Other days

100 YEARS AGO Sept. 26, 1917

FORT SMITH— All employees of the bridge and building department of the Frisco railroad here went on a strike today. The department has suspended work. The men, after organizing a union a month ago, asked for an increase in wages from 19 to 22½ cents an hour. They were informed, they say, that the company intended reducing the force. The older employees were asked to remain. Instead all the men struck.

50 YEARS AGO Sept. 26, 1967

The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a Negro man and white woman at Little Rock who were arrested at a garage apartment after policemen looked through a window and saw them in bed together. Associate Justice Conley Byrd, who wrote the majority opinion, said the ordinance used in the conviction applied to unacceptable sexual conduct in a public place. He said no argument had been advanced that the garage apartment was a public place.

25 YEARS AGO Sept. 26, 1992

JONESBORO— Police laid out their request for a pay raise before a city councilman who reminded the officers that the police weren’t the only department in town. Alderman Jim Hannah said the agency’s budget had increased 104 percent since 1987; from $1.2 million to $2.4 million, while other budgets have not had as big of an increase, he said.

10 YEARS AGO Sept. 26, 2007

Fifty years after they set a milestone in national civil rights history by desegregating Little Rock Central High School, members of the Little Rock Nine called for continued work toward racial equality and urged individuals to take action. Where federal troops and protesters filled the streets and school’s front lawn in 1957, thousands of cheering admirers gave multiple standing ovations to the Nine during a two-hour commemoration ceremony. Each of the Little Rock Nine spoke, the first time the entire group has done so at a public event. Approximately 4,000 people, including the senior class at Central, attended the event under gray skies as thunder rumbled in the distance. A light rain fell for about an hour before the ceremony started, but the rain ended 30 minutes before the speakers — who included former President Clinton — took the stage. Many of the Nine said their parents were the real heroes of the desegregation and thanked their families.