Arkansas Times partners with Report for America on racial equity focus

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We’re excited to announce the Arkansas Times, with the help of Report for America, will add a new reporter in June who will focus on racial equity issues in Arkansas.

At a time when many corporations and other big institutions are dropping their efforts at diversity, we are committed to going the other direction, working to make the newsroom more reflective of the communities we cover. Our aim is to diversify our staff as we focus on deepening and diversifying our news coverage.

It’s more important than ever to take account of discrepancies in health, education, political power and economic opportunities among different races and ethnicities as we enter a second Trump presidency. Trump’s promised mass deportations of migrants are certain to upend families and businesses in Arkansas and elsewhere. Recent gerrymandering of Arkansas’s congressional districts spelled political disenfranchisement for Black voters in Pulaski County, and the full-scale implementation of universal “school choice” under the Arkansas LEARNS Act is certain to segregate classrooms further.

In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find an issue in the news in Arkansas where race does not factor in.

<img data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" width="780" height="585" data-attachment-id="639446" data-permalink="https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2024/12/17/arkansas-times-partners-with-report-for-america-on-racial-equity-focus/attachment/img_5386-2" data-orig-file="https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&quality=89&ssl=1" data-orig-size="2560,1920" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}" data-image-title="Ag and water" data-image-description="" data-image-caption=" You can spot Arkansas Times reporter Phillip Powell among these ag and water reporters, all part of Report for America’s Ag and Water Desk.

" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?fit=720%2C540&quality=89&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C585&quality=89&ssl=1" src="https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-1200x900.jpg?resize=780%2C585&ssl=1" alt="" class="wp-image-639446" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C900&quality=89&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=720%2C540&quality=89&ssl=1 720w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&quality=89&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&quality=89&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&quality=89&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=800%2C600&quality=89&ssl=1 800w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=600%2C450&quality=89&ssl=1 600w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C300&quality=89&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C150&quality=89&ssl=1 200w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=500%2C375&quality=89&ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=1568%2C1176&quality=89&ssl=1 1568w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1500&quality=89&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C530&quality=89&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-scaled.jpg?w=2340&quality=89&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_5386-1200x900.jpg?w=370&quality=89&ssl=1 370w" sizes="(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px"/>You can spot Arkansas Times reporter Phillip Powell among these reporters, all part of Report for America’s Ag and Water Desk. This will be the second chapter of the Arkansas Times partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities. Phillip Powell, our agriculture and environment reporter, came to us in 2024 through Report for America’s Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. Powell’s beat includes lithium extraction, solar energy, food safety and farming in the Natural State.

This new position will represent a step forward in our efforts to expand our coverage and add more Black voices to the conversation here at the Times, but it’s not the only one. Beginning in February, Frederick McKindra, an award-winning writer and editor at the Oxford American, will join us as a contributing writer. McKindra has written for the Arkansas Times before, and we’re delighted to make it official. (Read his most recent Times piece on legendary Sunset Tigers football coach Ed Johnson here.)

Are you interested in joining our newsroom to report on racial equity? Come on down! Applications are open through Feb. 3 for a July 7, 2025, start date.

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