The Images of America series celebrates the local histories of American communities in short volumes of photographs and text. The books are geared to a regional audience, but they also offer readers the opportunity to learn about unfamiliar places. With the extensive collection of African American books in the Washington, D.C. public library, I had the opportunity to read this new photographic history set in Arkansas, "African Americans of Pine Bluff and Jefferson County". (2013) and to learn about a community that was entirely unfamiliar to me. The authors, Jimmy Cunningham Jr. and Donna Cunningham are long-time residents of Pine Bluff.
Jefferson County and Pine Bluff, the largest city and county seat, are located in southeast Arkansas. Most of the area is within the Mississippi Delta with the northern portion in Timberlands. Located on the Arkansas River, Pine Bluff has a population of about 48,300, which has been declining in recent years. The community is diverse with a large African American presence which is the focus of the book. Pine Bluff suffers from a high crime rate and from poverty, facts which receive little mention in this book.
The book offers a portrayal of African American life in the community beginning with the years following the Civil War. The authors stress the wide range of community life. In the caption of a photograph of beautifully dressed young women, for example, the Cunninghams write: "[t]he story of Jefferson County is the story of some of the most refined, educated blacks in the United States interfacing with some of the most down-home African Americans anywhere in the country. Out of this eclectic mix, the county has forged its character." The book shows many physicians, scientists, lawyers, and judges who made their home in Jefferson County together with workers in cotton field and sawmills. The book shows a mixture of the urban areas of Pine Bluff, and the farming, fishing, or timbered areas of much of the rest of Jefferson County.
In the years following the Civil War, lynching plagued Jefferson County as the book shows a drawing of 24 African Americans reputedly lynched on a single day in March, 1866. In spite of the frequency of lynching and other forms of discrimination, the area soon produced many wealthy African Americans together with a solid middle class. The Cunninghams write that prior to 1915, Jefferson County had one of the highest concentrations of wealthy African Americans in the South. In 1900, at least 250 African American businesses served Pine Bluff, most of them focused on an African American clientele. The community remains a center for African American economic, educational, and political life. It was the home to a historically black college, Arkansas AM & N, which merged with the state educational system in 1972.
The book emphasizes the contributions African Americans from Pine Bluff have made to all aspects of American life. The opening chapter focuses on the many musicians and other artists with strong ties to the area, including bluesman Big Bill Broonzy, Bobby Rush, Charles Brown, "Queen" Sylvia Embry and many more. Folklorist Julius Lester and noir writer Chester Hines also had formative experiences in the community.
The book then offers photos and text on the many down-home businesses and business schools that have enhanced community life over the years, including schools for barbers and beauticians. Residents of Pine Bluff played a prominent role in the U.S. military, with several residents participating in the Tuskegee Airmen. A chapter of community life ranges from gatherings at rural restaurants and, hog-killings to baseball leagues and homecoming parades.
The book shows the large impact of the Civil Rights movement on Jefferson County, including a protest of segregated seating on local buses that predated Rosa Parks by ten years. African American political movements of every variety from Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Black Muslims were prominently represented. The book shows the 1960 integration of Pine Bluff public schools, which provoked protest but was ultimately accomplished without incident. The final chapters in the book describe Pine Bluff educational life, featuring the many distinguished graduates of Arkansas AM & N, and the diversity and intensity of the community's religious life.
The Cunninghams present the story of their community with knowledge and enthusiasm. I was glad to learn something of Jefferson County and Pine Bluff and of African American life in this volume from Images of America.
