FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In honor of Juneteenth, more than 60 members of the community including NWA Black Heritage, University of Arkansas volunteer organizations, Fayetteville police and fire departments, and more were out beautifying the area and homes in the Spout Spring neighborhood. The area will soon be known as the Black Historic District in Fayetteville.
James W. Logan is a proud member of the Fayetteville community. He knows what the Black Historic District could be because he remembers what it was.
"I've been here all my life. I'm 72," Logan said. "I knew it was [a] black historic [district] because there wasn't nobody here when I was a kid but black people."
On Juneteenth 2024, members of the community helped clean up Logan's backyard and the surrounding Spout Spring neighborhood in preparation for the historic district coming to the area.
"It's almost like being empowered," Logan said. "It really does feel great."
Spout Spring was a neighborhood settled by formerly enslaved people and their descendants sometime after the Civil War. The neighborhood includes South Willow and Washington Avenues and East Meadow, Center, Mountain, and Rock Streets.
Emma Willis, CEO and founder of Impact Period who helped spearhead the movement to approve the Black Historic District, said she wants the Fayetteville community to understand what this neighborhood's history is.
"This was your largest property ownership from a Black standpoint, here in the region," she said. "And that had to do with the Jim Crow Era laws that would not allow Black people to be in certain spaces past sundown. Fayetteville was fairly progressive in their ability to allow Black homeownership [and] land ownership, and that's why we're here today."
To some Fayetteville natives, the history of this area is completely new information.
"I'm from Fayetteville, and I didn't know this was here," Parker Isaacs with the University of Arkansas Volunteer Action Center said. "When I get home, I want to go find the website and read up on it and see what's happening."
In February, the city council unanimously voted to allow Mayor Lionel Jordan to sign a petition, agreeing that the Yvonne Richardson Community Center and all city buildings in the boundaries would be included within the Black Historic District. Now, NWA Black Heritage is working to receive 200 more signatures of approval from homeowners in the area by the end of July.
They hope for the approval process of the district to be completely done by the end of the year.
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