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

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture Launches Online Exhibit Commemorating Arkansas’s First African American Optometrist

John Hill — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 14:34:34 +0000

The Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has launched a new online exhibit exploring the life and achievements of Dr. William Townsend, a civil rights leader in Arkansas who was the first African American licensed to practice optometry in the state. The exhibit, “Dr. William H. Townsend: Optometrist, Civil Rights Leader, State Representative,” follows Townsend’s career and public service highlights and is available . Townsend, who passed away in 2005, was known as a trailblazer and is honored on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail. He was the first African American licensed to practice optometry in Arkansas, one of the first African Americans to serve in the Arkansas House of Representatives since the 1890s, and the first African American to chair the Aging and Legislative Affairs Committee. “Dr. Townsend has a prominent role in politics and the professions in Arkansas,” said Dr. Deborah Baldwin, CAHC director and principal investigator on the grant. “He is a good example in the City of Little Rock of an African American who contributed in a variety of arenas. We have records relating to his service as a legislator and his time as an optician. This is one of our collections that we envisioned would capture the public interest.” The exhibit is funded by an African American History and Culture Grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council, which provides funding for nonprofit organizations who wish to research, document, preserve, and interpret the state’s African American history and culture. Townsend was born July 30, 1914, in West Point, Mississippi, but grew up in Earle, Arkansas. After high school, he joined the army during World War II. While he was on duty, he studied at Nottingham University in England. After the war, Townsend became a student at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture. In 1950, he graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry. He opened an optometrist clinic in Little Rock not long after graduating. Townsend was very active in Arkansas politics. During the 1950s, he was a founding member and served as the president of the Council of Human Relations. This council helped to desegregate public schools and businesses in the state. He was also a member of the Council of Community Affairs, which was formed in 1961 by a group of black medical professionals. They facilitated the peaceful desegregation of downtown Little Rock in 1963. In 1966, Townsend served as the chairman of the Arkansas Voter Project, a statewide voter registration initiative run under the Southern Regional Council’s Voter Education Project. In 1972, Townsend was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives for the first of 12 terms. CAHC archivists Adrienne Jones and Cody Besett, Laura McClellan, CAHC assistant director, and Dr. Nathan Marvin, assistant professor of history at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, all contributed to the project.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock receives grant to commemorate history of Arkansas civil rights leader William Townsend

John Hill — Tue, 07 Sep 2021 15:23:48 +0000

The Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has received a grant to explore the cultural and political sphere of Dr. William Townsend, an Arkansas civil rights leader and the first African American licensed to practice optometry in the state. The Arkansas Humanities Council awarded the CAHC an African American History and Culture Grant, which provides funding for nonprofit organizations who wish to research, document, preserve, and interpret the state’s African American history and culture. The $3,799 grant for the project, “Exploring Cultural and Political Spheres: Dr. William H. Townsend, Arkansas Professional and Civil Rights Leader,” will fund the center’s efforts to digitize Townsend’s papers and create a character collection and social media posts highlighting the Townsend papers. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown will also host an exhibit on Townsend in February 2022 to celebrate Black History Month. “Dr. Townsend has a prominent role in politics and the professions in Arkansas,” said Dr. Deborah Baldwin, CAHC director and principal investigator on the grant. “He is a good example in the City of Little Rock of an African American who contributed in a variety of arenas. We have records relating to his service as a legislator and his time as an optician. This is one of our collections that we envisioned would capture the public interest.” Archivists Adrienne Jones and Cody Besett, Laura McClellan, CAHC assistant director, and Dr. Nathan Marvin, assistant professor of history, will take part in the project. Townsend, who passed away in 2005, was known as a trailblazer and is honored on the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail. He was the first African American licensed to practice optometry in Arkansas, one of the first African Americans to serve in the Arkansas House of Representatives since the 1890s, and the first African American to chair the Aging and Legislative Affairs Committee. Townsend was born July 30, 1914, in West Point, Mississippi, but grew up in Earle, Arkansas. After high school, he joined the army during World War II. While he was on duty, he studied at Nottingham University in England. After the war, Townsend became a student at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture. In 1950, he graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry. He opened an optometrist clinic in Little Rock not long after graduating. Townsend was very active in Arkansas politics. During the 1950s, he was a founding member and served as the president of the Council of Human Relations. This council helped to desegregate public schools and businesses in the state. He was also a member of the Council of Community Affairs, which was formed in 1961 by a group of black medical professionals. They facilitated the peaceful desegregation of downtown Little Rock in 1963. In 1966, Townsend served as the chairman of the Arkansas Voter Project, a statewide voter registration initiative run under the Southern Regional Council’s Voter Education Project. In 1972, Townsend was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives for the first of 12 terms.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Alum Brian Rodgers Brings African American History to Life at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

