Short video spurs anti-bias measure

Harrison seeking to update its image

Resolutions denouncing “racism, hate and bigotry” are heading toward a final vote of the Harrison City Council and Boone County Quorum Court.

It’s largely in response to a widely viewed video, said Harrison Mayor Jerry Jackson.

“Of course, this was prompted by the video,” said Jackson. “Regardless of what we say, that’s what prompted it.”

The mayor was referring to a video made by Rob Bliss, who runs a “marketing and advertising agency that specializes in making viral video campaigns,” according to his website on July 30.

Bliss has since changed the wording on the website to read “Rob Bliss Creative is a production company that specializes in creating highly shareable content.”

Bliss traveled to Arkansas and stood for days outside a Walmart Supercenter in Harrison, and along a highway in town, holding a Black Lives Matter sign.

Several people who went

by made racially offensive or threatening comments, which Bliss recorded with a hidden video camera.

On July 27, he posted a 2-minute video on YouTube with the title “Holding a Black Lives Matter Sign in America’s Most Racist Town.”

The video spread quickly, getting almost 2 million views on YouTube and being linked to articles on several websites, including The Washington Post’s.

Jackson, Boone County Judge Robert Hathaway and Bob Largent, president and chief executive of the Harrison Regional Chamber of Commerce, issued a statement on July 28 saying, “While we cannot excuse the reprehensible behavior and words of individuals recorded in the video, we know for certain that they do not reflect the views of the majority of the good people of our communities.

“It is obvious there is still work to be done in our area and across the nation. We must constantly strive to do better, and we pledge our continued efforts in that regard.”

Harrison has been dogged by image problems since racial unrest more than a century ago. The problem was exacerbated in the 1980s when Thom Robb, leader of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, moved to rural Boone County and began using a Harrison post office box for the group’s mailing address.

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says, “Though nowhere near as murderous as other race riots across the state, the Harrison Race Riots of 1905 and 1909 drove all but one African American from Harrison (Boone County), creating by violence an all-white community similar to other such ‘sundown

towns’ in northern and western Arkansas.”

A resolution denouncing hate crimes was passed on Friday by committees of the Harrison City Council and Boone County Quorum Court.

Jackson said the resolutions, with basically the same wording, will go before the full City Council on Thursday and the Quorum Court on Sept. 1.

The city’s resolution reads: “The Harrison City Council, together with the support of our community, resolves to promote inclusiveness and mutual respect; denounces all forms of racism, hate and bigotry; and, encourages the Arkansas legislature to introduce and pass substantive, comprehensive hate crimes legislation; and, that the Boone County Quorum Court commits its support for the same.”

Arkansas is one of only three states without a hatecrimes law, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The others are Wyoming and South Carolina.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson has been pushing for a state hatecrimes law. He mentioned it in January at a Chamber of Commerce banquet in Harrison and on Wednesday during a press briefing in Little Rock.

Hutchinson said he would sign the hate-crimes bill drafted by Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs.

A 2016 article in The Daily Mirror in the United Kingdom dubbed Harrison “the most racist town in America.”

“The mayor thinks Harrison is the most nonracist small town in America,” said Jackson, speaking in the third person. “He honestly does because we have lived under that microscope.”

Bill Boswell, chairman of the City Council committee that drafted the resolution, said there’s a concern that Harrison’s

reputation on the internet could deter businesses from moving there.

“We’re constantly in competition to try to get new businesses to come and establish themselves here,” he said. “One of the questions that comes up is ‘Do you have a racial problem there?’”

Boswell said Harrison has “constantly had this reputation of being a racist community.”

“We’re constantly having to battle this to show people that we’re not,” he said. “We’re proud of our community. We want it to grow. We want it to be better. But when you’re fighting something like this, it is a constant uphill battle. We’re trying to create that positive effect to get Harrison moving forward and it’s a slow process. Golly is it a slow process.”

Bryan Snavely, who chairs the Quorum Court’s law enforcement committee, said the city and county have been working together closely on this issue.

But resolutions can only do so much.

“Like one person said, you can’t change a person’s heart,” said Snavely. “They’ve got to do that themselves.”

In 2012, the City Council passed a resolution saying it stands for “respect, harmony and acceptance of all people.”

“We do not want the city of Harrison, Arkansas, and its citizens to continue to be known as tolerant of any hatred, racism or bigotry,” according to the 2012 resolution.

In the resolution, the council encouraged residents to “work to change any negative perception of our city and denounce any and all forms of hatred, racism and bigotry.”

“We’ve been here before,” said Jeff Crockett, who was mayor of Harrison in 2012. “Any step is a step in the right direction. I don’t think we take enough steps, but any step is better than none.”