“The typical white guy who is moving to our town from the Delta does it… to get away from the Delta. Race enters into it about 100 percent of the time. But there are other things going on.

That area is becoming too depressing for people.

No one wants to be from one of those towns with all those problems.” (Quote from an Arkansas businessman speaking on condition of anonymity to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter in a December 31, 1995, article on white flight from the Arkansas Delta.) It appears only a matter of time before complete political control passes to the African American racial majority in small Southern towns nourished by the Mississippi on its way to the sea. At the time of the Civil War, Arkansas, a diverse state geographically, with mountains to the north and west and rich bottom land to the east, was the second fastest-growing slave state in the Union (next to Texas). That legacy continues to haunt and obsess those of us who have been part of the landscape. This book is dedicated to those Arkansans, black and white, who remain and struggle in the Delta.

“Are you Gideon Page?”

I turn to my right and see an attractive-looking black woman in her thirties seated in our waiting room. She is wearing jeans and a red cotton jersey sweater and tennis shoes. On the chair beside her is a faded cloth coat that can’t be much protection in the raw February wind that is blowing fiercely outside the Layman Building.

“Yes, ma’am,” I say, and look for Julia, our receptionist, who is

probably already taking a break though it is only a quarter after nine.

This woman isn’t a scheduled client. I don’t have an appointment until ten.

“I’m Lattice Bledsoe. I drove over from Bear Creek,” she says, standing up.

“My husband was charged with murder yesterday and needs a lawyer.”