In a March 2018 story for The New York Times, Richard Fausset wrote about the slow death of Cotton Plant.
"The town once had four cotton gins, but no more," he wrote. "The veneer mill that once employed 400 people is long gone. The population, which peaked at about 1,800 during World War II, has dwindled to just 653 (it has dropped to less than 500 since publication of the story). Decades ago, as the mechanization of agriculture wiped out the need for field hands, many Black residents migrated north for factory jobs.
"Then in the early 1970s, many whites left town when the schools were forced to integrate. The schools are a moot issue now. The town's high school closed in 2004. The elementary school closed in 2014. Today the city is 73 percent Black, and 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line."
Fausset described a business district "lined with crumbling and boarded-up storefronts. A flier in the window of a shuttered variety store advertised a long-ago Christmas parade. The front windows of an antique store were broken, and the rear wall was open to the elements, with some old clothes still hanging on racks inside. The town no longer has a bank, grocery store, liquor store or even a gas station."
Cotton Plant was the subject of Sunday's column. I was there recently. I drive slowly through dying Delta towns, thinking of what once was. And I never tire of reading about the notable people who came from rural places that are now emptying out.
In 1876, for example, Pearl Peden was born on a farm near Cotton Plant. As Pearl Oldfield, she became the first woman from Arkansas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She served from January 1929 until March 1931.
Oldfield enrolled in what's now Lyon College at Batesville but withdrew before finishing her degree. In June 1901, she married William Oldfield. He was elected to the U.S. House in 1908. He served in Congress for two decades until his death in November 1928.
"Congressman Oldfield's death created a new situation in Arkansas politics," Lindley Shedd wrote for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "His death left two vacancies in Congress, the remaining months of his term in the 70th Congress and the term to which he had been elected two weeks prior to his death. This was the first time in Arkansas history that a representative died while Congress was in session and after he had been elected to a subsequent term.
"On Dec. 7, the Arkansas Democrat reported that the State Central Committee had decided against holding a primary to determine who would be the candidate and named Pearl Oldfield as the nominee for both terms. Speaking in support of the plan, Gus Jones, a Newport attorney, said he wanted the committee to 'honor the memory of such an outstanding man as Bill Oldfield by nominating his dear, sweet wife.'"
The newspaper noted that her election was "regarded as a certainty" and that her nomination "is equivalent to election." A Democrat named R.W. Tucker entered the race as an independent, claiming that the widow didn't want the full term.
Pearl Oldfield replied: "No, I would rather not have had it. But they, Mr. Oldfield's friends, have fought his battle for so many years, and it is their wish that I should carry on. I cannot decline."
"Oldfield took office ... as the nation faced the Great Depression and as Arkansas faced a massive drought," Shedd wrote. "One of the three times Oldfield spoke on the House floor concerned drought conditions in Arkansas. She argued in support of a $15 million appropriations bill to supply food to drought-stricken areas, saying, 'The situation is distressing and most grave, with cold, sickness and actual starvation present.'"
The other two times she spoke were following the death of fellow Rep. Otis Wingo from Arkansas and to announce that she wouldn't run for an additional term. She remained in Washington until her death in April 1962. She's buried beside her husband at Oaklawn Cemetery in Batesville.
Another well-known person from Cotton Plant was Jesse Walter Arbor, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and became one of the first 13 Black men commissioned as naval officers. The group was known as the Golden Thirteen. Arbor was born in December 1914, the fifth of 12 children. His father farmed and was a carpenter.
Arbor attended Cotton Plant Academy, a private school for Black children operated by the Northern Presbyterian Church. The family moved to Chicago in 1929 as his father searched for a better job, and Arbor attended Catholic schools there. He came back to Arkansas following high school graduation to play football at what's now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
"Arbor returned to Chicago after his football eligibility was gone," historian David Sesser wrote. "From 1935-39, he worked as a doorman at the Chicago Beach Hotel, a luxury resort beside Lake Michigan. Through the father of a friend from high school, Arbor obtained a job as a Pullman porter, which he performed for two years before returning to the hotel. Taking a job with the Kuppenheimer Co., a men's clothing manufacturer, Arbor trained as a tailor. He opened his own shop in 1940 with 10 employees."
Arbor enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve in September 1942. He was trained as a quartermaster and later was selected to undergo officer training. Arbor and his classmates received their commissions in March 1944. After the war, Arbor remained in Chicago until his death in 2000.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.