Harrison Is Proud of Its Racism

When we relocated here to the Ozarks eight years ago, we were surprised to have been assigned a Harrison mailing address because our ranch is actually in a different county than Harrison. However, because of our extremely remote location, we are lucky to receive any mail service at all, so we accept it.

After moving here, we quickly became aware of Harrison's reputation for harboring racist groups. We heard constant bragging about the active Ku Klux Klan groups and the lynchings that have happened in Harrison. We heard from several sources that local military bases don't assign non-white personnel because of the risk to their safety from the Harrison community.

Whenever possible, we try to identify ourselves as living in Osage because whenever I travel to other parts of Arkansas and I'm introduced as being from Harrison, someone asks if I'm with the Klukkers.

While some people in the area try to make the case that this is part of Harrison's past, today's online Harrison Daily Times tells a completely different story. In this article, they actually take pride in the number of racist groups that are located in Harrison, even giving tips on using their websites. Amazing.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/02/2001 01:49:00 PM Send this post: