IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY, towns existed in great number in all parts of United States, serving many different types of industry. The term company has been applied to a wide range of settings, but generally it can be defined as a community that existed to support operations of one particular firm, in which that firm owned all of land, houses, and other buildings and provided most public services. Firms began to develop these communities out of economic necessity. If a firm established a mine or mill in a remote location, it had to provide housing in order to attract workers. Often firms feared selling land to those who would build privately-owned residences, because that might hinder future development. Firms therefore had to provide systems of community regulation and services required by a residential population. Company towns often recruited workers from ethnic minority groups, such as blacks, Hispanics, and recent European immigrants, to fill need for inexpensive labor. In most U.S. cities and towns, members of minority groups were usually forced to accept lower standards of housing and services. But in towns, because of complete control with which they were planned and operated, place of ethnic minorities was particularly easy to manipulate. The housing types, layout, and social structure of towns were very clearly stratified by class and ethnicity. This reflected attitudes of many Americans in early twentieth century, but arrangements that companies made for minority housing also reflected specific corporate strategies to improve productivity and maintain social peace.1 The Pittsburgh Reduction Company established Bauxite, Arkansas, as one of these towns just after 1900. Located about twenty-two miles southwest of Little Rock, state capital, and about five miles from Benton, Saline County seat, town centered upon mining and processing of bauxite, ore used in making aluminum. Over years, underwent several reorganizations and mergers, and at different times it was known as Pittsburgh Reduction Company, Aluminum Company of America, American Bauxite Company, Republic Mining and Manufacturing Company, Alcoa Mining Company and, finally, Alcoa. These changes had little effect on town, however. The only name used by residents was the Company.2 The growth of Bauxite was not steady, but varied according to economics of aluminum industry. The town almost closed in 1907 when a world-wide depression brought bauxite production to a halt in Arkansas, but operations resumed a year later.3 The town began to grow steadily around 1912, and then rapidly as World War I suddenly increased demand for aluminum. After war, orders declined, but production picked back up in 1920 resulting in another burst of rapid growth in Bauxite. In 1921, demand for Arkansas bauxite suddenly dropped, due, in part, to imports from South America. Production returned to a steady level in midtwenties, however. Production was predictably low during depression years of early 1930s, but skyrocketed again during World War II. With exception of war boom, community's population fluctuated between 2,000 and 2,500 from 1920s through 1950s.4 A typical town, Bauxite operated with efficiency, productivity, and social order as its primary goals. The had a strong paternal presence in town and sought to reduce labor discontent by fostering community spirit and providing services for employees, such as housing, schools, and medical care. The layout of town was not professionally planned, but its seemingly haphazard arrangement was not atypical of rural towns. The main part of town, which included mill, offices, stores, and churches, was not centrally located, and there was a random network of streets connecting clusters of houses. …