The town is best known as the hometown of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton (see Bill Clinton Birthplace). At the 1992 Democratic National Convention in New York City, Clinton ended his acceptance speech by saying, "I still believe in a place called Hope." The city tagged this statement as their unofficial motto. The city converted its railroad depot to a museum on Clinton's life.

Hope is also the hometown of the former Governor Mike Huckabee, a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. In his autobiographical From Hope to Higher Ground (2007), Huckabee recalls the Hope of the 1960s as "a wonderful community. A child could leave his house in the morning on a bicycle and not return until after dark, and it caused no one alarm. It was the kind of place where I could misbehave eight blocks from home, but by the time I pedaled back to 309 East Second Street, six people would have called my parents to report my behavior. I am not sure that it took a village to raise a child, but I am quite sure that an entire village did its part to help raise me!" As a teenager, Huckabee cleaned windows, swept floors, and stocked shelves for J.C. Penney. He also worked at a radio station in Hope, a job which he maintains led to his decision to become active in evangelical organizations and politics.

Others from Hope include former White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty; attorney Vincent Walker Foster, Jr. (1945-1993); U.S. Representative Mike Ross; former Louisville, Kentucky, Mayor David L. Armstrong; Gary Dee; former Arkansas Secretary of State Kelly Bryant (1908-1975), PGA golfer Ken Duke, actress/vocalist Ketty Lester and actress Melinda Dillon. Country Music Hall of Fame singer Patsy Montana attended school in Hope.

A leading figure in the restoration of nearby Historic Washington State Park in Washington, Arkansas, was James H. Pilkinton (1914-1994) of Hope, who served as president of the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation, Inc., from 1959-1960 and again from 1973-1990. In 1966, Pilkinton was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, having narrowly been defeated by the Republican Maurice L. Britt, the running-mate of Winthrop Rockefeller, who won the first of his two two-year terms as governor that year. Pilkinton is interred in Rose Hill Cemetery.

A former Republican U.S. Representative from Michigan, Robert James Huber, is buried in Hope, but he did not live there. It was the hometown of his wife, the former Mary Pauline "Polly" Tolleson, a graduate of Hope High School. Also, Hope is home to a few African-American figures such as Henry C. Yerger, who established a school for blacks in 1895.

Paul Klipsch founded Klipsch and Associates in Hope in 1946. Klipsch invented the world famous Klipschorn speaker, a folded horn loaded speaker that revolutionized the industry. The Klipschorn and a number of other speaker lines are still manufactured in Hope by Klipsch Audio Technologies.

The Hope Municipal Airport was the Southwestern Proving Ground during World War II and had the claim of the third longest runway in the United States. Paul Klipsch used to joke that his desk was not in the same spot as the one he had during his United States Army service at the Proving Ground; it was on the other side of the room. Years later, during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency used land near the airport as a staging area for manufactured homes intended for transport as temporary housing for hurricane victims. Many of these homes remain at the airport as of summer 2009, long after the disaster, eliciting wide criticism of the federal agency.

In October 2009, Amtrak added Hope to its timetable brochure for its Texas Eagle service, but with actual service "to begin on a date to be announced". The Texas Eagle travels daily in each direction between Chicago and San Antonio.

Hope is also known for growing watermelons and continues to produce records for the largest specimens in the world. The last record was set by Lloyd Bright in 2005 with a 268.8 pound watermelon. The Watermelon Festival is celebrated annually from Thursday-Saturday during the second week of August. The watermelon is used in the municipal logo and the Hope slogan: A Slice of the Good Life.

Hope is located at 33°40′4″N 93°35′24″W / 33.66778°N 93.59°W / 33.66778; -93.59 (33.667779, -93.589908).