Return To What?! Whites-Only Town In Arkansas Sparks Uproar

On August 20, 1959, the Arkansas State Capitol was swarmed by a large crowd of white protesters (seen above) who each wanted to express how red-in-the-face they got at the idea of integrating Central High School. This came just two years after the bittersweet plight of the Little Rock Nine, itself a result of the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that called for the desegregation of all public schools. The immediate backlash was brutal for those young souls who put themselves on the line as pioneers — daily harassment, verbal abuse and even acid attacks only scratch the surface — but thankfully it all resulted in the fully inclusive Central High School of today that even has an onsite civil rights museum to commemorate everything those nine students had to endure.

While 66 years may seem like ample enough time to grow from past mistakes, unfortunately you’ve still got those who choose to not only harbor on the hate of yesteryear but also recreate it for a new generation of racist Arkansans. In 2025, there’s a whole community living in the Ozark hills that call themselves Return to The Land and operate based on a very played-out “whites-only” ideology.

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The “no Blacks, no Jews, no gays” requirement to be part of Return to The Land speaks for itself in terms of bigotry, and their plans for expansion to Missouri only further the cause for concern. More info below via MSNBC:

“Group co-founder Eric Orwoll recently garnered national attention for the segregated community he helped launch on roughly 150 acres in northeast Arkansas. And he garnered more attention this week after revealing that his group might launch a community in Springfield, Missouri, with his self-expressed motive basically amounting to racist, anti-diversity hysteria.

‘Whites should have the ability to live among their own people if that’s what they want to do, and mass immigration is quickly making that nearly impossible in many Western nations,’ Orwoll told KOLR-TV, the CBS affiliate in Springfield. ‘If individuals decide to live in multiracial communities, then they should be allowed to do so, but we don’t want racial forced on us in every aspect of life.’

Orwoll, who also told the outlet that he plans to help start communities in all 50 states, has effectively asserted a form of the ‘sovereign citizens’ argument in claiming that his group is allowed to discriminate because, he says, they are doing so on private land. According to The Independent, the Arkansas AG said in a statement: ‘Racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society. These allegations raise all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns. My office is reviewing the matter.'”

It’s unfortunate that Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin even had to state the obvious, but the swift action in response to such ignorance is how we should display examples of positive progression as opposed to even acknowledging the regressive thinking of a whites-only society.

See some of the reactions on social media below to the idea of a “whites-only” community in Arkansas, maybe even nation-wide soon, and let us know your thoughts on the topic as well:

1. I really want to say something vile about the kind of people who think they’re better than everyone else because of their skin color. But let’s just sit with the irony for a second. These white supremacists are building a whites-only “Return to the Land” town—on stolen land. The Ozarks, like most of America, are Native land. Their ancestors didn’t return to it. They took it. Through forced removal, broken treaties, and violence. A cult town of racists, cosplaying as pioneers.

via @cwebbonline

2. White people: create a Whites-only town

Media: “THIS IS LITERALLY SEGREGATION!”

Black people: create a blacks-only town

Media:

via @TheOnlyDSC

3. The whites-only community in Arkansas was formed by the Return to the Land (RTTL) movement. They’re calling this community their “flagship,” indicating they plan to replicate their efforts throughout the country. This is an effort to reinstate Jim Crow.

via @queenie4rmnola

4. The Jim Crow era enforced racial segregation through laws that created “whites-only” communities, schools, and public spaces. This system of apartheid denied basic rights and opportunities to people of color, perpetuating inequality and injustice. Make no mistake about it, that’s their objective today.

via @BubbatheOG

5. They are not going to leave us alone and live peacefully in an Arkansas “Whites-only” town.

via @BigBroLGND

6. White people are creating white only towns and people act like they don’t know why.

via @AmiriKing

7. People on TikTok (who are not white) are losing their shit over the white-only town in Arkansas. Now mind you, these people have no issue saying their homelands should be homogenous. They have no problem saying whites are the center of all of their problems. They have no issue saying we don’t have a culture and we have no nations.

via @detroitgarbage1

8. A whites-only town is not what a lot of yall think it is. They couldn’t mind they own business in Europe. Don’t assume they gonna just live peacefully in Arkansas. They will always be hostile.

via @BigBroLGND

9. The move to makes a whites-only town isn’t about race, it’s about spectacle. People who really want to live around white people can just move to one of the hundreds of >95% white counties.

via @jensenjeans

10. I saw a Whites Only community mentioned on Instagram and people were offended. I wasn’t offended and I’m curious as to why so many black people are addicted to living near white folks in the first place.

via @drboycewatkins1