Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Race relations talks pushed by legislators
Legislative Council nixed proposal for subcommittee
State Sens. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, and Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, are trying to find a way to foster discussions among lawmakers about race relations, despite the Legislative Council’s rejection of their proposal to create a race relations subcommittee last month, Hendren said Wednesday.
A month ago, state representatives on the Legislative Council turned down the two lawmakers’ proposal to create a subcommittee made up of four Republicans and four Democrats that would have conducted a study of race relations “with the goal of providing recommendations on ways to address historic and current divisions within the state,” and would have submitted a report to the council by Dec. 1, 2018.
Some representatives who opposed the proposed subcommittee said the current legislative committees and subcommittees could handle race relations issues instead and that the proposed subcommittee duplicated the mission of the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission.
Speaking before 90 people at a meeting of the Political Animals Club in Little Rock, Hendren said he and Elliott have discussed various options and received suggestions from fellow lawmakers about other ways to create “a venue or vehicle for us to have these discussions, and we’re looking at those.”
“Part of what we are doing is waiting to see how our colleagues feel about it, whether or not they are going to support it,” said Hendren, who is the Senate Republican leader and whose uncle is Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson. “But at the end of the day I do think that we will find a way to continue this discussion one way or the other. It may just be me and Joyce out in the city park, but we’ll figure out a way to continue the discussion.”
Afterwards, Hendren said one option may be the formation of a legislative caucus on race relations.
“I think we can do a caucus type of arrangement without having to have approval [of the Legislative Council],” he said in an interview. “Obviously, people will have to do it basically on their own time, which Joyce and I are willing to do.”
Elliott said in an interview that creating a legislative caucus on race relations is an option, but she would want such a caucus to have rules and limits and an understanding of what people will do in participating in the caucus.
Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said in an interview that it’s likely that a legislative caucus on race relations will be formed because Hendren and Elliott “are very passionate about moving forward with some type of official organization.”
Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, who opposed the creation of Legislative Council subcommittee on race relations, said in an interview that the creation of a legislative caucus on race relations is “a great idea, ” though he noted that lawmakers wouldn’t be paid per diem and mileage by the state for attending meetings of such a caucus. He said he would participate in a legislative caucus on race relations.
In his remarks before the Political Animals Club, Hendren said Elliott is one
of his best friends in the Legislature and “she has as good a heart as anybody I’ve served with.
“We certainly disagree on a lot of things, but what I appreciate about her is we’ll have a discussion and we’ll laugh and we’ll joke and we’ll usually not come to an agreement, but we’ll at least respect and understand each other better than we did when we started,” he said.
“Our idea was if people are different as us can have those conversations [about race relations], why can’t the state as a whole? Why can’t leadership as a whole start having those conversations?”
Elliott said churches could play a huge part in fostering discussions about race relations in the state.
“Why not every other Sunday churches meet together in one church across lines? The black and white church [could] do something together because you cannot get to know people unless you occupy space with them, just like we are here talking to each other,” she said.
Hendren said churches need to do more in this area.
“We tend to stay in our own comfort zones,” he said. “Joyce has promised to take me to her church and she never has, so I am going to try to make that happen.”
Asked by a member of the audience about the effect of racism on the state’s image and ability to recruit talented people for economic development, Elliott said she is amazed how people outside Arkansas generally know about the Central High School crisis from 1957 and that former President Bill Clinton is from Arkansas, where he served as governor and attorney general.
When companies are deciding where to locate, the big factor is the quality of life, and, if they have the images of the Central High School crisis, those images hurt the state’s ability to recruit companies, said Elliott, who is a retired schoolteacher.
But Hendren said that “from what I have seen as far as our ability to recruit industry and jobs to Arkansas, I don’t think right now that they are put off by the racial environment in Arkansas.”
“I think that could change. A couple big riots, and, if we don’t get progress in some areas, it could change,” said Hendren, who is a colonel in the Missouri National Guard. “But I think there are far more important issues to companies. The bottom line.”
“We tend to stay in our own comfort zones. Joyce has promised to take me to her church and she never has, so I am going to try to make that happen.” — State Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs