The community first called Gravel Hill -- later Southside and now the Ralph Bunche community -- is one of the oldest historically Black neighborhoods in Saline County.
In 1894, the Rhinehart family bought land on the western end of what is now Palm Street in Benton. They settled there, and the Gravel Hill Community was established soon after. Burl Rhinehart married Lola Canady and they had seven children -- four boys and three girls. Their house was at the western end of Palm Street. Later, a portion of their land was sold to a railroad company. W.A. "Wes" Ashley bought land from former Benton mayor David Madison Cloud in 1904. The Cloud Addition was bounded by Oak, Pine, Dixie, West, Valley and South streets. In 1907, the W.A. Ashley House was built. It is one of the community's oldest houses.
In 1919, Annie Little Johnson moved to the community from Okolona to be with her brother, who was working in the bauxite mines. Most of the community's oldest families came from the nearby company town of Bauxite, where Black people lived in company housing in two separate areas that combined to form what was called Africa Camp. After the Korean War ended, Bauxite's economy was in decline, and many Black mine workers moved to neighboring Benton and Bryant. Benton's lumber, furniture, and barrel-making mills provided employment for Black men, as did the J.J. Ball Gravel Co.
Gravel Hill became home to several churches. Pleasant Hill African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1897 by the community's first families. The original building was on Palm Street but was moved to 302 Reed St. and was dedicated on Aug. 25, 1901. St. Paul Missionary Baptist was founded soon after Pleasant Hill. Its current building was dedicated on Sept. 25, 1909. In 1928, Bishop G.G. Greer and Elder D.L. Sanders founded the Elect Temple Church of God in Christ. The current Elect Temple building was dedicated in 2004.
Mount Zion Missionary Baptist was founded in 1933 in Bauxite but moved to Benton in 1953. Mount Zion was rededicated on June 2, 1985, and rebuilt in 1991. Johnson Street Church of Christ was founded in 1954 with help from members of Benton's Northside Church of Christ. Woodlawn Cemetery lies just behind the multipurpose building.
Before there were schools in the area, students met for class in local churches and in the old Independent Order of Oddfellows Hall on the corner of Reed and Dixie streets. Gravel Hill School was built using government funds in 1910. In 1926, the land it stood on was sold, so the school closed. In 1947, the Ralph Bunche School was built for elementary students. Ralph Bunche High School was dedicated in 1959, named in honor of Black Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ralph Bunche, who worked to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the 1940s. The Ralph Bunche School multipurpose building was built in the 1961-62 academic year. Benton began integration in 1965 at what is now Angie Grant Elementary on Hoover Street. In 1966, Benton High School graduated its first Black students, and in 1969, the Central Arkansas Development Council converted the old Ralph Bunche elementary into a Head Start Pre-School and Kindergarten. The multipurpose building was left abandoned until the Men's Alliance of Saline County bought it and the remaining school buildings at auction.
In 1981, Charles F. Cunningham Sr., a resident of the community, became Benton's first Black mayor. He served for two years. After his death in 2017, a pavilion at Ralph Bunche Park was named in his honor.
On Jan. 17, 2002, the Benton Courier reported that the community would be renamed in honor of Ralph Bunche. A park in the community also bears his name. The Ralph Bunche Neighborhood Association was organized on July 9, 2011.
On Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, the Saline Courier announced that the Central Arkansas Development Council and the Men's Alliance had applied for a $494,750 grant from the National Park Service to rehabilitate the former school building for use as an event center with an archive to help "document the civil rights experience of students and educators who came through the Ralph Bunche school." On Sunday, Feb. 18, 2018, the Saline Courier reported that Benton's first Black graduates were being honored as part of Black History Month. Those honored were Lois Gooding, Charlene Dawn, Amel Heard, Florence Allen, Mary Franklin and the late Andrew Cox, all residents of the Ralph Bunche Community. -- Cody Lynn Berry
This story is adapted by Guy Lancaster from the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a project of the Central Arkansas Library System. Visit the site at encyclopediaofarkansas.net.