- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Mitchell is featured speaker in Feb. 6 symposium on African American Migration in Arkansas

John Hill — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 14:20:53 +0000

Dr. Brian Mitchell, assistant professor of history at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, will serve as one of three presenters in a virtual symposium about the migration of Black Americans in Arkansas. The symposium, “, will be held from 9:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6. The event is presented by the Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas State Archives. In addition to Mitchell, the symposium’s presenters include Story Matkin-Rawn and Kenneth Barnes, who teach history at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. During the symposium, the speakers will discuss: “African Americans, Arkansas, and the Other Great Migration 1865-1920,” “Any Place but Here: The 1860 Expulsion of Free Blacks from Arkansas,” and “Arkansas’s African Migration Movement in the late 1800s.” The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required For more information, contact Tatyana Oyinloye, coordinator of African American History Program, at Tatyana.oyinloye@arkansas.gov at 501-682-6900.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center of Arkansas History and Culture receives grant to preserve history of Arkansas’s last Constitutional Convention

John Hill — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 13:46:53 +0000

The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture has received a $35,628 grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council to make a public database of archival materials that preserve the history of the 1979-1980 Arkansas Constitutional Convention. “As we approach another election season, reflection on the multiple ways that citizens are able to become an integral part of democracy becomes crucial to the nation’s relevancy,” said Laura McClellan, assistant director of the Center for Arkansas History and Culture. “State constitutional conventions have allowed individuals to discuss, design, and manage issues that are local, but often have national reach.” Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the 1979-80 convention was the state’s last constitutional convention. The Center for Arkansas History and Culture and the Arkansas State Archives hold a number of materials related to the convention, including the papers of Calvin Ledbetter Jr., a delegate of the convention. “Arkansas has had eight constitutional conventions,” McClellan said. “Although voters defeated the proposed constitution in the last convention, delegates raised issues that have remained part of political rhetoric, including interest rate controls, right to work, and role of the governor. We haven’t had a constitutional convention since 1980, and people are interested in looking at how politics and legislation work.” The grant will be used to purchase equipment to digitize the delicate materials stored in the collection as well as create a virtual exhibit and special resources for educators, students, historians, and researchers. The project will be completed by June 30, 2021. “Our goal is to create a digitally available record of this convention that could be used by scholars, teachers, students, and community members,” McClellan said. “Additionally, we will develop a web exhibit that organizes the material in a readily accessible fashion. The web exhibit is a curated collection that can be easily used by teachers, students, and community members to understand the role of constitutional conventions in our democracy. This web exhibit will incorporate other constitutional convention information, curriculum guides, and oral histories.” In the upper right photo, Dr. Deborah Baldwin, director of the Center for Arkansas History and Culture, works in the archives.

Newly discovered historic records reveal new details surrounding the Elaine Massacre

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 16:58:52 +0000

As Arkansas honors the 100th anniversary of the Elaine Massacre this year, a University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor and alumnus are uncovering more secrets surrounding one of the worst race massacres in the country’s history.�� Joseph Alley, a 2016 ��Vlog��ý Little Rock graduate and curator of the, recently discovered the minute book of American Legion Post 41 in Helena. The minute book has entries from the post’s inception in 1919, the same year the Elaine Massacre occurred, through 1925. “Dr. Brian Mitchell (assistant professor of history at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock) and I were talking after the Elaine Massacre Conference held at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center on June 1,” Alley said. “He mentioned some of the documents he was still trying to find, and I mentioned we have all of the Women’s Library Association’s original ledgers from 1888 and on. This was the group that founded the Phillips County Library and Museum. As I was initially going through them, there was one book labeled ‘American Legion.’ Low and behold, it was the 1919 minute book ledger.” In September 1919, representatives of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America met with approximately 100 African-American farmers at a church in Hoop Spur, near Elaine, to discuss unionizing. When a group of white men interrupted the meeting, two white men were shot. A mob of an estimated 500 to 1,000 white people stormed through Phillips County, killing black men, women, and children on sight. U.S. troops were called in, and the mob dispersed Oct. 2. Under an entry titled “POST IN ACTION,” the minute book described the actions of local American Legion members in the midst of the Elaine Massacre on Oct. 1, 1919.�� “…members of the Post were summoned to the Court House as a result of the Assassination of a Special Agent… They were among the first to arrive on the scene of the murder and in the subsequent fighting negro rioters.” Two American Legion members and World War I veterans, James A. Tappan and Clinton Lee, died during the Elaine Massacre. The American Legion members adopted “Resolutions of Respect to the Memory of James A. Tappan and Clinton Lee” on Oct. 14, 1919. The men were heralded as war heroes, and their names were later added to a memorial plaque honoring American Legion members killed during World War I, despite the fact that Tappan and Lee did not die during the war.�� The resolutions state that “There has been an insurrection of Negroes in Phillips County, and the lives and property of our citizens have been placed in jeopardy.” The resolutions further say that Tappan and Lee were killed “while in the line of duty… In preserving law and order and defending the lives and property of our fellow citizens from attacks by Negro insurrections.”

Recently discovered American Legion records from Helena, Arkansas, discuss how two American Legion members and World War I veterans, James A. Tappan and Clinton Lee, died during the Elaine Massacre.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Dr. Brian Mitchell, who is studying the records, said the records are significant because they show a history of those who were directly involved in the Elaine Massacre and show some of the motivations behind their actions. “We know that the first interaction that the sharecroppers union had after the Hoop Spur shooting came from a group of deputized American Legion members who had just returned from World War I,” Mitchell said. “One of the things that the minute book reveals are the efforts that were made by the general populace to ensure, even before trial, that the leaders of the Progressive Farmers and Household Workers Union would be sentenced to death.” Following the Elaine Massacre, hundreds of African Americans were arrested and convicted in questionable trials by all-white juries. The most notorious were a group known as the Elaine 12, a dozen black sharecroppers who were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. An account of the American Legion meeting from Oct. 19, 1920, describes a report from the “committee handling question of securing execution of Negroes sentenced to die in connection with insurrection” as well as an approved motion to “demand execution of Negroes convicted” from the insurrection. According to Mitchell, some members of the American Legion were highly motivated to ensure that black men arrested after the Elaine Massacre received the death penalty in order to send a message to the remaining sharecroppers. “The minute book talks about the contacts they (American Legion members) make with the governor and their demands to be part of the investigation,” Mitchell said. “The same people who were in the mob that hunted down people during the massacre then made demands on the governor that the men would be given the death penalty. They wanted the death penalty because they wanted to send an example for other sharecroppers that might consider legal action against them for stealing their wages. This further substantiates the Supreme Court’s ruling in Moore vs. Dempsey that these individuals did not receive a fair trial.”�� While the minute book will not be on display at the Helena Museum, as it is considered too fragile for display, a digital copy will be made available for public access through the Arkansas State Archives at the end of the summer. “Records of groups and organizations add much to our knowledge about the history of a community by offering a different perspective about events than what newspapers or other published sources give us,” said Wendy Richter, director or the Arkansas State Archives and state historian. “Such records often prove to be valuable resources for researchers.” Mitchell plans to study the records and include the information in a book he is writing with Dr. Guy Lancaster, editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, and Dr. Grif Stockley, author of “Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacre of 1919.” “Just like these documents appeared out of nowhere, who knows what will pop up?” Mitchell said. “That is why it is so important for us to look at journals, letters, and other historical documents that can tell us more about the Elaine Massacre.” Alley was thrilled that the find will contribute to the growing body of knowledge surrounding the Elaine Massacre, but gives credit to the collectors of knowledge who came before him on the library and museum boards. “The Women’s Library Association members were fiends when collecting history,” he laughed. “They took each and every opportunity they could to get something added to the museum. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that it ended up in the collection. I half expect to find the skull of Jimmy Hoffa hiding upstairs in the next year.”��

��Vlog��ý Little Rock researcher uncovers history of black activism during World War I

