Home » Arkansas » Mt. Ida

James W. Loewen (1942-2021)

We mourn the loss of our friend and colleague and remain committed to the work he began.

Mt. Ida

Arkansas

Basic Information

Type of Place
Independent City or Town
Metro Area
Politics c. 1860?
Unions, Organized Labor?

Sundown Town Status

Sundown Town in the Past?
Probable
Was there an ordinance?
Sign?
Year of Greatest Interest
Still Sundown?

Census Information

The available census data from 1860 to the present
Total White Black Asian Native Hispanic Other BHshld
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020

Method of Exclusion

Main Ethnic Group(s)

Group(s) Excluded

  • Black

Comments

email November 2007:

I grew up in Mount Ida, Arkansas. It is the county seat of Montgomery county. It has been over 99% white for as long as I can remember ( I am in my 40s). When I was a child I heard some people bragging because the area was all – white. They said a family of blacks had tried to move in once, but some people had made sure they changed their minds overnight. They loaded up and left the next day. I asked why and was told because they were “niggers”.

I remember an incident in the 1980s. A frightened lady that lived between Mt. Ida and Hot Springs called the police to investigate something suspicious. A white man and a black man had come to her house together. When the police got to the area and checked, it was two of Jehovah’s Witnesses from Hot Springs making visits on people in that area. The police had to go back to the woman’s house and let her know everything was safe!

People still keep an eye out on non-whites that stop in the county for gas while passing through. I do know of one resident that was black in the 1990s. He was an adopted child of a white couple “who had gotten desperate for a baby”. His name is Jimmy Laird. I’m not sure where he lives now. I know some “kind” people were worried that he wouldn’t have any of his “kind” to marry.