Honoring History and Restoring Memory in Russellville

On Wednesday, December 3, at 4:00 p.m., community members, descendants, historians, and advocates gathered at 303 South Houston Avenue in Russellville for a moment rooted in memory and justice. A ceremony recognizing the former location of the M. Jackson Tourist Home, officially marking it as a historic Green Book site.

A plaque was installed to commemorate the M. Jackson Family, who operated a tourist home listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book from 1939 to 1947. Though the physical structure no longer stands, its legacy is now permanently acknowledged in the city it once served.

During segregation, travel was not leisure; it was strategy, survival, and often resistance. For Black travelers moving across the country, safety could not be assumed. Cities could be hostile. Highways were unpredictable. A wrong stop could cost a person their dignity or their life. That reality is what made Green Book sites essential.

The significance of Russellville’s role is profound: it was the only noted city between Little Rock and Fort Smith where Black travelers could find safe accommodations during the height of Jim Crow. The M. Jackson Tourist Home was one of only two such refuges in the area.

This recognition did not appear overnight. It stands on the persistence of a researcher who refused to let the story fade.

The ceremony marked the culmination of years of work led by Russellville High School senior Ian Warnick, who began this quest in junior high school. After a chance encounter with the Friends of the Latimore Tourist Home during a downtown Art Walk, Warnick learned that another Green Book site once existed in the city, but its location had been lost to memory. His determination sparked a community effort supported by donors, civic leaders, and preservation advocates. That work led to this moment, and a piece of Arkansas’ Black history was restored.

The Larger Legacy

source: (l to r) Photograph by Ralph S. Wilcox, courtesy of Arkansas Historic Preservation Office. Source: https://www.nps.gov/places/latimore-tourist-home.htm; source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latimore_Tourist_Home, The Latimore Home in the early stages of being prepped to move to its new location. picture source: 2022 Google Maps view; The Latimore House in its new location, awaiting additional restoration processes. Photo by Dianna D. Donahue-Holley, The Latimore House in its new location awaiting additional restoration processes. Photo by Dianna D. Donahue-Holley.

To understand the value of this recognition, one must consider the significance of the Latimore Tourist Home. It is Russellville’s surviving Green Book landmark and one of Arkansas’s most valuable cultural assets.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, the Latimore Tourist Home operated from the 1940s to the 1970s. It was owned and operated by Eugene and Cora Wilson Latimore and later supported by their daughter Anna. While many boarding houses of the era served laborers or long-term renters, this home existed for people who needed safety for one night, one journey, or one stretch of road.