The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 W. Ninth St., Little Rock, hosts its 14th Juneteenth celebration, "Juneteenth in Da Rock," starting with the Juneteenth Flag Raising Ceremony, 10:30 a.m. today.
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If Arkansas had extended its Civil War Sesquicentennial commemorations through Reconstruction, we would be in 1873 by now. In fact, we would be getting ready for Brooks-Baxter 150. I imagine the Old State House Museum will offer some lectures on the subject next year.
In 1860, the population of Arkansas was 435,450. Of those, 111,115 were enslaved people and 144 were free Blacks. The free Black population is believed to have been close to 700 a few years earlier, but in 1859 the Arkansas General Assembly passed an act banning manumission (the freeing of slaves), expelling free Blacks from Arkansas, and threatening them with enslavement if they remained.