Arkansas Blog

"Banished" played at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival last year. I was on the screening committee and it was No. 1 on my list of U.S. documentaries. I recommend it very highly.

Yup, AETN isn't airing it tonight. But Mississippi Public Broadcasting is....@ 9pm tonight, and Ozarks Public TV @ 9:30pm (KOZK-21/DT 23 Springfield MO--which covers Harrison AR OTA). Its listed under the title of "Independent Lens"

In fact, AETN isn't airing it on its regular analog/main digital channel in the future. But for those having a digital TV or converter box and a antenna, or the few cable systems that carry the AETN digital channels, the AETN subchannel AETN-2 (which airs the PBS Create channel during the day, and PBS World at night) will air this film at 11:30pm Wedsnday night. The AETN digital stations in AR are as follows with the actual channel assingment and the remapped channel number (in parath) that "Independent Lens" will be broadcast on. Its *not* on the main (n-1) channel

KETS-DT 5 (2-2) Little Rock
KEMV-DT 13 (6-2) Mountain View
KAFT-DT 9 (13-2) Fayetteville
KETJ-DT 20 (19-2) Jonesboro
KETG-DT 13 (9-2) Arkadephia
KETZ-DT 12 (12-2) El Dorado (the El Dorado AETN is digital only hense the same RF and remapped ch)

You can find a brief history of the 1905 and 1909 racial cleansing episodes in Harrison by clicking on my name.

Oops--link got left out. Here it is: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3712

For those of us who live up here in the hills, 'Banished' will play on Independent Lens on Ozark Public Television, Channel 21 (KZOK) out of Springfield, the public television station we can actually see, at 9:30 pm. Time to pop a brand-new tape in my steam-powered VCR.

One of the most infamous of these towns was Vidor, Texas, where a black man was dragged to death behind a pickup truck by three white teen-agers about four or five years ago.

As late as the mid-1960s Vidor had a sign at the city limits that said, "N * * * * *, Don't Let the Sun Set on You in Vidor."

Geez, just cuase I blog doesn't mean you can assume i understand my TV. So I take it this won't air on my channel 3 in LR. What about on the HD PBS station?

I wonder how FedEx feels about that story? Are they members of the Harrison Chamber? Given their investment in the town, how does that fit with their corporate values?

encyclopediaofarkansas.net is a must surf.

OETA shows it airing at 9:30.

FedEx should demand that the Harrison city council pass a resolution that condems and repudiate their racist past. If that isn't passed then FedEx has a hard time explaining how they maintain their corporate prescence in such a racist community.

The Dem/Gaz's Mike Masterson will be very upset with this documentary; he is good for at least 1 comment per week about the halcyon days of growing up in Harrison.

I've always heard that Corning also had the "Sundown" sign, too.

Let me get this straight: Only one person has expressed any sort of outrage on this issue in Harrison. And even they didn't say they were outraged, only that FedEx should issues a statement. This is a sad state of affairs. Blacks already are limited in where we feel safe to travel in this state and have this sterotype of Harrison and this film and the people in it just perpetuates the sterotype. So I ask, during Black History Month and shortly after the King Holiday (Robert E Lee Day for some of you), how have we come in terms of race this GREAT state of ours?

CBM don't go feeling all special. There are places all over the state that Whites do not feel safe and I have heard Hispanics say the same.

Citizen home, you have a point, but how many of these places have had documentaries made about them? How many of these places do their citizens PROUDLY state their distain for any race other than theirs?
All I know is, racial tolerence in the country and this state is 0. (And I am painting with broad stokes, here- not everycitizen is a racist (and a racist is any person of any race that hates another)) The people in this movie need to get a life

"Geez, just cuase I blog doesn't mean you can assume i understand my TV. So I take it this won't air on my channel 3 in LR. What about on the HD PBS station?"

Not on the main KETS channel (As I remember when I lived in LR KETS/AETN was on cable ch3). I checked the Comcrap listings on Titan TV and....KETS-DT2 *isn't* carried--only the AETN Scholar (comcast 203), AETN Kids (comcast 202), and the main KETS channel (comcast 201).

Call Comcrap and raise hell about this missing AETN digital channel and also AETN about not scheduling Independent Lens tonight on the MAIN AETN channel.

It's not over - a few years ago (around '98) a friend of a friend of my wife's, who worked at Regions in Harrison (and was "from off") was STUNNED when the owner of the Tractor Supply Co. (I think) there called on Friday to ensure the bank would be open FOR HIM on Monday, MLK Holiday. The direct quote when she told him the bank would be closed: "You don't need to think that my banking will be interrupted by some dead Nigger." When she reported this to the bank manager she was told she/he would take care of it. The "taking care" turned out to be someone came in to open the bank for this miscreant!! She wanted this to go up the chain of command, and was afraid to do it herself - DUH!

