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:
“Working women today are trying to achieve in the work world what men have achieved all along—but men have always had the help of a woman at home who took care of all the other details of living! Today the working woman is also that woman at home, and without support services in the workplace and a respect for the work women do within and outside the home, the attempt to do both is taking its toll—on women, on men, and on our children.”
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“That we can come here today and in the presence of thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the gallant army of Northern Virginia and their descendants, establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of the sections, and a universal confession that all that was done was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sections had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured to the common benefit of all.”
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