The past is a great place and I don't want to erase it or to regret it, but I don't want to be its prisoner either.
-- Mick Jagger
What’s the point?
The city of Harrison will have to overcome its unwanted past by what its residents say and do today, not by erasing references on Wikipedia.
The front man for The Rolling Stones, who is now 76 years old, has lived an extraordinary life since he first took the stage with his bandmates in 1962. His life was born of musical talent capable of taking him around the world performing through the next 57 years.
His past is a story full of remarkable creativity and success. Like most people, he's experienced great joys and heart-rending tragedies. All in all, Jagger could easily be forgiven if he just sat back and basked in nostalgia.
Jagger knows the past cannot be forgotten, but if allowed, it can become a limiting force on one's future.
Once upon a time, back in 1975, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones was arrested in Fordyce, Arkansas, on a charge of reckless driving as he and three others opted to sight-see between concerts in Memphis and Dallas. Thirty-one years later, Gov. Mike Huckabee issued him a pardon. That, to our knowledge, is Arkansas' most interesting brush with The Rolling Stones beyond two concerts performed in the state.
We certainly don't know that Jagger ever visited Harrison, the county seat of Boone County, but city leaders there today seem to share Jagger's sentiment about not wanting to be under the thumb of history. To a degree, they have tried to erase a racist past that gives them no satisfaction in 2019.
Mayor Jerry Jackson says the Harrison of today deserves to be known as the "best small town in America." As the city's chief executive, he ought to believe that and work to make it so.
Something from the past, however, is holding Harrison back. And Wikipedia is, at least in part, getting the blame.
Wikipedia.org is one of the most visited websites on the World Wide Web. From its start, it has been an open-source reference site whose users contribute content. From a journalistic perspective, it might be a good starting point for a general idea on a subject, but the nature of its creation means it's not an entirely reliable as a source of information.
But people use it. A lot. More than 500 million unique visitors a month.
The problem for Harrison is found in Wikipedia's article about the city. About five sentences into the article, readers find this: "Race riots by whites in 1905 and 1909 drove away black residents, establishing Harrison as a sundown town. Today (2019) it is known as a center of white supremacist activity, including the national headquarters of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan."
More details follow deeper into the piece.
Over the years, people editing the article have removed the references to the town's racial history. It's usually not long before someone adds the information back.
It turns out, the city government of Harrison has actively tried, and tried, to remove the sentences mentioned above. They never stay gone long. Wikipedia's operators have placed limitations on the removal of the content, recognizing the battle over its inclusion.
Who can blame Harrison, really? In recent years, the city has had a task force that has worked hard to promote diversity and battle against continued accusations of racial bias. There's no question the race riots in the early part of the 1900s happened, but more than 100 years later, city leaders say it doesn't make sense to highlight them as a relevant reflection of modern-day Harrison.
"Those race riots were all over the country, so I don't know why we would want to highlight Harrison in that manner," Mayor Jackson told Democrat-Gazette reporter Bill Bowden. "It's not exclusive to Harrison, and it was 100 years ago."
Time, Mick Jagger might say, is on their side.
Harrison really does deserve to be known by more than its past and its lingering KKK connection, fueled largely by a KKK leader's residency in a town about 15 miles from Harrison. That leader uses a Harrison post office box for correspondence.
We applaud the city's efforts toward diversity. It's a beautiful small town in the middle of the Ozarks with about 13,000 residents. People should give it a chance. Visit there.
Harrison has come a long way. But nobody can or should just pretend that the past didn't happen. Trying to erase history is a fool's errand. History fights to be remembered. Forgetting it is something done at the community's own peril.
They say the best revenge is living well. That's what this community in Boone County has to do. Harrison in 2019 has a story to tell. It's naive to suggest the town is the same as it was in the early 1900s.
Every community is so much more than its Wikipedia entry. Anyone seriously considering a visit or relocation ought to do far more homework than relying on a website known to have its shortcomings.
As for Harrison's dogged pursuit of cleaning up the Wikipedia article? Just ask Mick Jagger: You can't always get what you want.
Commentary on 08/18/2019