Other days

100 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 1913

CAMDEN — The citizens of Emerson, a little town in Columbia county, some 40 miles southwest of Camden, were treated to their first sight of a slit skirt on Saturday. When the local freight over the Louisiana and Northwest stepped for switching, a handsome blonde, clothed in an extreme slit hobble, wearing a flashy red silk petticoat underneath and shapely silk hose, stepped from the train and promenaded the village. All the male citizens of the place congregated at the depot. The young woman paid no attention to their scrutiny, but paraded up and down the platform until the conductor called “All aboard!” The sight will be long remembered and talked of in Emerson.

50 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 1963

“Americanization” classes at Little Rock Vocational School, 601 W. Markham, will begin as scheduled Sept. 16, Director Jimmy Jones announced yesterday. A minimum of five students is required to form a class. Originally, only one person had applied — Senorita Elmira Garcia Ramirez, a Mexican national. Yesterday Jones said there have been “numerous applications” for the class following a recent Democrat article. The Americanization classes are designed to help them achieve their goal of citizenship. Subjects include English, American government and the fundamentals of life in a democracy.

25 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 1988

Parents of a black athlete forced to play a tennis match at a Forrest City public court while teammates competed at an allwhite country club asked for $2 million in damages Wednesday in federal court. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court by Johnny Whitfield and Lorene Whitfield, parents of the 16-year-old Theresa Whitfield, who was a ninth-grader on the Earle High School tennis team at the time of the incident. The lawsuit was triggered by an incident in April in which Ms. Whitfield was barred from playing her match at the Forrest City Country Club.

10 YEARS AGO

Sept. 8, 2003

Some unemployed residents of public housing in Arkansas and across the United States soon will be required to spend at least eight hours each month volunteering in their communities. Federal housing off icials say recipients of public aid will be able to “give something back” through the requirement, which is to be fully implemented by Oct. 31. They also hope the work will strengthen the job skills and community pride of those doing it.