Book Review: Racial Cleansing in Arkansas, 1883–1924: Politics, Land, Labor, and Criminality by Guy Lancaster

Guy Lancaster Racial Cleansing in Arkansas, 1883-1924: Politics, Land, Labor, and Criminality, New York: Lexington Books, 2014; 186 pp.: ISBN 0739195492, 24.95 [pounds sterling] Lancaster provides a historical and sociological account of racial cleansing in the state of Arkansas from the post-Reconstruction era until the post-World War I period. Its historical account examines the racial politics and violence of the period and employs the concept of racial cleansing, the use of which provides the sociological basis of the work. The term 'sundown town' refers to a town or community that employed tactics to remove African Americans, often by force, from the area or to keep them from inhabiting that area. These settlements were often found in the American South, but away from the agricultural regions where the labour of Blacks was needed to sustain the local economies. Lancaster feels the term 'sundown town', while capturing its historical significance, is inadequate in that it fails to explain the rationale behind the motivations that created these spaces; therefore, the term 'racial cleansing', a derivative of the more widely used term ethnic cleansing, is used. Although similar in many respects to lynching, lynching was normally used to punish a target offender and functioned as a visible reminder to others in the community of the horrendous consequences of challenging the White power structure. Other vigilante actions such as nightriding and whitecapping were attempts to terrorise, but not necessarily extirpate, whole communities. Therefore, though normally not as violent as lynching or vigilantism, racial cleansing had the effect of changing the demography of a region, with its long-term social, cultural, political and economic effects. The Democratic Party gained state political control of Arkansas politics due to a series of manoeuvres that ended up protecting the interests of the moneyed landowners. At the same time, German immigrants began entering the state, escaping both religious persecution and a tenuous economy, to work on Arkansas' newly completed railway system in the 1870s. Blacks outside the region also entered the state, often enticed by bogus claims of hospitality and abundant job opportunities in a fertile agricultural region. The political administration of counties with growing Black populations was initially maintained through a series of'fusion agreements', in which Blacks and Whites shared in local governance. These arrangements soon deteriorated due to White fears of Black domination, fears which were often fuelled by a few instances of racial conflict. Certain politicians took advantage of this conflict to cement racial segregation and maintain White hegemony. Not only were Blacks driven away or repulsed from the railroad industry, terroristic threats and attacks were made against African American workers in other occupations in the developing timber and mining industries and in the well-established field of agriculture. Many poor White farmers, fearing Blacks would take over their jobs, became involved in whitecapping and nightriding activities; however, some large landowners thwarted these terroristic activities through legal action. As the vigilantes were arrested, the cases proceeded through the legislative system, eventually making their way to the US Supreme Court. The highest court in the land ruled that decisions on these racial cleansing activities would be left to the states, basically clearing the way for various forms of racial oppression to continue in the state of Arkansas. …