It was an honor to be asked to process Cal Ledbetter鈥檚 legislative papers. An honor, but a terrifying one.

Although I was relatively new and had never met Dr. Ledbetter, his reputation preceded him. I knew him to be a gregarious and extremely intelligent man, as well as an important figure in both state and university history. I felt the pressure. But as I would soon learn through my review of his career鈥攁nd ultimately by meeting with him鈥擨 needn鈥檛 have worried.

His papers revealed him to be at once a man of passion and of reserve. He was very matter-of-fact; I detected no purple prose in his writings. But his ability to endear himself to anyone was startling. Above all, he was persistent. I found subject-based files that stretched for 10 years, the duration of his tenure in the Arkansas General Assembly. If he believed in something, he apparently fought for it.

My suppositions were confirmed when I finally got to meet Dr. Ledbetter. We had invited him to the center downtown to help identify photographs and to record an interview. My colleagues half-joked that I should bake him some chocolate chip cookies, reportedly his favorite. I took this suggestion to heart and arrived on the morning of the interview with a fresh batch under my arm.

My stomach turned as I waited for him. (As an archivist, you become so absorbed in the life of your subject that you can鈥檛 help but become a little star-struck when given the chance to meet him. The one-sidedness of it all is exactly that of the celebrity phenomenon.) But, as I might have guessed, he was so good-natured and open that I felt that I鈥檇 known him 鈥� really known him, not just archivist-known him 鈥� for years. He could have been a favorite former professor. He cannily identified most, if not all, of the photographs I placed before him, and his son, Grainger, was on hand to help. After enjoying a few of the cookies (whew!), he was ready to sit for the interview.

That he is proud to be a Little Rock native is apparent after the first question. This is not a passing pleasantry. One glance at Dr. Ledbetter鈥檚 education history will tell you that he could have landed anywhere, but he chose to return to Arkansas and to give back all that he鈥檇 been given (and more). Of course, he is self-deprecating throughout. He provides no grandiose response to my question about why he ran for office in the first place, only the following: 鈥淵ou wonder, why did you [run for office]? And you鈥檙e never quite sure [鈥 I don鈥檛 want to say there wasn鈥檛 ego involved, there is ego involved. But I think there was also the idea, I saw some things I could do, some things that probably needed to be changed, and you can best do this through public service.鈥�

Reform was indeed a central tenet of his career. He takes pride in the work accomplished by the constitutional conventions of 1970 and 1980; although the proposed constitutions were rejected by the public, he feels that they laid the groundwork for constitutional reform, which he believes is still imminent. He touts it as the most important issue the assembly faced during his tenure in the legislature.

Finally, when asked if he has anything to add, Dr. Ledbetter shares two stories. In the first, he recounts driving from Miami back to Little Rock on his own at the age of 16. He stopped at hotels and service stations along the way, where he was treated like an adult. He likes to tell the story because it shocks people, but I think he also likes to savor those first feelings of individual agency.

He then relates the experience to Cheley Camp in Colorado, where one summer he pursued mountain climbing. By the end of the summer, his group was able to make it to the summit of Longs Peak. He looked down on Pikes Peak and watched cars wind up the side. He remembers it as a 鈥渞einforcing鈥� experience.

Clearly, Dr. Ledbetter valued those formative moments of childhood and early adulthood when he was trusted to accomplish a seemingly Herculean task and would emerge victorious, baptized in newfound confidence and capability. I would expect nothing less from a man who devoted so much of his life to the promotion of higher education鈥攁 man who placed so much trust, in every sense of the word, in future generations.

Monica Mylonas is an assistant archivist at the 糖心Vlog传媒LR Center for Arkansas History and Culture. She got to know Dr. Cal Ledbetter through his papers as well as a long conversation about his life, his time in office, and Pikes Peak.

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The 糖心Vlog传媒LR Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) has announced the opening of the Calvin R. Ledbetter, Jr., Papers to the public.  The collection encompasses the years 1964 to 1988 and is now open and available to researchers.

“The collection contains many interesting items from the life of a man who played a significant role in the political and educational community in Little Rock and the state of Arkansas” said Deborah Baldwin, associate provost of CAHC and the dean of the 糖心Vlog传媒LR College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

In 1960, Ledbetter joined the faculty at Little Rock University, now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and served as Chair of the Political Science Department, and, later, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, now the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.  After retiring in 1997, Ledbetter became Professor Emeritus of Political Science.

Ledbetter, 84, led an accomplished career.  鈥淗e went from the JAG Corps, to a Ph.D. program, to a faculty position, to five consecutive terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives, the list goes on. His dedication to political science in all of its expressions is clear to see, said Monica Mylonas, assistant archivist.

Ledbetter held five terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives from1967 to 1977.  In the course of this political career, Ledbetter served alongside three of Arkansas鈥檚 iconic governors:  Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers, and David Pryor.  CAHC holds two collections of these three, Rockefeller and Bumpers.

鈥淭his collection adds to our gubernatorial holdings.  Ledbetter co-authored, sponsored, or otherwise supported many of the bills that now characterize these governorships,” said Mylonas.

Ledbetter鈥檚 papers deal mainly with his political career, documenting the state鈥檚 legislative sessions from 1967 to 1977. A portion of the papers represent his academic career with the 糖心Vlog传媒LR.

In addition to donating his legislative papers to CAHC, Ledbetter has also established the , founded to promote a better understanding of the state of Arkansas through scholarly study.

This endowment has encouraged the recent donation of state several legislators鈥� papers to CAHC including: former Representatives Kathy Webb and Johnnie Roebuck, and former Senator Jimmy Jeffress.

To commemorate the opening of the Calvin R. Ledbetter, Jr., Papers, CAHC has launched a digital exhibit that celebrates Ledbetter鈥檚 work in several key areas, such as legislative leadership, education, and progressive reform.  The online exhibit highlights the range of resources the papers have to offer, and incorporates a selection of digitized photographs, documents, and audio clips.  

The collection is available in the research room inside the Arkansas Studies Institute building from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, contact CAHC at 501-320-5780.

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