“It’s a nice place to live until something like this happens,” longtime resident J.W. Mason told The Huffington Post.
Jonesboro, Ark., sits not far from the Tennessee border, about two and half hours from Little Rock, in dry Craighead County, where bars or liquor stores still are illegal. It’s a college town, home to Arkansas State University, and draws students and employees from across the state to the still-burgeoning industrial city of about 67,000. Many are working class, employed at one of the local factories like Nestle, Frito-Lay or Riceland Foods.
And like many other Bible-Belt communities, the hub of its social scene revolves around Sunday morning worship services and midweek bible study. Black churches serve as the bedrock of the black community and it’s hard to find a black leader in town who doesn’t also serve as a minister.
