Readings in Arkansas Politics and Government

Kim U. Hoffman is associate professor of public administration at the University of Central Arkansas.Janine A. Parry is professor of political science at the University of Arkansas, where she is director of the Arkansas Poll.Catherine C. Reese is professor of public administration at Arkansas State University.

• PART IFoundations and Context in Arkansas Politics and Government1. The Antievolution Law: Church and State in Arkansas – Cal Ledbetter, Jr.2. Low Villains and Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in the Elaine Race Riots – Jeannie M. Whayne3. A Place at the Table: Hot Springs and the GI Revolt – Patsy Hawthorn Ramsey4. The Arkansas Electorate – Jim Ranchino5. Arkansas: Trump is a Natural for the Natural State – Jay Barth and Janine A. ParryPART IIInstitutions and Actors in Arkansas Politics and Government6. “The Great Negro State of the Country”? Black Legislators in Arkansas, 1973–2000 – Janine A. Parry and William H. Miller7. Term Limits in Arkansas: Opportunities and Consequences – Art English8. Orval E. Faubus: Out of Socialism into Realism – Roy Reed9. Noblesse Oblige and Practical Politics: Winthrop Rockefeller and the Civil Rights Movement – Cathy Kunzinger Urwin10. The Big Three of Late Twentieth-Century Arkansas Politics: Dale Bumpers, Bill Clinton, and David Pryor – Diane D. Blair11. The Evolution of Judicial Selection in Arkansas: External and Internal Explanations of Change and Potential Future Directions – Mark Nabors and J. R. Baxter12. A Practitioner’s Guide to Arkansas’s New Judicial Article – Larry Brady and J. D. Gingerich13. The Natural State in a Time of Change: A Survey-Based Analysis of State Party Organizations in Arkansas, 1999–2013 – John C. Davis14. The Arkansas State Budget Process: A Unique and Reliable Approach – Kim U. Hoffman and Catherine C. ReesePART IIIPublic Policy Conflicts in Arkansas Politics and Government15. “Dedicated People”: Little Rock Central High School’s Teachers during the Integration Crisis of 1957–1958 – Graeme Cope16. Going Off the Deep End: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Desegregation of Little Rock’s Public Swimming Pools – John A. Kirk17. A Crime Unfit to Be Named: Arkansas and Sodomy – W. Brock Thompson18. Keeping Hope Alive: A Case Study of the Continuing Argument for Ratification of the ERA – Lindsley Armstrong Smith and Stephen A. Smith19. Effects of Prohibition in Arkansas Counties – Patrick A. Stewart, Catherine C. Reese, and Jeremy Brewer20. Implementation of the Welfare-to-Work Program in Arkansas: The Importance of Inter-Agency Communication – Catherine C. Reese and David Harding, Jr.21. Making Progress?: Education Reform in Arkansas – Gary W. Ritter and Sarah C. Mckenzie

Arkansas’s political history and much of the country’s is the story of the continual search for plausible-sounding theories for why the great guarantees of equal rights and protections for all in federal and state constitutions really don’t mean what they say when it comes to matters like education, justice, elections, health care, gender, and sexuality. Here is an exhaustive scholarly review of those battles across a century in our little state." — Ernie Dumas