Expansion of Negro Suffrage in Arkansas

During the past ten Oears, the changing character of the Negro's relative and absolute suffrage status in Arkansas has been possibly greater than at any comparable period since Emancipation. The various factors involved in the problem of Negro suffrage expansion are an integral part of the overt political, social, and economic structures and the covert or psychological correlates of the dynamic racial power system.' In race relations, differential social power carries unequal access to the opportunities and rewards of society serving both as a determinant and as a consequence2 of unequal power distribution. While it is likely that some power inequalities characterize every group relationship, the political structure emerges from the unique set of socio-economic factors which underlie the historical development of the society. Thus, this treatment of the suffrage status of 'the Arkansas Negro describes the inequality of political power within the complex system of Negro-white group relationships. We shall delineate specifically in this paper Negro and white socio-cultural'and

Geography · Political science · Politics · Suffrage · American History and Culture · Law · Race, History, and American Society