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 23:10:17 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate student is shedding light on long-overlooked contributions black communities in Arkansas made to the World War I effort.�� Crystal Shurley, an archivist at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies who completed her Master of Arts in public history in December 2018, wrote her thesis on the history of the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council, an early archivist group that was active during World War I and has remained a relatively undocumented part of Arkansas history. “This is an important piece of black Arkansas history that has not been investigated,” Shurley said. “I think it’s important that we remember that history is made by everyone, and not everyone that is a history maker is a white male. Unfortunately, in history we often focus on people who are in the limelight instead of ordinary people who have worked hard to achieve great things and often get no credit.” For her thesis, Shurley searched through the Arkansas Council of Defense Records located in the Arkansas State Archives. Despite the patriotic efforts of black communities during World War I, their efforts were often seen a potential threat to white authorities. “Her thesis and website fill a hole in Arkansas history and are timely additions to the scholarship of World War I history in the war’s centennial year,” said Dr. Brian Mitchell, assistant professor of history and Shurley’s thesis advisor. “While scholars know a tremendous amount of information about how Arkansans supported and entertained white World War I recruits and soldiers, very little is known about about how black Arkansans supported black soldiers on the home front. Shurley’s work reveals the patriotism espoused by the black community and the efforts that they made to ensure that their husbands, fathers, and sons who pledged themselves to the war effort would be appreciated and supported by their own.” The Council of National Defense was established in 1916 to coordinate industries and resources in the event that the United States entered World War I. This national council oversaw investigations of infrastructure, troop movement, supply mobilization, production and distribution of propaganda, organization of civilian population, and the nation’s capability to produce materials. Smaller councils were established at the state and county level, including councils for African Americans and women. The Arkansas State Council of Defense was created on May 22, 1917; however, Arkansas resisted the federal government’s instructions to create a council for African Americans. By July 1918, federal authorities were threatening to organize the African Americans themselves. “The federal authorities had to literally threaten Arkansas to organize their black community,” Shurley said. “Arkansas did not want to have a council that was organizing the black community into any kind of authoritative force. A lot of states were afraid of the black community uniting, and black people gaining a sense of equality. But Arkansas officials thought that if the federal authorities reached out to the black community, that they would get an overinflated sense of their importance.” In a 1918 letter to convince Arkansas to organize the black community, Council of National Defense member Arthur Fleming wrote, “It will also prevent the over-emphasis which would result from different federal agencies approaching the Negroes independently and which, as you can readily see, might create in their minds a disastrous misconception of their importance.” The Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council held its first meeting on Aug. 10, 1918. The council was supervised by John Bond, the state education superintendent, and Wallace Townsend, the director of the state council, who reassured state council members by selecting conservative black leaders. Scipio Jones, a prominent black attorney and former slave who is best known for his defense of 12 black men sentenced to death following the Elaine Massacre of 1919, was appointed as the state chairman of the Colored Auxiliary Council. Another prominent member, Josiah Blount, later became the first black person to run for governor in Arkansas in 1920. ��

This Nov. 2, 1918, Arkansas Democrat article from the Arkansas Council of Defense Records located in the Arkansas State Archives showcases the different black leaders who worked with the Council of Defense on the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council. The leaders of the community were trying to raise a minimum of $400,000 dollars during the month of November. The Auxiliary Council had its first meeting on Aug. 10, 1918, and by November the committee was working hard to rise money for the war effort.

