Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas in the 1930s

Work

Relief and trade

Little Rock is still a cotton and lumber market³ and Arkansas trade center, but Depression work is scarce. By 1932, one in every three residents was out of work⁴ and dependent on charity.

Who lived here

A divided capital

The city holds 81,679 people in 1930¹, growing only slowly by 1940. Black residents make up about twenty percent of the population⁵ but suffer more than half the unemployment.

Law & power

Capitol and courthouse

Government is physically close: Little Rock is the Arkansas capital², and the federal government marks the city with a post office and courthouse completed in 1932³. In 1937, PWA money begins new state office buildings on the Capitol Mall⁸.

Faith

Churches on Ninth Street

The clearest local religious geography found is on West Ninth Street², where Black churches stand beside businesses, banks, and social halls. Jim Crow shapes church life because public life and schools are segregated⁵.

What people feared

Unemployment and Jim Crow

The everyday danger is economic first: one in three residents was out of work⁴ by 1932. For Black Little Rock residents, Depression danger is doubled by discrimination: they are fifty-four percent of the unemployed⁵ and receive less relief.

Roads & news

Streetcars, radio, newspapers

Movement through the city still includes electric streetcars⁶, while radio has been present since WSV began broadcasting in April 1922². Printed news comes through the Arkansas Gazette⁷, including the state centennial issue in 1936.

In the air

Relief challenges old order

New Deal programs are not only work projects; they unsettle race and power. Arkansas whites often saw such programs as challenges to the racial order, and Black applicants were seldom hired on WPA programs⁵ when whites objected to the pay.

Home & table

Houses are harder to see

The search found strong evidence for institutions and streets, but no block-by-block description of ordinary houses in Little Rock during the decade. What can be seen clearly are public works such as the WPA rock buildings² at the zoo.

Year by year

1. 1930Little Rock purchased the airfield that had begun as a federal aviation site during World War I. here²
2. 1930The Mosaic Templars of America entered receivership after the start of the Great Depression cut premium revenue. here²
3. 1932The United States Post Office and Courthouse on West Capitol Avenue was completed. here³
4. 1932Travelers Field opened for the Arkansas Travelers baseball club. here²
5. 1933Franklin D. Roosevelt took office and the New Deal began, bringing relief and public works programs that reached Arkansas. the country
6. 1936Arkansas marked its state centennial, and the Arkansas Gazette issued a centennial edition on June 15. here⁷
7. 1937Public Works Administration funds allowed the first two state office buildings on the Capitol Mall. here⁸
8. 1939War began in Europe, news that people in Little Rock would have followed by newspaper and radio before the United States entered the conflict. the world²

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Little Rock was the state capital of Arkansas and the county seat of Pulaski County in the 1930s. from the sources²
• Little Rock’s population was 81,679 in the 1930 census, up from 65,142 in 1920. from the sources¹
• By 1940 Little Rock’s population was about 88,000, showing much slower growth during the Depression decade than during the 1920s. from the sources³
• The Great Depression hit the city hard: a Little Rock preservation plan says that by 1932 one in every three residents was out of work and dependent on charity for food and clothing. from the sources⁴
• African Americans made up about twenty percent of Little Rock’s population in the 1930s but accounted for fifty-four percent of the unemployed. from the sources⁵
• Arkansas law and custom enforced segregated schools and public life, and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas says Black Little Rock residents received disproportionately less relief than white families. from the sources⁵
• Little Rock was described by the GSA as a cotton and lumber market and the chief center of trade for Arkansas after the Civil War, roles still shaping the capital city by the 1930s. from the sources³
• The United States Post Office and Courthouse at 600 West Capitol Avenue was built in 1931–1932 and completed in December 1932. from the sources³
• Electric streetcars still served Little Rock during the decade; the last streetcar associated with the system ceased running in 1947. from the sources⁶
• The Little Rock Railway & Electric Company had been acquired by Arkansas Power and Light in 1923, so city transit in the 1930s sat inside a utility company world as well as a transportation world. from the sources⁶
• Little Rock had radio by the decade: its first radio station, WSV, began broadcasting in April 1922. from the sources²
• Little Rock purchased its airfield in 1930; the field had begun as a federal aviation site during World War I. from the sources²
• In the 1930s the Works Progress Administration erected rock buildings at the Little Rock Zoo in Fair Park, now War Memorial Park. from the sources²
• For the first half of the twentieth century, West Ninth Street was an African American city within a city, with Black businesses, churches, banks, and social halls. from the sources²
• At Ninth and Broadway stood the three-story national headquarters of the Mosaic Templars of America, a Black fraternal insurance organization serving African Americans in twenty-six states. from the sources²
• Ray Winder Field, first known as Travelers Field, opened in 1932 as the home of the Arkansas Travelers baseball club. from the sources²
• The Mosaic Templars of America went into receivership in 1930 after premium revenue collapsed at the start of the Great Depression. from the sources²
• Little Rock’s daily political news reached readers through the Arkansas Gazette, which had been published in Little Rock since the nineteenth century and issued a State Centennial edition on June 15, 1936. from the sources⁷
• In 1937, Public Works Administration funds allowed construction of two state office buildings on the Capitol Mall, beginning a larger state-government complex there. from the sources⁸
• No single online source found in this search gives a block-by-block description of ordinary Little Rock houses in the 1930s. not known
• No local price list for groceries, rent, or streetcar fares in 1930s Little Rock was found in the quick online search. not known

Sources

1. Little Rock Decennial Census Counts. City of Little Rock, 2020
2. Little Rock (Pulaski County). Encyclopedia of Arkansas, 2024
3. Richard Sheppard Arnold U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, Little Rock, AR. U.S. General Services Administration, 2025
4. Little Rock Historic Preservation Plan. City of Little Rock, 2009
5. Segregation and Desegregation. Encyclopedia of Arkansas, 2024
6. Little Rock Railway & Electric Company (LRREC). Encyclopedia of Arkansas, 2023
7. The Arkansas Gazette (Little Rock, Ark.) 1889–1991. Library of Congress
8. State Buildings on Capitol Mall. SAH Archipedia

Little Rock in other decades

Nearby, about the same time