A former city alderman has released a new book that profiles 63 black candidates who filed for political office in Hot Springs from 1954 to 2010, and the local chapter of the NAACP is challenging other chapters to document black political involvement in their own communities.
Elmer Beard, who served as an alderman on the former Hot Springs City Council, said he wrote "The Challengers: Untold Stories of African Americans Who Changed the System in One Small Southern Municipality," because of his debt to the city of Hot Springs.
"When I talk about my debt to the city of Hot Springs, I think about coming here and working as a teacher and not even knowing what an alderman was. And then, finding out, I ran for alderman and won, and was on the city council with an opportunity to vote on my salary ... and it also included my retirement. And now, I am retired and blessed with a retirement from the city of Hot Springs that I had a part in."
From 1954 to around 1969-70, about 15 African-Americans ran for public office in Hot Springs, and only one, Fred W. Martin, won an election. Martin ran for office, along with Raymond "Honey" Tweedle, who was also black, in 1954, shortly after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
"Fred Martin won because the whites who voted for Fred Martin that time, many of them -- hundreds of them -- thought that he was white. There was a Clifford Martin who ran, who was white, and the whites thought that they were voting for Clifford Martin, who had run many times," both for justice of the peace and for alderman, and won each time, Beard said.
"So, by accident, or incident, whichever it was, Fred Martin won," he said. Martin ran for re-election three times after that, and lost each time.
"That was a very interesting reason for my digging into these blacks running for public office between 1954 and 1969, and having only one winner," Beard said.
Beard said the book focuses on political leaders because that is his forte.
"I know more about the political arena than I know about the business community, and the history of those blacks who were successful. Many of the blacks who were successful in the community were involved in politics, so I had to focus on something that I knew about more than anyone else knew about, and that I was capable of researching and getting the information about more than anyone else I knew," Beard said.
"My main reason for writing this was the fact if we don't tell our history, no one else will," Beard said. "No one else -- this is not a braggadocios statement -- knows more about the history of the politics in Hot Springs since I came here, than I do. And that's a fact, because I've studied it. ... Again, I feel indebted to write it, and leave it here when I'm gone."
The book introduces each of the candidates and discusses the conditions under which they filed, ran, lost and won from 1954 to 2000.
The book project began more than 15 years ago as a "labor of love" for Beard, who serves as secretary of NAACP Unit No. 6013. Beard, according to a news release about the book, enlisted fellow officers to help him with research, and in 2005 they formed the NAACP Writing Project to record the African-American political history in Hot Springs. The nonprofit secured grants from the Clinton Foundation, the Arkansas Humanities Council, the Arkansas Black History Commission, and the Oaklawn Foundation.
"The 'Challengers' should inspire other local chapters of the NAACP throughout the state and the nation to document their own list of black candidates who filed, ran, lost and won," the release said.
The book is available on Amazon for $13, and at the Emma Elease Webb Community Center, 127 Pleasant St. Proceeds will benefit the Webb Center's outreach programs.
Local on 03/05/2016