Joyce Elliott (1951–)

Longtime Arkansas political figure Joyce Elliott represented the area around Little Rock (Pulaski County) in both the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas Senate. After her tenure in the Arkansas General Assembly ended due to term limits, Elliott founded Get Loud Arkansas, a Little Rock–based nonprofit group that encourages civic engagement and voter registration.

Joyce Ann Elliott was born on March 20, 1951, in rural Willisville (Nevada County). Elliott and her six siblings grew up with their mother, Edna Elliott, who worked as an orderly at the local hospital, and with their grandparents, Tilton and Leedoshia Smith. The children’s father left the state upon separating from their mother.

The Elliott children attended Oak Grove Public School, which had been created in the 1930s for local African Americans. There, Joyce Elliott was a top student. After the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, Black students from several local families, including the Elliotts, were offered the opportunity to attend the previously segregated Willisville schools, starting in 1966.

That year, fifteen-year-old Joyce Elliott entered tenth grade at Willisville. At the end of the 1966–67 school year, she and the other Black students were given the option to return to Oak Grove. Elliott refused to go back. In 1969, she became the second Black person to graduate from Willisville High School, following her older sister Caroline, who had been the first.

Elliott enrolled at what is now Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia (Columbia County) in 1969. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and speech in 1973, going on to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia (Clark County), where she received a master’s degree in English in 1981.

She taught school at various locations, including New Boston, Texas, and Tampa, Florida. In Texas, she met fellow educator Bill Barnes. The couple married and had a son, Elliott; they later divorced.

Returning to Arkansas in the 1970s, Elliott taught high school in El Dorado (Union County) until 1984. That year, she moved to Little Rock, serving two terms as president of the Pulaski County chapter of the National Education Association. In 1989, she began teaching at Little Rock’s Joe T. Robinson High School.

In her first campaign for statewide elective office, in 2000, Elliott continued teaching while she ran as a Democrat for the position of state representative for District 56. After her school day ended, she would campaign in various neighborhoods around the district; because she had just donated a kidney to her sister, her doctor ordered her to limit her time campaigning. Among her campaign volunteers was ex-husband Bill Barnes.

She ran on the issues of childcare, education, and health, winning with eighty-three percent of the vote. She did not quit her job at Robinson High School until 2003, teaching as well as being a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, where she remained until 2006. In 2008, she was elected to the Arkansas Senate, where she represented District 31 until January 2023.

Education dominated much of Elliott’s tenure in the Arkansas General Assembly. Like her close friend Joseph K. “Jodie” Mahony of El Dorado, she was the sponsor or co-sponsor of scores of education-related bills during each session, particularly relating to the legislative fallout from the court case of Lake View School District No. 25 v. Huckabee. Elliott and Senator Shane Broadway of Jonesboro (Craighead County) were key legislators in producing programs to effect equal and adequate funding. Elliott was sometimes an ally of Governor Mike Huckabee, who championed equal rights for non-citizen immigrants; she sponsored a bill, backed by the Republican Huckabee, allowing such immigrant children to enroll at Arkansas colleges without paying out-of-state tuition, but it was narrowly defeated in the Senate.

Elliott ran for two national offices, starting in 2010 as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, which lies in the central part of the state. She received thirty-eight percent of the vote against Republican opponent Tim Griffin. She ran again for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020 from the same district, receiving forty-four percent of the vote against incumbent Republican French Hill.

In 2022, just before leaving the state legislature, Elliott founded Get Loud Arkansas, a nonprofit organization focusing on civic engagement, particularly voting.

Elliott received numerous awards and honors through the years. In 2003, she received the Pacesetter Award for leadership from the Women’s Legislative Lobby and the Women Who Mean Business Award from the Business and Professional Women of Arkansas. She was named by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as one of the Ten Best Legislators of the 2003 General Assembly, an honor she would also receive for her term in 2005.

In 2004, Elliott was recognized for her advocacy work by Women and Children First and also received the Arkansas Spirit Award from the Arkansas chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. Little Rock Monthly listed her among “Ten Women We Love.”

