What was built
- Established or development period
- 1896–1900s
- Peak period
- Around 1900
- Who built the community
- Black railroad workers and laborers who arrived with the Kansas City Southern line.
- Black population
- A small Black population recorded around 1900; near zero within a decade.
- Businesses
- Railroad and service labor.
- Financial institutions
- Not yet documented
- Churches
- Not yet documented
- Schools
- Not yet documented
- Hospitals
- Not yet documented
- Newspapers
- Not yet documented
- Entertainment & cultural institutions
- Not yet documented
- Other community institutions
- Not yet documented
- Black land & property ownership
- Limited property ownership. Not yet documented in detail.
- Economic significance
- Black labor in the construction and operation of the Kansas City Southern railroad.
What happened
- What happened?
- In the early 1900s, threats, posted warnings and intimidation drove Black residents out of Mena. The town remained effectively closed to Black residents for decades.
- Trigger or precipitating event
- Accusations against Black men and organized white pressure; documentation of specific triggering incidents is incomplete.
- Underlying historical context
- Ozark sundown-town formation across western Arkansas.
- Method of destruction / displacement
- Expulsion · Threats and Intimidation · Forced Departure
- Date or period of destruction
- Early 1900s
- Confirmed / documented deaths
- Not documented.
- Estimated deaths
- Not yet documented
- People displaced
- The town's small Black population.
- Homes destroyed
- Not yet documented
- Businesses destroyed
- Not yet documented
- Acres or property lost
- Not yet documented.
Afterward
- What happened to the land?
- Black residence in the town ended.
- Was compensation paid?
- None.
- Was the community rebuilt?
- No
- What was rebuilt?
- Not yet documented
- Destroyed or displaced again?
- Not yet documented
- Second displacement date
- Not yet documented
- Second displacement cause
- Not yet documented
- What exists there today?
- A majority-white Ouachita Mountain town.
- Descendant, reparation & restoration efforts
- Not yet documented.
- Historical significance
- Part of the documented cluster of Arkansas Ozark sundown towns formed by intimidation rather than massacre.
Sources
- Book or scholarly workFind
James W. Loewen, Sundown Towns (New Press, 2005)
- Book or scholarly workFind
Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Central Arkansas Library System
- Book or scholarly workFind
Kimberly Harper, White Man's Heaven (University of Arkansas Press, 2010)
"Find" opens a focused search for legacy references that do not have a stable link; "Open" goes directly to the source.
Last verified: 2026-09-20. This is a living historical collection. Additional communities and documentation will be added as research and verification continue.