“These men were well-educated leaders in Arkansas’s black communities and the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council,” Shurley said. “Townsend and Bond believed that the men of the Colored Auxiliary Council would work within the established social guidelines of appropriate behavior for black men, according to white society in Arkansas, and to some extent they did. These same black men were working within their communities to uplift and change the environment around them.” The Arkansas State Council of Defense largely excluded the accomplishments of the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council from official reports, but Shurley found examples of their accomplishments recorded in the newspapers of the day. In 1918, the Branch Normal College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, signed a contract with the government to train 2,400 black soldiers in mechanical trades. The Daily Arkansas Gazette reported on April 29, 1918, that black communities in Phillips County mortgaged their farm stock to raise money to purchase war bonds. Jones donated $200 to the War Fund Drive in November 1918. Gov. Charles Brough even issued a public statement about the donation to encourage other black people to make similar donations. Local black organizations purchased thousands of dollars of war stamps. Jones and the Mosaic Templars of America, a black fraternal organization established in Little Rock, donated $100,000 to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Williams McAdoo for World War I. The contributions of black women were largely ignored in the official reports as well. In the Report of the Woman’s Committee Council of Defense for Arkansas, Shurley noted that just one paragraph in a 72-page report described the work of black women, who were active in food conservation, collecting war savings stamps, Red Cross, health, and child welfare. Black women who volunteered for the Red Cross sewed clothes for American soldiers in special rooms set up by the Mosaic Templars of America since black people were not allowed to work in the same places as white people. Shurley said that black women at the time were often accused of not working hard enough to support the war effort if they did not also work as domestic help for white families. G.B. Ewing, a white Desha County judge, wrote a letter to the Arkansas Council of Defense about his concerns over the lack of black female domestic labor in Arkansas. While the “women of the white race have done their utmost to assist in everything about winning the war,” Ewing wrote, “it is impossible to get any domestic help from the negro women in fact they have practically quit work and we find they are being kept up by the increase in earning of the negro men or from allotments obtained from government through enlisted negroes, so vagrancy laws will not reach them.” “Black women were actually villainized by some in the Council of Defense,” Shurley said. “In some states, there were laws that were put into place that black women had to have a job outside their home in order to force them to work as domestics. The white community felt that their standard of living was getting too high since their husbands were in the war and bringing home a steady paycheck.” Shurley also created with information about its members, historical records, newspaper clippings, council reports, and correspondence that she hopes others will use to learn more about this group and their contributions to fight World War I. “Sometimes, we focus on all the horrible things that happen to people of color, and we don’t focus on the amazing contributions they have made to society,” Shurley said. “The Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council was an incredibly positive influence and force in the black community. They made incredible contributions that they were never recognized for.” The website will also provide an excellent guide for educators in Arkansas who wish to teach their students about the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council. “Her thesis and website provide a rich tapestry of details regarding the organization of the Arkansas Colored Auxiliary Council, its membership, and its activities,” Mitchell said. “I hope that middle and high school teachers throughout the state will incorporate Shurley’s digital contribution to their lesson plans and classroom discussion of the Great War.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host Black Indians and Native American heritage fair

Janea Snyder — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 21:48:16 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will celebrate Native American Heritage Month with a Black Indians and Native American Heritage Month fair on Saturday, Nov. 10, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. in the University Plaza Shopping Center parking lot at the corner of Asher and University avenues. �� Events will feature “Patriot Nations,” a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indians, about American Indians’ service in the nation’s wars. Also featured will be short educational talks about the Trail of Tears through Arkansas, slavery and Choctaw and Chickasaw removal, and the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes. Native American food, arts and crafts, food trucks, tours of the Trail of Tears Park adjacent to the fair site, and exhibits will be available.

Exhibitors include the Butler Center of Arkansas, Arkansas State Archives, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Black History Commission of Arkansas, Sequoyah National Research Center, Indian Center of Arkansas, Inc., Arkansas Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association, Toltec Mounds, Little Rock Racial and Cultural & Diversity Commission, Boy Scouts of America, Youth Challenge, 4H & Extension Services, Women in Agriculture, the Secretary of State office, and others. The fair is sponsored by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Sequoyah National Research Center and University District Partnership, Little Rock Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission, Black History Commission of Arkansas, Arkansas National Guard Museum, and Jason Irby Innovation Foundation. Admission is free, and parking is close and free. The speaker schedule is as follows:

11–11:15 a.m. Black Indians at Sequoyah National Research Center, Dr. Daniel Littlefield
12–12:15 p.m. Slave, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Removal, Carolyn Kent ��
1–1:15 p.m. Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes at the Trail of Tears, Dr. Daniel Littlefield

For more information, email axgwinup@ualr.edu, or call 501-683-7356.

Hibblen to discuss book in Pen to Podium lecture series

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 15 Aug 2018 14:08:42 +0000

, news director for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Public Radio, will be the next speaker in the Arkansas State Archives’ Pen to Podium: Arkansas Historical Writers’ lecture series on Tuesday, Aug. 21.�� Hibblen will discuss his 2017 book “Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas” from 6:30-8 p.m. in the Diamond Room at the Department of Arkansas Heritage, 1100 North St., Little Rock. For nearly 80 years, the Rock Island was a major railroad in Arkansas, providing passenger and freight services. A decline in rail travel after World War II and an increase in trucks hauling freight over government-subsidized interstates were among factors in the railroad’s struggles and eventual closure in 1980. Most of the tracks that traversed the state were taken up, but a few relics, like the Little Rock passenger station and the Arkansas River bridge, remain as monuments to this once great railroad. A native of North Little Rock, Hibblen started in radio in 1988. After a 1993 internship at the C-SPAN Cable Network in Washington, D.C., he transitioned to news, working for commercial radio stations KARN in Little Rock, WRVA in Richmond, Virginia, and WIOD in Miami, Florida. In 2000, Michael became a Miami-based reporter for CBS Radio News. He was hired by the Miami Herald daily newspaper in 2003 when it partnered with NPR station WLRN providing its local news. Michael returned to Little Rock in 2009 to work for K��Vlog��ýR, where he is currently its news director. The Arkansas State Archives is a division of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and is responsible for collecting and maintaining the largest collection of historical materials on Arkansas in the world.