I called the corporate/regional office of Regions, and spoke to the head of HR - a Pat (Italian name - filed in the dead brain cells ;>), female. At first she couldn't get over me saying the N-word out loud, then tried the tack of "...you must be mistaken..." After some back and forth, by which she apparently ascertained I wasn't a crank caller, I asked her to please call me back (I worked in LR then) when she had investigated herself, which she reluctantly, sorta, agreed to do. Never heard another word...

Just spoke w/Kathy @ AETN. She says they revised their schedule for this (doc?) series, and Banished WILL be show Sunday @ 11 p.m. - not exactly "prime time," eh?

...showN... And it's on my DTV Channel Guide for then.

Poor AETN doesn't want to offend the elderly racists (and contributors) in this state, therefore moving this program to Sunday night @ 11pm on the main AETN channel.

Meanwhile the management and board of AETN spend my taxpayer money on a lame duck analog transmitter to serve these same old folks so they don't by-God miss Lawerence Welk until Feb 17, 2009 and won't spend the money on equipment that could time-shift HDTV programming (like Nova) which on AETN is still shown in SDTV because its shown at 8pm instead of 7pm

Thank God For Mississippi?

Thaniks, Larry. I do know how to push the buttons on my DVR.

People I can think of from Harrison..... Hammerschidt, Shawn Womack, Mike Masterson. Geez, I'm starting to see a trend.... can you catch ignorance and intolerance from drinking the water up there?

Out here, west of Boone County, we Carroll county folks only go to Harrison as a last resort (John Deere parts). And we send all of our garbage there. Why have a landfill in your own county when Harrison is just down the road?

I expect Harrison will be the first town in Arkansas to build a monument for Senator Marx Pryor.

I grew up in Harrison, and I wouldn't cry if it burnt to the ground. Better yet, if Hispanics took over, hung a few white men, raped a few white women, and drove the rest of the white folks out of town before taking their "abandoned" land.

Wow - ingnorance displayed as an opposition to ignorance...

I HAVE seen this documentary - repeatedly. One of the main stories highlighting 'racism' in Harrison tells of a junior high game between the Harrison Jr. Goblins and the Ramay Indians. Problem is, none of the events even happened. It was all an attempt to stir up crap by the guy who wrote the original news story.

And why, exactly, Stump, does having a 'ceremony' repudiating a racist past, make this town racist or not racist? Ceremonies do not change the thinking of a people. Even if it were to happen, it's just lip service. The ideals of the community would remain unchanged. This is not even to mention that nobody in this town was even alive then. I'm not one to apologize for things I'm not responsible for. It's disingenuous

By the way, Ms. Haley_1965 - your 'taxpayer money' wouldn't even keep the lights on at AETN. Quit acting like they're stealing money from your wallet.

And, while we're at it, Eureka Springs - there is no landfill in Harrison. It's in Harmon, and barely in Boone County.

There are people in Harrison who are racist - I won't deny it. However, when I moved here from Pope county, I certainly wasn't in culture shock. Harrison is no worse than anywhere else.

Some of us are trying to teach our children tolerance. As long as we have to listen about how racist this place is, nothing will change. People who have nothing to do with it should keep their ignorance to themselves.

As much as WTRickman would like everyone in Arkansas to *not* learn history, to keep their mouths shut about their tax dollars (except, of course for Public Schools and other "Liberal Agendas"), I won't. I won't keep my mouth shut and be like most in this state that obsess only about "The Hogs" or some "Godless Agenda To Steal Our Morals"???

I made the effort through some snow to view "Banished" on MPB via WMAO-23 Greenwood MS. It was worth it, although much of the movie dealt with Pierce City MO, and Forciyth County GA (the Harrison segment is in the final 55min of the nearly 90min doc).

Tonights airing if you have OTA digital TV (HDTV with tuner, or converter box) is at 11:30pm on the KETS-DT (or other local AETN station) second digital channel (n-2). For the rest, its on Sunday at 11:00pm.

"Banished" is an episode in the INDEPENDENT LENS series which AETN records on Tuesday nights to air on Sundays. The episodes usually air at 10:30 p.m., but due to a monthly local committment, this particular program was scheduled at 11:00 p.m. on AETN analog and AETN-1 digital.

We at AETN appreciate hearing from our viewers. Feel free to contact Viewer Services at info@aetn.org anytime.

Kathy Atkinson
Director of Programming
AETN

As a member of the Harrison Community Task Force on Race Relations, I would encourage you to go to our website to learn more about our group and our purpose and vision for the future of our town. Yes, there are racists in and around our community. But that's true in almost every town around the country. We want to be the voice of opposition against those who state that they speak for the majority of Harrison residents. The DO NOT. Most of the residents of our town are tolerant of all minorities and welcome any and all to Harrison. Our website address is www.silencenomore.org