Arkansas

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State in southern central USA, bordered to the south by Louisiana, to the southwest by Texas, to the west by Oklahoma, to the north by Missouri, and to the east by Tennessee and Mississippi; area 134,856 sq km/52,068 sq mi; population (2000) 2,673,400; capital and largest city Little Rock. The state's nicknames come from its abundance of natural resources. Arkansas is physically divided into two areas: the Highlands, a mountain region; and the Lowlands, a coastal plain. The Red, St Francis, and Mississippi rivers form part of the state's natural borders. Major cities include Fort Smith on the Oklahoma border, an important manufacturing centre, North Little Rock, Pine Bluff, Jonesboro, Fayetteville, Hot Springs, Springdale, Jacksonville, and West Memphis. Arkansas's economy is centred on the service industry, but manufacturing is also important, with products including processed foods, electronics, and paper; it is the leading US producer of broilers (chickens reared for meat) and rice. Historically Arkansas was a cotton plantation state, dependent on slavery. Arkansas was admitted to the Union in 1836 as the 25th US state but was governed by federal troops during the Reconstruction period 1865–77 because it refused to permit African Americans to vote. Arkansas only achieved independent statehood when it permitted the black vote in the state constitution of 1874, still in force today. The state was the site of civil-rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s, and was closely associated with the Whitewater scandal that dogged the presidency of Bill Clinton during the 1990s.

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