Arkansas Delta
Riceland Foods, the world's largest rice miller and marketer, is based in Stuttgart, Arkansas on the Grand Prairie.
[6] In the earth's history, after the Gulf of Mexico withdrew from what was Missouri, many floods occurred in the Mississippi River Delta, building up alluvial deposits.
[8] French explorers and colonists encountered the historic Quapaw people in this region, who lived along the Arkansas River and its tributaries.
[12] Settlers, who were mostly French and Spanish colonists, generally engaged in a mutually beneficial give-and-take trading relationship with the Native Americans.
[13] As settlers began to acquire and clear land, they encroached on Quapaw territory and traditional hunting and fishing practices.
The Quapaw returned to southeast Arkansas by 1830, but were permanently relocated to Oklahoma in 1833 under the Indian Removal Act passed by Congress.
Many African Americans were brought into the Delta throughout the early-to-mid-19th century through the domestic slave trade, transported from the Upper South.
[citation needed] Prior to the U.S. Civil War, numerous Delta counties had majority-black and enslaved populations.
[7] As Arkansas was developed later than some other areas of the Deep South, its wealthy planters did not construct as many grand plantation mansions as in other states.
Most blacks were kept off the rolls and out of electoral politics for more than six decades, until after Congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, although a concerted effort in the 1940s increased voter registration.
It occurred near Elaine, Arkansas in the Delta, where local planters were trying to discourage the formation of an agricultural union among blacks.
During World War II, the defense industry in California and other western locations attracted many African-American workers from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas in a second wave of the Great Migration, resulting in a marked population decrease in the Delta.
Charles Bowden of National Geographic wrote, "By 1970 the sharecropping world was already disappearing, and the landscape of today—huge fields, giant machines, battered towns, few people—beginning to emerge.
While defined primarily by its deep blues/gospel roots, it is distinguished somewhat from its Mississippi Delta counterpart by more intricately interwoven country music and R&B elements.
Eastern Arkansas' predominantly African-American population in cities such as Helena, West Memphis, Pine Bluff, Brinkley, Cotton Plant, Forrest City and others has provided a fertile backdrop of juke joints, clubs and dance halls which have so completely nurtured this music.
The festival attracts an average of about 85,000 people per day over its three-day run; it is rated in the top 10 music events in the nation by festivals.com.
Given the historic racism and entrenched segregation in the Delta, the African-American church and, by extension, its music, have taken on a central role in the lives of residents.
Unlike the blues, which has been historically dominated by men throughout the Delta, women established a pioneering role in gospel music.
From the quartet traditions that dominate south Arkansas, to the classic and contemporary solo artists who have found national prominence in the east, gospel music in the Delta has made and continues to make a significant mark on the cultural landscape.
The Arkansas Delta's country music roots have depth, with legendary performers coming from the area.
Urbanization and the shift to mechanization of farm technology during the past 60 years has sharply reduced jobs in the Delta.
This hampers efforts to support education, infrastructure development, community health and other vital aspects of growth.
The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff is charged with highlighting and promoting works of Delta artists.
