page_title: History of Arkansas
section_title: Discontent and reform
hierarchical_section_title: History of Arkansas / Growth and industrialization / Discontent and reform
caption_attribution_description: English: The scene of the conflict between the Brooks and Baxter adherents in front of the Anthony House, Little Rock
context_page_description: The history of Arkansas began millennia ago when humans first crossed into North America. Many tribes used Arkansas as their hunting lands but the main tribe was the Quapaw, who settled in the Arkansas delta upon moving south from Illinois. Early French explorers gave the territory its name, a corruption of Akansea, which is a phonetic spelling of the Illinois word for the Quapaw. This phonetic heritage explains why "Arkansas" is pronounced so differently than "Kansas" even though they share the same spelling. What began as a rough wilderness inhabited by trappers and hunters became incorporated into the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and became the Territory of Arkansaw in 1819. Upon gaining statehood in 1836, Arkansas had begun to prosper under a plantation economy that was heavily reliant on slave labor. After the American Civil War, Arkansas was a poor rural state based on cotton. Prosperity returned in the 1940s and it became famous for its political leadership, including President Bill Clinton, and as the base for the Walmart Corporation.
context_section_description: White farmers in Arkansas were devastated following the war, and a combination of forces aligned to further depress the agriculture sector. As the Cotton Belt expanded into Oklahoma and Texas, Arkansas farmers faced new competition from outside their region for the first time, depressing prices.vThough railroads had expanded to 2,373 miles (3,819 km) of track in Arkansas by 1895, farmers were often charged higher rates to serve rural areas. Selling cash crops into expanding (and often oversupplied) commodity markets left farmers with limited financial control of their operations. Many took crop liens, putting up their land as collateral to pay for seeds in spring. Looking for a return on investment, the creditors usually insisted that farmers plant largely cotton, which remained the most valuable cash crop. Many chose to plant cotton willingly, resisting calls from agricultural extension agents and university research recommending crop diversification or conservation methods. Cash-poor farmers in the Arkansas Delta and throughout the South often resorted to tenant farming, where tenants work an owner's land in exchange for a fixed percentage of the crop yield. By the Great Depression, most farmers in Arkansas did not own the land they worked. Owning few assets, many in the farm economy had few ways to climb the economic ladder, leaving many Arkansans behind the prosperity seen in other states during the Gay Nineties.
  The Grand Prairie diversified into rice agriculture during this period; and remains a major source of rice production. Economic forces also brought change in the Ozarks, where fruit orchards and vineyards more suitable to the soil, climate, and topography had long supplanted row agriculture. As fruit production moved to more productive areas of the United States, a variety of new crops and methods swept across the hills and hollers of the Ozarks. Poultry, dairy, and cattle production spread quickly in Benton and Washington counties, but did not follow into other parts of the Ozarks. Mining and logging were prevalent where natural resources remained available.
  Nine frustrated farmers in Prairie County formed an organization called the Grand Agricultural Wheel (usually shortened to Wheel) in 1882 to address issues relevant to the small farmer. Although open to all races, separate black and white Wheels were often formed. Major platform issues for the Wheel included high rates of farm foreclosure, anaconda mortgages, corrupt politicians who failed to assist farming issues, and high railroad rates. Although a strong populous movement, the Wheel struggled to provide a political voice for its supporters. A partnership with the Union Labor Party for the 1888 elections did not provide results as many Wheelers were hesitant to "betray" the Democrats who had traditionally earned their vote.
  Following the disappointing results of that election, the Wheel merged with the Northern Farmer's Alliance in an attempt to combine both organizations' political clout. However, the coalition featured two factions who had the same problems but fundamentally disagreed on how to solve them: one of anti-tariff Southern Democrats and another of Northern farmers who were traditionally Republican and supported tariffs. The group became the Populists in 1890. During the late 1880s and 1890s, the Democrats worked to consolidate their power and prevent alliances among African Americans and poor whites in the years of agricultural depression. They were facing competition from the new Populist and other third parties. In 1891, state legislators passed a statute requiring a literacy test for voter registration, when more than 25% of the population could not read or write. In 1892 the state passed a constitutional amendment that imposed a poll tax and associated residency requirements for voting, which combined barriers sharply reduced the numbers of blacks and poor whites on the voter rolls, and voter participation dropped sharply.
  With the right to suffrage, freedmen began to participate vigorously in the political life of the state. From 186
caption: 19th-century Little Rock by G. H. Peters
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