Jonesboro, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Feb. 26, 2025 – The A-State Museum opened its newest exhibit honoring Jonesboro’s Black business districts on Tuesday and invited a panel of Jonesboro natives to share their stories of the districts to celebrate Black History Month.
The panel featured Carolyn Sheppard, Erma Munns and Reginald “Ray” Prunty.
A-State Museum Curator of Education Jill Kary said the exhibit has been in the works for a few years.
“This has been a dream come true for me,” Kary said. “As with any exhibit at the museum, at any museum, it doesn’t really tell the whole story. It sort of scratches the surface and there are so many things that I learned in this process that I’ve not been able to share in the exhibit, because you would be here all night reading, but that’s what every exhibit in every museum wants you to do: walk away wanting to know more… wanting to learn more.”
During the panel session, the panelists shared many memories of growing up in Jonesboro’s segregated past and the vibrant business districts they once knew. They said there was once a variety of businesses in the Northside Community District and the Eastside Community District, including general stores, barber shops, doctors’ offices, funeral homes and more.
The panelists spoke about the role African American churches and schools played in the community, as they offered opportunities for spiritual and political leadership. Schools such as the Booker T. Washington High School and the one-room Cherry Street School, provided education for the Black communities, drawing students from all over Northeast Arkansas to Jonesboro.
Munns spoke about the racial boundaries for Black communities in Jonesboro.
“When I was growing up, anything north of the railroad tracks between the ditch at Lost Creek Bridge there on Church Street, that was called the Northside. And we all went to Booker T. Washington High School,” Munns said. “So, those children, including myself, had to walk from down 141 over here to Booker T. Washington, where all those medical clinics are now. We had to do that to get our education. Then, on the Eastside was east and south of those railroad tracks [to Matthews Avenue].”
Prunty also recalled the distinction of the segregated boundaries growing up and said Black people did not cross Marion Berry Parkway.
“It was just something you didn’t do. Even in North Jonesboro, going past Miller Street, where Bill’s is today… the alley… it’s the church where they used to have Klan meetings after 5,” Prunty said. “So, we knew that we couldn’t go up there after 5 o’clock because you probably wouldn’t get back to the house. But those are the kind of things that happened having boundaries.”
The panelists said trades and businesses eventually died out as people left to find better opportunities because there wasn’t much opportunity for them in Jonesboro. Prunty added that desegregation also affected the Black business districts.
“So, the people in the Black community had stores, and that’s where you shopped. Well, when they were allowed to go to the white establishments, they [the Black stores] had no choice but to close,” Prunty said. “Let’s say if you were selling sandwiches, yours was cut from the same meat they got from Broadway. But the meat down there tastes better. It’s just the truth. So, we migrated to places where we wasn’t allowed to go, which allowed the stores, like the Ice House and Coffee Cup to close. They had zero business.”
“Unfortunately, those things happen even today,” Prunty continued. “We have to learn to patronize each other or that’s life if you don’t. The one thing I want to say to this panel or to everyone here, we talk about how Hispanics work together. They support each other. We talk about how whites stand together, they support each other. We need to learn that lesson.”
Afterward, everyone was invited to view A-State Museum’s newest exhibit, Historic Black Business Districts, which highlighted local historic African American entrepreneurs and their impact on their communities. The exhibit, located in the Old Town Arkansas Gallery, can now take museum visitors on an audio tour of the gallery from the perspective of an African American around 1900.
The museum is located on the first floor of the Dean B. Ellis Library on the A-State campus. Main gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Office hours are Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed on Sundays.
For more information, contact Jill Kary at jkary@AState.edu or call 870-972-2074.