Other days

100 YEARS AGO Nov. 21, 1922

RUSSELLVILLE — The first appearance of Klansmen in regalia in public in Pope county occurred last night, when eight hooded men appeared during the night services at the First Baptist church in Russellville and also at the Presbyterian church at Atkins. The Rev. R. Maurice Jennings of the Baptist church had announced that he would discuss the confession of the mountaineers in Garland county to the murder of which occurred last week near Hot Springs, his subject being “Is the Klan of the Devil or of God?”

50 YEARS AGO Nov. 21, 1972

■ The Arkansas River from Fort Smith to Little Rock is “surprisingly” clean, Neil Woomer, a biologist for the state Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, told a group of students and faculty Monday at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. Woomer said the Department has completed a six month survey of that stretch of the river, testing for such things as clearness, levels of certain chemical pollutants and the amount of bacteria in the water. He said that except for a part of the river below Fort Smith, whose sewage plants discharge much waste into the water, the river, until just above Little Rock, is much clearer than the Department had imagined.

25 YEARS AGO Nov. 21, 1997

TEXARKANA — Pine Bluff was officially awarded the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame by the state tourism commission Thursday afternoon, but only after a sometimes raucous twohour debate that featured one commissioner chastising a losing city, and a representative of a losing city saying the project was doomed to be a failure, no matter where it was located. The State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission voted 7-3 at its regular monthly meeting in Texarkana to award $300,000 to Pine Bluff for the creation of the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame, fulfilling a legislative mandate to award the money and get the project started. The Pine Bluff proposal — using about 9,100 square feet of the 90,000-square foot Pine Bluff Convention Center — also would include an animatronic Johnny Cash at the entrance and extensive exhibits from the state’s entertainment past.

10 YEARS AGO Nov. 21, 2012

■ The Metropolitan Housing Alliance’s Board of Commissioners extended an offer Tuesday to a second candidate for its open executive director position after another candidate turned down the job offer and stopped returning phone calls and e-mails. The board voted unanimously after an hour-long executive session to offer the job to Rodney Forte, a former Razorback football player and former Little Rock employee. Forte, 48, who works for a private investment company in Texas, said in a phone interview that he has agreed to enter into negotiations with the alliance’s search consultant. He said he would make a decision on whether to accept the position after the negotiations and background checks are completed. The agency manages about $37 million in property assets and provides housing or housing assistance to 8,000 Little Rock residents through various programs, including 2,000 federal Section 8 vouchers for low-income tenants.