Elliott received a 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Southern Arkansas University. The Arkansas Black Hall of Fame recognized her with the Founder’s Award, and she received an Advocacy Award from the Arkansas Public Service Association. Elliott also earned the 2005 President’s Award from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), was named 2005 Power Player of the Year by Power Play magazine, was honored by the Center for Healing Hearts and Spirits with its Advocacy Award, and received an Arkansas Heroes Award from the Omni Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology (all in 2005).

In 2006, she was honored with the Humanitarian Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice, received the Democratic Woman of the Year Award from the Democratic Party of Arkansas, and was named Civil Libertarian of the Year by the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

The Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families presented her its Legislative Friend of Children Award in 2007, and the Arkansas chapter of 100 Black Men recognized her with its Pillar Award for Education that same year. In 2009, Talk Business magazine named Elliott as one of the Top Ten Legislators of that year’s Arkansas legislative session, the only freshman senator to receive the honor. In 2013, she received the Distinguished Legislator Award from the Arkansas Municipal League.

In late June 2024, Elliott suffered a stroke while in Dallas, Texas, where she was receiving an award from the Southern Regional Education Board, and underwent surgery before being transferred back to Little Rock.

For additional information:
“Biography of the Honorable Joyce Elliott, Arkansas State Senator.” Arkansas Senate. https://senate.arkansas.gov/media/2872/senator-elliott-senate-bio.pdf (accessed August 22, 2024).

Brantley, Max. “Joyce Elliott Concedes, but Calls for Restoration of Trust and Counting of Outstanding Absentee Votes.” Arkansas Times, November 4, 2020. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/11/04/joyce-elliott-concedes-but-calls-for-restoration-of-trust-and-counting-of-outstanding-absentee-votes  (accessed August 22, 2024).

Eichkorn, Paige. “Ex-Sen. Elliott Reflects on Racism, Juneteenth.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 20, 2023, pp. 1B, 3B. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jun/20/ex-sen-elliott-reflects-on-racism-juneteenth/ (accessed August 22, 2024).

“Former Arkansas State Senator Joyce Elliott Recognized for Five Decades of Work in Education.” Southern Regional Education Board, June 26, 2023. https://www.sreb.org/news/former-arkansas-state-senator-joyce-elliott-recognized-five-decades-work-education (accessed August 22, 2024).

Get Loud Arkansas. https://getloudarkansas.org/ (accessed August 22, 2024).

“Get Loud Arkansas Names 3 Regional Coordinators.” Talk Business & Politics, June 16, 2022 https://talkbusiness.net/2022/06/get-loud-arkansas-names-3-regional-coordinators/ (accessed August 22, 2024).

“Joyce Elliott.” Ballotpedia. https://ballotpedia.org/Joyce_Elliott (accessed August 22, 2024).

Millar, Lindsey. “Legislative Black Caucus, Democratic Party Address Harassment and Threats to Flowers, Davis.” Arkansas Times, February 5, 2020. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2020/02/05/legislative-black-caucus-democratic-party-address-harassment-and-threats-to-flowers-davis (accessed August 22, 2024).

Rose, Shelby. “Arkansas Senator Joyce Elliott Says Goodbye to the State Legislature.” KATV. March 8, 2022. https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-senator-joyce-elliott-says-goodbye-to-the-state-legislature (accessed August 22, 2024).

“Senator Joyce Elliott (2009–2022).” Arkansas Senate. https://senate.arkansas.gov/senate-history-education/photo-gallery-of-former-senators/senator-joyce-elliott-2009-2022/ (accessed August 22, 2024).

Smittle, Stephanie. “From Willisville to Washington: Sen. Joyce Elliott is Ready to School Congress.” Arkansas Times, September 2020, pp. 20–27. Online at https://arktimes.com/news/2020/08/27/from-willisville-to-washington-sen-joyce-elliott-is-ready-to-school-congress (accessed August 22, 2024).

Nancy Hendricks
Garland County Historical Society