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Arkansas General Assembly 1957

Starting in 1957, three successive Arkansas General Assemblies passed an ever-increasing and ever-more drastic set of pro-segregation measures. In 1957, Act 83 created a State Sovereignty Commission to protect the state from “encroachment…by the Federal Government.” Act 85 ordered all groups that received donations in the state to report them to the Sovereignty Commission, in an attempt to monitor the activities of civil rights organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Future Republican governor Winthrop Rockefeller labeled the Sovereignty Commission an “Arkansas gestapo.” Act 84 made attendance at an integrated school non-compulsory. Act 86 allowed school districts to hire outside legal counsel to protect school board and school administration members who defended segregation. The courts subsequently ruled much of the legislation unconstitutional, even though the state fought for it at great expense to taxpayers.