Chicot County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census,the population was 10,208. The county seat is Lake Village. Chicot County is Arkansas's 10th county,formed on October 25,1823,and named after Point Chicot on the Mississippi River. It is part of the Arkansas Delta,lowlands along the river that have been historically important as an area for large-scale cotton cultivation.
Harvey Parnell was an American farmer and politician from Southeast Arkansas. Parnell served in the Arkansas General Assembly for eight years,first in the Arkansas House of Representatives,and later serving a term in the Arkansas Senate. Following the re-establishment of the lieutenant governor position,Parnell won the statewide election and served under Governor John Martineau. When Martineau resigned to take a federal judgeship in March 1928,Parnell was elevated to become the state's 29th governor,a position he would hold until 1933. Early in his time as governor,Parnell was responsible for Progressive reforms popular with rural voters,including expansion and modernization of the highway system and public school reform. But as the Dust Bowl and Great Depression ravaged the Arkansas economy,Parnell's programs were blamed for bankrupting the state,and his popularity plummeted. He left politics after his second full gubernatorial term ended in January 1933.
James Paul Clarke was a lawyer and politician from the Arkansas Delta during the Progressive Era. He served in public office over a period of almost 30 years,rising from the Arkansas General Assembly to Attorney General of Arkansas and later 18th Governor of Arkansas,ending his career in the United States Senate. In a period of Democratic Party hegemony known as the "Solid South",Clarke blended positions of the budding Populist movement,such as free silver and railroad regulation,with white supremacy and his gifted skills as an orator to popularity and electoral success.
Augustus Hill Garland was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Arkansas,who initially opposed Arkansas' secession from the United States,but later served in both houses of the Congress of the Confederate States and the United States Senate,as well as becoming the 11th governor of Arkansas (1874–1877) and the 38th attorney general of the United States (1885–1889).
Alexander Hugh Holmes Stuart was a prominent Virginia lawyer and American political figure associated with several political parties. Stuart served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly,as a U.S. Congressman (1841–1843),and as the Secretary of the Interior (1850–1853). Despite opposing Virginia's secession and holding no office after finishing his term in the Virginia Senate during the American Civil War,after the war he was denied a seat in Congress. Stuart led the Committee of Nine,which attempted to reverse the changes brought by Reconstruction. He also served as rector of the University of Virginia.
Jacob Welsh Miller was a United States senator from New Jersey.
More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy,disenfranchisement,and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states. Historian Canter Brown Jr. noted that in some states,such as Florida,the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after the end of Reconstruction in 1877. The following is a partial list of notable African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900. Dates listed are the year that a term states or the range of years served if multiple terms.
John Newton Tillman was a U.S. Representative from Arkansas. In the Arkansas State Senate he proposed the Separate Coach Law of 1891,a Jim Crow law to segregate African American passengers. The bill became law.
Daniel Harris Reynolds was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. He was born at Centerburg,Ohio,but moved to Iowa,Tennessee,and finally to Arkansas before the Civil War. He was a lawyer in Arkansas before the war. After the war,Reynolds resumed his practice of law and was a member of the Arkansas Senate for one term.
The State government of Arkansas is divided into three branches:executive,legislative and judicial. These consist of the state governor's office,a bicameral state legislature known as the Arkansas General Assembly,and a state court system. The Arkansas Constitution delineates the structure and function of the state government. Since 1963,Arkansas has had four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Like all other states,it has two seats in the U.S. Senate.
John Gray Lucas was a lawyer and a state legislator in Arkansas during the early 20th century. He was appointed Assistant U.S. attorney in Cook County in 1934. Born in Marshall,Texas,in 1864,he eventually moved to Pine Bluff,Arkansas. He graduated from Branch Normal College of Arkansas Industrial University. He then got his law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1887,graduating with honors as the only African-American student in his class. He moved to Chicago.
James Worthington Mason was a state senator,sheriff,and postmaster in Arkansas. In 1868 he was one of the first six African Americans to serve in the Arkansas House. He also served in the Arkansas Senate and was the first African American postmaster in the United States.
Samuel H. Holland was a state senator in Arkansas in 1873 and,for a special session,in 1874 during the Reconstruction era. He also served as a teacher,sheriff,jailer,and principal. He taught at the Howard School,named for Oliver O. Howard,until it was closed by the school board in 1871. The school building was used by the United Sons of Ham,a secret African American benevolent organization. He was involved in the establishment of millage fees to fund area schools.
W. H. Logan was a farmer,preacher,teacher and politician in the Arkansas Delta. He served in the Arkansas Senate from 1887 to 1891. He was born in Ohio in the first half of the 1850s. During his career he served as a justice of the peace,preacher,teacher,and farmer.
Nathan E. Edwards was a state legislator in Arkansas. He represented Chicot County as a Republican for the 1893 session. He was one of at least four African Americans in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1893 along with George W. Bell in the state senate. He and other Arkansas legislators were photographed in 1893.
Richard A. Dawson was a lawyer and state legislator in Arkansas. He was born in Virginia and his father was a minister. Dawson studied at Oberlin College,and received his law degree from the Old University of Chicago. Dawson practiced law in Pine Bluff,Arkansas and represented the area in the Arkansas General Assembly from 1873 to 1874 and from 1879 to 1881.
Isaac George Bailey was an educator,Baptist minister,and member of the Arkansas legislature. He served in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 1885,representing Desha County. His photograph was taken as one of the 1885 Arkansas House members. The caption says he was a Republican and Tillar Station was his post office.
Christian Heinrich "Henry" Thane was a wealthy businessman and bank owner in Arkansas. His Craftsman-style home,Thane House,was designed by Little Rock architect Charles L. Thompson. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Jackson F. Henley was an American lawyer,state legislator and judge in Arkansas. He was an outspoken opponent of a separate coach bill for segregated passenger services. He also opposed Democrat proposed election bills as they sought to regain control and exclude African Americans from voting.
