Darrin Williams overcomes barriers of race and place
from Jay Barth at the Arkansas Times: http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/darrin-williams-overcomes-barriers-of-race-and-place/Content?oid=2112765
Friday's election of state Rep. Darrin Williams as speaker-designate of the Arkansas House overcame two historical barriers. One, Williams' race, has been widely noted. The other, his deep ties to Little Rock (the traditional whipping boy of rural Arkansans), has not. That neither his race nor his place is an absolute bar to political success in the state shows that the political norms accepted across most of Arkansas's history are no longer absolutes in the modern era.
Make no mistake, race still matters enormously in shaping the social lives of Arkansans and the politics of this state, as it will for generations. White and black Arkansans live primarily in different worlds and have ongoing difficulty building bridges of trust across that chasm. Electorally, racially polarized voting shows itself in races ranging from school board to president.
However, last week's election for speaker-designate, the biggest election ever won by an African American in Arkansas, suggests that those patterns of racial division can be broken down. Williams' election required the votes of more than 40 white members of the Democratic caucus, many representing districts where President Barack Obama was shellacked in his 2008 race for president. Taking place in the same chamber where barely 50 years ago the House voted to fire any teacher or state employee who was an NAACP member, the outcome is a meaningful sign of social progress for the state.
Nearly as remarkable as the race of the new speaker-designate is the area he represents. Just after my birth in 1966, Pulaski County's Sterling Cockrill Jr. became the Arkansas Speaker of the House. He is the sole speaker from the urban center of the state during my lifetime . . .
read more: http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/darrin-williams-overcomes-barriers-of-race-and-place/Content?oid=2112765
related:
Rep. Darrin Williams voted Speaker-designate
http://www.arkansashouse.org/news/2012/03/12/rep-darrin-williams-voted-speaker-designate
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