Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Allport, AR

Allport is a tiny town on Highway 165 in southern Lonoke County, Arkansas, about two miles west of Humnoke in Central Arkansas, with an economy strongly tied to agriculture.

Allport has been an African American enclave in majority-white Lonoke County since the 1870s, when a Black community developed along Crooked Creek; by 1878 the community had a school long known as the Lonoke Colored School and later renamed for George Washington Carver.

The community had its own post office from 1914 to 1926, after which mail delivery came through Humnoke; the reason the name Allport was chosen has never been determined.

Allport did not incorporate until April 10, 1967, when residents incorporated in order to receive funding for municipal services; its first mayor was Johnny E. Gay, an African American World War II veteran who led the incorporation movement, and the community set aside a special day of celebration named Johnny E. Gay Day.

The 2020 census counted 86 residents in Allport — more than 86 percent of them Black or African American — down from 307 in the town's first census in 1970; the 2000 census recorded 127 people in 44 households.

Allport covers only about 0.2 square miles, making it one of the smallest incorporated towns in Lonoke County by area as well as population.

Allport lies within the Carlisle School District; the old Humnoke School District that once served it merged into the Carlisle district on July 1, 1998.

In an unusual end to its municipal history, a Pulaski County circuit judge invalidated Allport's town charter on June 28, 2024, after the state attorney general sued over the town's failure to comply with state municipal accounting laws.