Today
The Arkansas Delta economy is still dominated by agriculture. The main cash crop is cotton and other crops include rice and soybeans. Catfish farming continues to generate major revenue for Arkansas Delta farmers along with poultry production.
The Delta has some of the lowest population densities in the American South, sometimes less than 1 person per square mile. Demographics have remained the same since the Civil War — the region still has a very large African American population. Eastern Arkansas has the highest percentage of cities in the state with a predominately African American population. Since the nation's shift to urban centers and since the mechanization of farm technology during the past 60 years, the delta has experienced significant migration of its population. Such declining numbers have contributed to a diminished tax base hampering efforts to support education, infrastructure development, community health and other vital aspects of growth. The region is stricken with a combination of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment.
The Delta Cultural Center in Helena seeks to preserve and interpret the culture of the Arkansas Delta along with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff's University and Cultural Museum. The Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas in Pine Bluff is further charged with highlighting and promoting works of Delta artists.
The ivory-billed woodpecker, which had not been sighted since 1944 and is believed to be extinct, was reportedly seen in a swamp in east Arkansas in 2005.
Read more about this topic: Arkansas Delta
Famous quotes containing the word today:
“Even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honorable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I myself smoke, but my wife asked me to speak today on the harmfulness of tobacco, so what can I do? If it’s tobacco, then let it be tobacco.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)