The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a 'Christian identity' group that promotes racism have made their headquarters in the state.
Long before a mass shooting killed 22 people at a Walmart in Texas, the threat of white supremacy was well known in neighboring Arkansas, where extremist groups over the decades have made their home in the mountains and dense woods of the state's remote rural areas.
Now that reticence is giving way, one of the political tremors being felt across the nation after recent attacks. Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who as a federal prosecutor wore a bulletproof vest to negotiate the end of the siege with the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord, has called on lawmakers to approve harsher penalties for crimes targeting people because of their race, ethnicity or religion.
The suspected gunman in the El Paso attack, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, Texas, is believed to have posted an anti-immigrant screed online shortly before opening fire in the Walmart, targeting Hispanic shoppers. Santino William Legan, the gunman who killed three people at a food festival in California, had compiled a"target list" that included religious groups.
In recent years, billboards occasionally have appeared with white supremacist messages such as,"Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white," or promoting a white pride website. Other parts of Arkansas, which has three national forests covering almost 3 million acres , also have had hate group activity.
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