100 years ago
Oct. 04, 1923
Seeking to repudiate H. L. Remmel and others of the Lilly white Republican Party who they claim have disfranchised the negroes of Arkansas, the Colored Chamber of commerce last night adopted a resolution questioning the sincerity of the Republican leader of the state and denying his authority to represent them at the White House or elsewhere. The resolution bearing the signature of J. G. Thornton president and I. T. Giliam secretary was called forth by the reported interview of Mr. Remmel with President Coolidge suggesting the appointment of a committee of several negroes to travel through the South to study conditions.
50 years ago
Oct. 04, 1973
mDefenders of the bill point to these high participation rates of proof that the GI Bill works. However, even they concede that use of the bill by black veterans had decreased greatly. "The participation rate among black veterans of the Korean conflict is estimated to be about 53 percent," the ETS report said. "However, the current participation rate for the black [Vietnam] veterans is less than 25 percent" In response, the VA says it has tried to meet this problem by hiring more black employees to work with black veterans. It said the number of its black employees has been increased from 13 percent in 1970 to 18 percent today.
25 years ago
Oct. 04, 1998
Forty years ago, when Little Rock high schools were closed because of opposition to integration, educators turned to what was then a technological wonder in its infancy. Television broadcasting began in the United States in 1941, but wartime restrictions on manufacturing television sets were soon implemented. When those restrictions were lifted in 1946, the medium burgeoned. But television was slow to come to Arkansas. The first television station in the state was KRTV, Channel 17, a UHF station in Little Rock that went on the air in April 1953. It merged a year later with KATV, Channel 7, in Pine Bluff, which went on the air in December 1953. KARK-TV, Channel 4, in Little Rock went on the air in 1954 and KTHV-TV, Channel 11, in Little Rock went on the air in 1955. As television was getting under way in Arkansas, the U.S. Supreme Court in May 1954 ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education that state laws mandating public school segregation are unconstitutional. The decision set up the eventual Central High School integration crisis of 1957. In 1958, Little Rock residents voted 19,470 to 7,561 to close the city's three high schools (Central, Hall and Horace Mann) instead of immediately integrating all schools in the district. The high schools remained closed the entire 1958-59 school year.
10 years ago
Oct. 04, 2013
A barge struck an Interstate 30 bridge pier protector Thursday afternoon, shutting down bridge traffic over the Arkansas River for more than a half-hour. The Coast Guard received a call bout 3:20 p.m. that a barge from the towboat MV Bill Rodgers heading north on the Arkansas River struck the bridge pier protector, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. j.g. Brian Porter said. The towboat was hauling eight empty barges that once carried rock, and the lead barge struck the pier protector, he said, adding that the barges were never adrift. The towboat stopped off North Little Rock's Burns Park as the boat's operators waited for Coast Guard investigators to arrive and review the crash, he said. No one was injured.