had purchased their breakfast at the Neighborhood Diner that day.
Finally, I was pleased to see about 70 peaceful protesters (with police on hand) travel to the national Ku Klux Klan headquarters in Zinc last weekend to make their voices for racial tolerance heard loud and clear.
The focus toward the constant media defamation of Harrison after all these years finally shifted to its proper location ... for a few hours, anyway.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly how you'd like them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.