Postwar African American Politics in Little Rock- Charles Bussey

The centennial of former governor Winthrop Rockefeller’s birth in May is followed by the centennial of former governor Sid McMath’s birth in June. McMath led a so-called “G.I. Revolt” in Arkansas as returning servicemen from World War Two sought to reform the state’s politics. African American politics underwent a transformation too. One of the people in the vanguard of this movement was Charles Bussey from Stamps, Arkansas. Bussey formed the Veterans Good Government Committee in Little Rock and in 1947 he was elected as the city’s first Bronze Mayor—the unofficial spokesperson for the black community. Bussey went on to become the first African American mayor of Little Rock in 1981. Today, one of the major thoroughfares south of I-630, stretching almost all the way from I-30 downtown to University Avenue is named in his honor. I’m John Kirk of the UALR History Department and this has been an Arkansas moment.