This thesis explores the events and repercussions surrounding the desegregation of schools in Arkansas, including an analysis of the Little Rock incident.

Arkansas state politics during the Civil War was influenced by the preceding thirty years and many of the state's problems for which political answers were sought were similar to problems experienced in this period of political development. The war simply magnified and multiplied the problems faced by the state. This thesis is concerned with identifying the political forces in the state and their development, with investigating problems to which political solutions were sought and attempts made to solve these. Finally, an effort is made to determine the effectiveness of the various political moves made during the terms of Governors Rector and Flanagin.

This investigation is an attempt to reevaluate the role of the carpetbagger in bringing about a reform program during Reconstruction.

For four hundred years the Red River Valley has been the battleground between contending Indian tribes and European races, and for almost three hundred of these years the river has been a disputed boundary line, either between rival nations, or between neighboring states of our country. The river has never been of much importance as a commercial route, yet very few rivers in all the United States have played so an important and persistent a part in this history of their sections as the Red River has played in the history of the Southwest.