June 24, 1941

The U.S. District Court argued a case regarding Arkansas’s first official state song, which had been designated in 1917. In 1939, the office of Secretary of State C. G. “Crip” Hall had prepared a pamphlet of information about the state, including the words and music to “Arkansas”—Eva Ware Barnett’s genteel anthem to Arkansas. According to later testimony by secretary of state employees, Barnett had offered no objection to this free publication. The pamphlet, bearing Hall’s name, was issued in 1940, an election year; 60,000 copies were distributed. In June 1940, Barnett had filed a claim against the state for $3,000 in damages, asserting that the free distribution (characterized as having been done for political purposes) had injured sales of her sheet music.