Much of the talk this week has been about what kind of Arkansas we want, and if the bills being filed at the Capitol reflect that. With some of the bills under consideration in recent weeks, it can feel...
This was a short week for Arkansas’s 93rd General Assembly, with the Capitol closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The State House of Representatives was in recess on Wednesday, as House rules dictate for a...
The Arkansas General Assembly convened on Monday, but this year’s session will look different from any we’ve ever seen. With the pandemic raging, the legislature has adopted new procedures to minimize the spread of the virus. The Governor kicked...
Arkansas has the opportunity in 2021 to adopt its first ever hate crime law — an idea the Legislature has rejected again and again under both Democratic and Republican leadership. It will have been 20 years since the first...
New census data on poverty, income, housing and health can help gauge how much Arkansans have lost — before and during the pandemic People across Arkansas continue to face dire economic hardship – particularly Arkansans of color and those...
Last week, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled invalid a proposed ballot initiative that would allow voters to decide if the state should create a citizens’ redistricting commission. A lawsuit in federal court seeks to put the initiative back on...
Arkansas is one of the last three states without a Hate Crimes Law. We also have one of the highest numbers of hate crime groups per capita in the nation. Today, a bipartisan group of Arkansas General Assembly members,...
Prior to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity was a problem for over 15 percent of Arkansas households, higher than the national average of 11 percent. In fact, during fiscal year 2019, 1 in 9 Arkansans benefited...
The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have increased the national discussion, not only of racism within the police force and criminal justice system, but structural racism across all areas of American life. It also...
Slavery in the United States The first documented record of enslaved Africans arriving in America occurred in 1619. “Some 20 and odd Negroes” landed at Point Comfort, in the English settlement that would soon become Virginia. Their arrival was...