Desegregation in Sheridan

May 2014 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. Two school districts in Arkansas, at Charleston and Fayetteville, were among the first in the South to desegregate. Events turned out very differently in Sheridan. Initially, the school board there voted to integrate its few black students to save on the cost of bussing them to a segregated school in a neighboring county. However, protests led to the reversal of the decision and a petition to remove school board members. A local sawmill employer and landlord issued an ultimatum to his black employees and tenants: relocate to Malvern in Hot Spring County 25 miles away, or he would evict them and burn down their homes. Sheridan thereby successfully got rid of its black population to avoid school desegregation. I’m John Kirk, of the UALR History Department, and this has been an Arkansas Moment.