Other days

100 YEARS AGO Feb. 20, 1924

■ Governor McRae came to defense of the proposed income tax bill for educational relief in the state in a long letter to the Civitan Club of Pine Bluff replying to resolutions submitted by that body, opposing “any further taxation” and requesting the chief executive not to call a special session of the legislature for the purpose of considering such a bill. Declaring that he wanted “your help, not your hurt,” Governor McRae said “there is no purpose to put additional burdens upon the landowners and business men of the state but to try to reach the intangible property that is paying very little, if any taxes.

50 YEARS AGO Feb. 20, 1974

■ Governor Bumpers has approved and sent to the federal Office for Civil Rights a $2.2 million plan for ending racial segregation in the state-supported colleges and universities. It is aimed at increasing the number of white students and faculty members at the predominantly Black University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, increasing Black enrollment and Black faculties at the predominantly white campuses, help poor Blacks get into college and into the state’s professional schools, equalizing the physical condition of the campuses and eliminating racial barriers in all college activities.

25 YEARS AGO Feb. 20, 1999

■ The state Court Appointed Special Advocate

Program operates in eight judicial districts and includes about 150 volunteers. Officials are seeking $500,000 in state money to help pay for existing operations and establish eight new ones. All seven Arkansas Supreme Court justices showed up Friday at a Senate committee meeting to emphasize support for a program to provide attorneys for children in dependency-neglect, custody and guardianship cases. Senate Bill 221 by Sen. Jodie Mahony, D-El Dorado, contains safeguards for accountability, unlike a similar program created by the Legislature in 1997. The 1997 program was for attorneys for children of divorce, not the other kinds of problems, and it was halted abruptly after it was discovered that contracts were given without notice or bids to a state lawmaker and two attorneys closely associated with lawmakers.

10 YEARS AGO Feb. 20, 2014

PINE BLUFF — The Johnny Cash who greets visitors entering the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame is poised with a guitar to perform. All it takes for the singing to begin is a press of the red button just below the glass enclosure. This Man in Black is an animatronic figure with hands, lips and eyes that move during the playing of six Cash classics, including “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues.” The quality of the faux Johnny falls some distance short of Disney World standards, but it does give a live-action start to the visit.