Google it. Go ahead. If you type in america's most racist town, the search engine doesn't stutter. It spits out Harrison, Arkansas faster than a local can say "hello."
It’s a heavy label. Heavy enough to sink a local economy and keep people driving through the Ozarks with their doors locked and their eyes on the rearview mirror. But if you actually spend time there in 2026, you’ll find a place caught in a weird, frustrating tug-of-war between a bloody history, a few very loud extremists, and a majority that is honestly just tired of being the national punchline for bigotry.
Why Everyone Calls Harrison the Most Racist Town in America
The reputation didn't just fall out of the sky. It’s rooted in what historians call "the nadir of race relations." In 1905 and again in 1909, white mobs in Harrison decided they’d had enough of their Black neighbors. They didn't just ask them to leave. They burned houses. They whipped people. They effectively "cleansed" the town, turning it into a sundown town where Black people knew that if the sun went down and they were still within city limits, their lives were forfeit.
For decades, the population stayed white. Stagnant.
Then came the 1980s. Thomas Robb, the national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, set up shop in nearby Zinc, Arkansas. He used a Harrison P.O. Box for his mail. Suddenly, the town was linked to the KKK in every news cycle.
You've probably seen the videos.
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In 2020, a filmmaker named Rob Bliss stood on a Harrison street corner holding a Black Lives Matter sign. The footage was brutal. People screamed slurs from their trucks. They threatened him. One guy told him he had "about ten seconds" to get out. That video got millions of views, and just like that, the "most racist town" title was cemented for a new generation.
The Zinc Connection: It’s Not Actually Harrison
Here’s the thing people get wrong: the KKK headquarters isn't in Harrison. It’s in Zinc, a tiny speck of a town about 15 miles away with a population of maybe 90 people. Zinc is isolated. It's the kind of place where the pavement ends and the cell service dies.
Thomas Robb’s "Christian Revival Center" is out there on a compound. Does he shop in Harrison? Probably. Do his followers? Sure. But the city of Harrison itself has spent the last 20 years trying to legally divorce itself from that guy.
The Task Force and the "Love Your Neighbor" Billboards
While the internet was busy memeing Harrison’s downfall, the town was actually doing something kinda interesting. In 2003, they formed the Harrison Community Task Force on Race Relations.
This wasn't just a PR move.
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They started buying up billboard space. For years, one of the first things you saw driving into town was a massive yellow sign promoting white supremacist websites. It was a landmark of hate. The Task Force fought back with "Love Your Neighbor" signs. They pushed the city council to pass a resolution formally denouncing racism.
Kevin Cheri, a Black man who moved to the area in 1978 and later became a National Park Service superintendent, joined the task force. He’s gone on record saying that while Harrison has issues, it's often safer and less prejudiced than major metro areas like Chicago or Milwaukee, which actually rank higher on many institutional racism indices.
By the Numbers: Is Harrison Really an Outlier?
If we look at socioeconomic data, the "most racist" tag gets blurry.
- Population: Harrison is roughly 94% white.
- Hate Groups: The SPLC still monitors the area due to the Knights of the KKK presence in Zinc.
- Comparison: According to 24/7 Wall St. and World Population Review, cities like Waterloo, Iowa and Milwaukee, Wisconsin often show much higher levels of racial disparity in income, incarceration, and unemployment than Harrison.
The difference? Harrison has the branding. It has the hoods and the history.
What It’s Really Like Visiting Today
If you drive into Harrison today, you aren't going to see a KKK parade. You’ll see a town square that looks like a movie set. There’s a cool brewery. There are hiking trails nearby because the Buffalo National River is just down the road.
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Most people you meet are incredibly—almost aggressively—nice. They know what you’re thinking when they see your out-of-state plates. They want to prove the internet wrong.
But then, you’ll see it. A truck with a certain flag. A look that lingers a second too long. The "ghosts" are still there.
The town is currently about 13,000 people. It’s growing, slowly. There are more non-white families moving in now than at any point since the 1905 riots. They’re opening businesses. They’re putting kids in the schools.
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you’re planning to visit the Ozarks or you're just fascinated by the sociology of "hate towns," here is how to approach Harrison with a nuanced lens:
- Don't conflate Zinc with Harrison. If you’re looking for the KKK compound, you’re looking for a private, guarded property in the woods of Zinc. Harrison is a standard regional hub.
- Support the progress. If you want to see the town change, visit the local businesses that explicitly support the Task Force on Race Relations. The Harrison Regional Chamber of Commerce is a good place to check for inclusive local leaders.
- Check the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Hate Map. Before you travel anywhere in the US, look at the interactive map. You might be surprised to find that "most racist" is a label that could technically apply to hundreds of pockets across the country, not just one town in Arkansas.
- Acknowledge the Sundown History. Respect the fact that for many Black Americans, the trauma of Harrison’s past isn't just "history"—it’s a lived memory passed down through families. It takes more than a few billboards to heal a century of exclusion.
Harrison is a place of deep contradictions. It is a town trying to outrun a shadow that it partially invited in. Whether it can ever truly shed the title is up for debate, but the reality on the ground is a lot more complicated than a two-minute viral video.
To understand the full scope of racial dynamics in the American South, you should research the Green Book locations in Arkansas, which highlight the few safe havens that existed during the Jim Crow era. Comparing those historical maps to modern demographics provides a clearer picture of how much—or how little—the landscape has actually shifted.