By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

BACK IN the bad old days, the complex rules that governed our strange racial caste system in these latitudes had to be changed regularly to keep one step ahead of simple justice. Once the Constitution and courts, not to mention the result of The War, had recognized black citizens as, well, citizens, all kinds of tricks were used to evade that political (and moral) imperative. Given the lure of that old devil the Race Issue, not to mention the generally fallen nature of man, there was no shortage of devious ways to get around the law. And conscience.