Volume 16 , Issue 9

Arkansas, Hattie Caraway, WWII & Etc...

Arkansas changed the political climate of wartime America with their advances in women's rights. It was from 1931-1945 when Arkansas elected the first woman to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate with Hattie Caraway.

Hattie was a strong southern Democrat, who originally replaced her late husband as senator following his death. Hattie was also a strong supporter of Roosevelt and his New Deal plan. During WWII, Hattie was extremely important in establishing the Japanese relocation centers in Arkansas at Rohwer and Jerome as well as creating POW camps at Camp Robinson and Fort Chaffee.

This was a region known for it's traditionally strong southern men, where Sen. Caraway proved to be an equal among all genders and a force for southern politics during wartime America.

Arkansas changed the social climate of wartime America by reforming its position on African Americans after the war. Silas Hunt, an Arkansan WWII veteran, was admitted to the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1948, the first African American in the historical south. Hunt's acceptance marked a major moment in the desegregation of the southern colleges, something that had previously been unimaginable. Hunt pioneered the fight of desegregation in Arkansas nine years before the infamous Little Rock Nine of Central High School in 1957.

Have you heard of the wartime America 'rich drag show' traditions in Arkansas? In the years before WWII, drag in Arkansas started out as "womanless weddings" staged in rural areas. It continued at the Rohwer Japanese Relocation Camp when employees staged womanless weddings for Japanese Americans interned there. Many of the military camps throughout the state also staged similar drag shows to improve morale during the war. Eventually, drag moved away form Arkansas.

There were many ways in which Arkansas changed the social, military, and political climate of wartime America. Arkansas became a southern anomaly by electing the first woman to the U.S. Senate as well as becoming the first southern state to admit an African American to a major university. Arkansas had an underground drag show heritage that began during WWII and continues to this day, a tradition that defied social mores for acceptable southern culture.   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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