When Hillary Clinton used her Martin Luther King Day tribute to accuse Republicans of running Washington like an Old South "plantation" - she knew whereof she spoke.
In fact, when Hillary and Bill ran Araksnas, Dr. King didn't even have a holiday in his honor - at least not all to himself.
Instead, Arkansans celebrated a combination holiday that honored both King and Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general who fought to allow the South to keep blacks enslaved.
And that wasn't the only example of the kind of plantation politics that characterized the Clintons' rule in Arkansas. According to a 1997 Washington Times report:
"As governor of Arkansas, Mr. Clinton signed a law in 1987 that says the top blue star in the state flag symbolizes the Confederacy. Then-Gov. Clinton also issued proclamations designating a birthday memorial for Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.
"In addition, during his 12 years as governor, Mr. Clinton made no effort to overturn a state law that sets aside the Saturday before Easter as Confederate Flag Day."
In fact, life was so tough for African Americans on Bill and Hillary's Arkansas plantation that the NAACP sued Mr. Clinton under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
"Plaintiffs offered plenty of proof of monolithic voting along racial lines, intimidation of black voters and candidates and other official acts that made voting harder for blacks," the Arkansas Gazette reported December 6, 1989.
The paper added: "the evidence at the trial was indeed overwhelming that the Voting Rights Act had been violated."
A three-judge federal panel ordered Gov. Clinton, along with Arkansas's then-Attorney General Steve Clark and then-Secretary of State William J. McCuen, to redraw electoral districts to maximize black voting strength.
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