Bowen School of Law Library hosts African American legislators exhibit

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 17:35:26 +0000

The William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a free exhibit that tells the story of the 85 African Americans who served in the Arkansas General Assembly during the late 19th��century.�� “Arkansas African American Legislators, 1868-1893” will be on display until Thursday, Jan. 25, in the Bowen School of Law Library, 1201 McMath Avenue in Little Rock, during regular library hours. After the Civil War, Arkansas adopted a new constitution in 1868. Its provisions included the right to vote and hold public office for black males, and African American lawyers, merchants, ministers, educators, farmers, and other professionals serving in the Arkansas General Assembly. The exhibit includes photographs of 46 of the 85 legislators, a complete listing of the legislators, and a short history of post-Civil War and election law “reforms” that effectively ended African Americans being elected to legislative positions until the 1970s. The traveling exhibit was produced by the Arkansas State Archives and Black History Commission of Arkansas. The Black History Commission of Arkansas produces exhibits, hosts seminars, offers free educational material on African American history, and administers the Curtis H. Sykes Memorial Grant Program to fund projects related to African American history in Arkansas. Founded in 1905, the Arkansas State Archives is dedicated to collecting and preserving the documentary history of Arkansas. The Arkansas State Archives is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and shares the goal of all eight Department of Arkansas Heritage agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. For more information, contact Kathryn Fitzhugh at kcfitzhugh@ualr.edu or 501-324-9974.

Virtual exhibit launched to commemorate history of women’s suffrage in Arkansas

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 18:47:41 +0000

A virtual exhibit by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture showcases the history of the women’s suffrage movement in Arkansas. The exhibit debuted during an event at the state Capitol during which Gov. Asa Hutchinson proclaimed Feb. 7 “Women’s Primary Suffrage Centennial Day.” The day marked 100 years since Arkansas gave women the right to vote in primary elections — three years before the United States passed the 19th Amendment, which established that right throughout the country. Arkansas was the first southern state to ratify the amendment. Representatives Charlotte Douglas (R-Alma), Vivian Flowers (D-Pine Bluff), and Deborah Ferguson (D-West Memphis) also gave remarks during the event, which kicked off three years of activities celebrating women’s suffrage. �� Participants wore suffragist-style clothing and gathered on the steps of the Capitol building to recreate a photo taken on Feb. 7, 1917, with then-Gov. Charles Brough to celebrate women’s primary suffrage rights in Arkansas. The virtual exhibit, “Arkansas Women’s Suffrage Centennial,” features historic documents and photographs as well as essays and critiques on various aspects of women’s suffrage. Additionally, the virtual exhibit includes lesson plans and educational materials for teachers.��

AJ Walker completed a service learning appointment with the Center for Arkansas History and Culture and conducted research on Florence Cotnam, an Arkansas suffragist. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

“Creating this virtual exhibit will give the world access to important resources and scholarly perspective on this critical leap in Arkansas’s long history of civil rights struggles,” said Chad Garret, director of technology and digital initiatives for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Collections and Archives. “The fact that it’s online means that anyone can access valuable information on the struggle Arkansas’s women endured to access their right to vote and be full participants in our democracy.” The virtual exhibit is supported by a grant from the and the Department of Arkansas Heritage. The project steering committee includes representatives from the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office, the Arkansas State Archives, the Arkansas Women’s History Institute, the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Center for Arkansas History and Culture, the Old State House Museum, and the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History. For more information and to view the exhibit, visit the. In the upper right photo, attendees celebrate��“Women’s Primary Suffrage Centennial Day” Feb. 7 at the state Capitol. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock