By Cody Berry

Did you know Bauxite had a bilingual newspaper over a century ago? It did!  

While the history of the town of Bauxite, Arkansas goes back to the late nineteenth century, its editorial history began with the publication of the Bauxite News in 1920. It ran from June 1920 to January 1921 when the editor reported that due to cuts in bauxite orders, the company (Alcoa) cannot, for the present, support the Bauxite News. The town wouldn’t have its own newspaper again until the Pick and Shovel came out in January 1944.¹  

Leona Rucker and her husband John Samuel “Sam” Rucker worked as staff writers for the Bauxite News when the paper ended publication in 1921. They were sent by Alcoa to British Guiana in South America where Leona taught “Native girls” to cook, sew, and “take care of their bodies.” The Rucker’s came back to Bauxite in 1930, and Sam became deputy sheriff in 1936. Leona and Sam convinced the company to start the Pick and Shovel.² 

Pictured above: The Italian section of Bauxite News, published in 1920.

At the Gann Museum, we have two printed copies of the Bauxite News. After reading the December 1920 issue, I discovered that there was a section in Italian and another larger section in Spanish. Immigrant families lived in segregated “camps” during the company town days. Any African American residents lived in Africa Camp, which had a population of “fifty-three families and 140 single men,” in December 1920.³ Bauxite was a company town until it was abolished in 1969.⁴ 

According to architect Robert W. Keltner, Alcoa had members of ethnic minority groups brought to Bauxite to meet the demand for labor after World War I. On March 20, 1920, 357 Mexican workers, including 35 families, arrived in Bauxite from Ft. Worth, Texas. The area chosen for Mexico Camp was about a mile south of the main part of town close to the mines. After completing Mexico Camp, Africa Camp was built. The Italian immigrants lived in a smaller camp known as “Italy.” Immigrant camps contained separate housing, mess halls, dance halls, and administration buildings.⁵  

Pictured above: The Mexican section of Bauxite News, published in 1920.

However, when work slowed down during the Great Depression on May 23, 1932, Bauxite’s Mexican workers were loaded onto trucks and sent back to Texas. There, a man from the company helped place the men in suitable new jobs in that area.⁶ African American workers were moved into Mexico Camp so that Africa Camp could be shut down and the land was mined. They remained in that camp until 1953 when its structures were sold.⁷ 

The Bauxite News may be the first bilingual newspaper/magazine in Saline County.  Its bilingual sections were included for the benefit of the town’s immigrant workers. I wonder if there may be a need for current newspapers to include sections in another language. 

Citations:

¹ Cody Lynn Berry, “Pick and Shovel,” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Pick-and-Shovel-Newspaper-12357/, Date Accessed November 20, 2024. 

² Cody Lynn Berry, “Pick and Shovel,” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Pick-and-Shovel-Newspaper-12357/, Date Accessed November 20, 2024. 

³ Bauxite News, December 1920, p. 20. 

⁴ Laura Harrington, “Bauxite (Saline County),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bauxite-saline-county-382/, Date Accessed November 20, 2024. 

⁵ Robert W. Keltner, “Tar Paper Shacks in Arcadia: Housing for Ethnic Minority Groups in the Company Town of Bauxite,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. LX, No. 4, Winter 2001, p. 345. 

⁶ Robert W. Keltner, “Tar Paper Shacks in Arcadia: Housing for Ethnic Minority Groups in the Company Town of Bauxite,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. LX, No. 4, Winter 2001, p. 347. 

⁷ Robert W. Keltner, “Tar Paper Shacks in Arcadia: Housing for Ethnic Minority Groups in the Company Town of Bauxite,” Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. LX, No. 4, Winter 2001, p. 348.