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Arkansas
The state entry: 453,783 Black residents, 15.1% of the state, in the published 2020 count.
Arkansas holds about 490,000 Black residents — Black alone or in combination — roughly one in six of its people, with Black alone at about 453,000, or 15 percent. The state's Black geography is the Mississippi Delta's western shore: the eastern counties across the river from Mississippi record Black majorities of the same plantation lineage, while the population's center sits in the middle of the state, in Little Rock and Pine Bluff. This article profiles the population in the census data — a small state's Black population with an outsized place in the nation's civil-rights geography and its school-desegregation history.
Civic Snapshot
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total population, 2020 | 3,011,524 |
| Black residents (alone), 2020 | 453,783 |
| Black share of the state, 2020 | 15.1% |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1 (race). Trend: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1.
Population Trend
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, the Black population of Arkansas grew from 449,895 to 453,783 (+0.9%), and its share of the whole moved from 15.4% to 15.1%.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1 (race). Trend: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 Census Redistricting File (Public Law 94-171), Table P1.
The Record
The eastern tier of counties along the Mississippi — Chicot, Desha, Phillips, Lee, St. Francis, Crittenden, Mississippi County — forms the Delta's Arkansas side: flat, rich-soiled, and settled in the same plantation pattern as the Mississippi shore facing it. Black majorities persist across most of these counties, in several above two-thirds, alongside the Delta's signature data: the state's lowest incomes, its highest poverty rates, and steady population decline across every recent census as the farm economy mechanized. Helena-West Helena, once a thriving river port and a landmark of Delta blues geography, and West Memphis, the state's gateway city across from Memphis, anchor the region's towns. The Delta's Black culture — blues, gospel, and the church and lodge infrastructure of the plantation counties — is documented far beyond its population's size.
Institutions
The institutions of Black Arkansas — its congregations, schools, businesses, and civic organizations — are carried in the county and place entries beneath this state entry, where the gazetteer records them place by place. This state page is the frame: 453,783 Black residents in 75 counties and county equivalents and 626 incorporated places and census-designated places in the published counts.