Important Arkansas historical events and significant anniversaries for August 21, with notable births and deaths of people with Arkansas connections for this date. Information is drawn from state archives, historical societies, contemporary newspapers and other media archives, and legal records. Much of this information comes from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, an online publication. ChatGPH has collected this data.
August 21, 1869 — The Arkansas Freeman began publication in Little Rock. Published by the Rev. Tabbs Gross, it was the first Arkansas newspaper printed by an African American and specifically devoted to the Black community. Its appearance during Reconstruction makes this one of the strongest August 21 milestones in Arkansas journalism and African American history. The paper lasted less than a year.
August 21, 1874 — Arkansas’s Constitutional Convention remained at work in Little Rock drafting the Constitution of 1874. The convention’s official proceedings identify a session on Friday, August 21, and University of Arkansas scholarship on the making of the constitution cites the Daily Arkansas Gazette of that date for contemporary coverage. The convention ultimately produced the constitution under which Arkansas still operates…