John Hill — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 21:58:40 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock graduate is leading the education and preservation of African American history in Arkansas through his work at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. Brian Rodgers of Little Rock serves as the historian and community liaison at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a Little Rock museum created to honor the story of the Mosaic Templars of America and the African American history in Arkansas. “I love being a part of Mosaic,” Rodgers said. “I get to tell untold stories. I get to research African American history in the state and tell those stories to people who may not normally be exposed. I would always tell my groups that African American history is Arkansas history. It’s hard to extract one from another. The example I always give is the Little Rock desegregation crisis. It’s African American history and it’s Arkansas history. It’s just the perspective from which it is told that makes it different.” Rodgers is a two-time graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, with a bachelor’s degree in history in 2015 and a master’s degree in public history in 2018. “I absolutely loved it,” Rodgers said. “The history department was very welcoming. The department had open door policies, so there were times when I would stop by when I had a break between classes and see what the professors were researching. I enjoyed being one of the students engaging in the Phi Alpha Theta and going to some of the off-campus picnics. Even now, pre-Covid, I was still getting invited when there were after-hours history department events.” Rodgers began his successful career at Mosaic while still a Trojan. After completing an internship as an undergrad, Rodgers was hired as the public information officer for a six-month assignment. After five years as an academic success coach at Pulaski Technical College, Rodgers returned to Mosaic in his current role. As the museum’s historian and community liaison, Rodgers is responsible for leading tours, interviews with the media, conducting research, setting up exhibits, and adult programming. He’s also responsible for annual events like the Juneteenth celebration, a Christmas-themed event called Coco and Carols, and a Black Artists program that is part of the museum’s Black History Month events. Rodgers is definitely looking forward to exciting events in 2021. Mosaic is currently under construction to open a children’s gallery that will be dedicated to how to talk to children about race. Mosaic will also host a traveling Smithsonian exhibit on the Green Book, a travel guide created in the early 20th Century that listed safe accommodations and restaurants for Black travelers. “It was so dangerous for Black travelers to travel the country because there were sundown towns and racial violence was prevalent through the South and the Midwest,” Rodgers said. “The exhibit is comprised of different artifacts from places along the stops. There were several Green Book stops in the city of Little Rock, most of which have been torn down. Velvetech Beauty School was one of the stops, and it’s really cool to have some of their artifacts.” In his ongoing research, Rodgers is looking at the role of the Black church and the development of the Black middle class in central Arkansas, the origin of Juneteenth celebrations in Arkansas, and the rise of the Black middle class in Little Rock. His advice for college students to be successful is to find out what you love and find a way to have that in your life and career. “Oftentimes as incoming freshmen, we tend to navigate or make our way to the careers that we think are the most lucrative,” Rodgers said. “Out of high school, I was a chemical engineering major, but once I discovered my love of history, college seemed easy.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to hold virtual conversation with Mayor Scott, Sen. Elliott, and Jannie Cotton

John Hill — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 17:53:58 +0000

As a celebration of Black History Month, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Student Government Association will hold a virtual conversation with prominent Black leaders in Arkansas.�� The event, “The Making of a Leader: An Open Discussion with Prominent Black Community Leaders,” will take place Wednesday, Feb. 24, from 6-7 p.m. via Zoom. The event will feature Mayor Frank Scott Jr., Sen. Joyce Elliott, and Jannie Cotton, a mental health policy leader and advocate. “The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Student Government Association is excited to host Mayor Frank Scott Jr., Senator Joyce Elliott, and Jannie Cotton on Feb. 24 as we discuss their impact on both the Little Rock community and the state of Arkansas,” SGA President Landon DeKay said. “With their expertise, we will examine how they paved the way for African Americans in Arkansas. We hope this open discussion will provide words of guidance and encouragement to all students at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock wishing to break through the barriers in their life.” Mayor Scott, a graduate of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, is the 73rd mayor of Little Rock and the city’s first Black elected chief executive. Sen. Elliott, a former public school teacher, has a reputation as a strong advocate for education and was the 2020 Democratic candidate for Congress. Cotton, a licensed professional counselor, was the first African American woman in the state to serve as CEO of a community mental health organization.�� A Zoom link for the event will be emailed to all ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students the week of the event. For more information, please email sga@ualr.edu. Members of the public may register for the event .

Love of Helping Students Leads to Inspiration for New Assistant Director of Multicultural Center

John Hill — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 17:09:00 +0000

As an undergraduate student, Lauren Wilson, a native of Crossett, Arkansas, said the time she spent at her university’s multicultural center made a huge impact on her life. “When I was an undergrad, our multicultural center played a huge role in my experience,” Wilson said. “I loved being able to go there and hang out with my friends and with faculty and staff members and form those bonds that have lasted over 10 years now.” As the new assistant director of the Multicultural Center, Wilson is using her inspiration as an undergrad and her love of helping students to recreate her experience for the students at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. “I want to provide them with a safe place and pair them with people who can provide resources and serve as mentors, not just while they are in college, but beyond that,” Wilson said. “My mentors were really helpful in facing all the ups and downs that brought me from an undergrad to this point.” In her role, Wilson is responsible for implementing cultural programming for Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month. She also coordinates several programs designed to help students succeed. The Student Affairs Diversity Initiatives include the African American Male Initiative, African American Female Initiative, and the Hispanic/Latinx Initiative. The programs are designed to empower, support, and assist students in their college careers. The Summer Bridge Academy is a three-week residential program that prepares incoming freshmen for college by eliminating the need to take remedial math and English courses.�� The Trojan L.E.A.D. program is designed to prepare first and second year students of color for leadership in the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock community. Wilson has implemented a new monthly event, First Fridays at MC, where students meet the first Friday of every month to talk about what’s going on in their lives, plan new events for the Multicultural Center, and learn new skills. During February’s First Friday at the MC, students learned how to become a residential assistant. “They are virtual for now,” Wilson said. “In the future, students can come to the Multicultural Center to decompress and see if there is anything that we can do to help them.” After her graduation from the University of Arkansas, Wilson became a substitute teacher and had a daughter, Gabriela. She later went on to teach English at Warren High School for three years before joining ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as a student support and training specialist at Ottenheimer Library, where she taught students about the technology and resources available in the library. While pursuing her master’s degree in higher education, Wilson worked as a graduate assistant in the Multicultural Center. After her graduation during the fall 2020 semester, Wilson was promoted to the assistant director of the Multicultural Center. “It took a lot to get here, but I’m pretty happy where I ended up,” Wilson said. As Wilson is currently implementing events to celebrate Black History Month, she thinks it’s important that diverse history is celebrated all year round. “Black history is American history,” Wilson said. “When I was in high school, there was Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Anything that wasn’t white male history wasn’t integrated into larger history classes. Why don’t we celebrate it more and make sure it is celebrated every day as a part of our normal goings on? I wish everyone could see it that way.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock to host Fireside Chat with NFL Star Spencer Paysinger

John Hill — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 14:40:51 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host a fireside conversation with Spencer Paysinger, former NFL linebacker and Super Bowl champion, on Tuesday, Feb. 23.�� The free event, held via Zoom, will take place from 7-8 p.m. Feb. 23. Corrigan Revels, assistant director for student leadership and development, will host the conversation with Paysinger as well as a question and answer session following the event. Paysinger is a former American football linebacker. During his NFL career, Paysinger played for the New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, and Carolina Panthers. He retired from professional football in 2017. He grew up in South Los Angeles and attended Beverly Hills High School, where he played wide receiver and linebacker and served as team captain. His life and career serves as the basis for the hit TV show “All American.” Paysinger serves as a consulting producer for the show, which began airing on the CW in 2018. He can also be seen on camera as an assistant football coach in the series. Following the success of the show, Paysinger has made a transition into filmmaking and entrepreneurship. He opened a coffee shop, Hilltop Café, and helps run an investment fund that helps football players whose playing careers have come to a sudden end.�� “I believe this event will be great for the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock community to attend,” Revels said. “This gives the university community a chance to see a talented athlete continue to pursue other goals after retiring in a very inspiration way.” The conversation with Paysinger is hosted by the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Multicultural Center and celebrates Black History Month. Participants who would like to attend the fireside chat.

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 class investigates Arkansas’s ‘other Trail of Tears’

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 14:46:13 +0000

Arkansas is well known for its location on the Trail of Tears, the pathway the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes traveled through the state in the 1830s to new lands in the Indian Territory in modern-day Oklahoma.�� Few people, however, know about Arkansas’s history as the first and only state in the country to legally evict its entire free black population. In 1859, the state passed legislation that required all free blacks and mulattos to leave the state by Jan. 1, 1860. Any who chose to stay would be captured and sold into slavery. Dr. Brian Mitchell, professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, refers to the forced migration of free blacks and mulattos as “Arkansas’s other Trail of Tears.” “It’s an interesting piece of Arkansas history that we know very little about,” Mitchell said. “Most people know about forced migration in Native American history, but very few people know that there was a forced migration of free blacks. Arkansas has its own homegrown African-American Trail of Tears that nobody talks about.” Mitchell’s research was aided by EAST Scholarship Program students, including Evan Alden, Larry Dicus, Ian Thompson, and Cheyenne Shelton. The project is an effort students and the College of Arts, Letters and Sciences to highlight the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in the humanities. The legislation was passed in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Scott v. Sandford decision in 1857, wherein the court essentially ruled that a black person could not be a citizen of the United States.��An article written for the��points out that��period newspapers estimated��that approximately 800 out of a population of about 1,000 free blacks left the state because of the law. However, Mitchell believes that the number of those expelled exceeded 1,000. He notes that the legislature placed a prohibition on the migration or introduction of free blacks into the state more than 10 years prior to the expulsion. As a result, Mitchell speculates that “free blacks, aided by friends and family already residing in the state, snuck through the state’s porous borders and merely evaded being counted enumerations.” In order to discover what happened to the exiles, Mitchell and a group of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students searched the U.S. Census records of 1850, identifying many of the free blacks who resided in the state prior to the Expulsion of 1860. They next scoured the federal census records of 1860 and 1870 to discover where the exiled free blacks found sanctuary. To complement the information recovered from the census, Mitchell also collected hundreds of newspaper articles and letters relating to the forced migration. “Once Arkansas passed this legislation, a number of other states start blocking the migration of free blacks. Many people moved from state to state looking for a home,” Mitchell said. “There were predominantly two areas that accepted more of them than anyone else, Kansas and Ohio. Many of the free blacks also hid along the border in Missouri, but there are other fascinating and unexpected things that we discovered.”�� In Fort Smith, Mitchell found that white neighbors protected a small community of interracial families that had come to Arkansas to escape the prejudice of the bigger cities. “This community was comprised of expanded families, so they were not going to tell on their family members,” he said. The law forced those who had difficulty finding a new home to make an impossible decision. In a newspaper article, Mitchell found an account of a woman who chose to return to Arkansas and become a slave because she could not find a new home for her family. “There is one lady who returns with her children, and it appears she had nowhere to go,” Mitchell said. “She resigns herself to going back to Arkansas and signing herself over to be a slave for someone else she knew.” On the opposite end of the story spectrum, Mitchell also found an exciting tale of a man who risked everything to save his family from slavery. “One of the more exciting episodes is a free black man who steals away his family from slavery,” he said. “They go to California and never return. It’s a particularly dangerous time to be a free black. A lot of people kidnap them and sell them as slaves in the South and make a lot of money doing this.” Students working with Mitchell are partnering with the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies to develop a website that will help people learn more about free blacks, forced migration, and the fate of the exiles. The website will include a searchable database, maps, primary resources, and lesson plans for middle school and high school classes.

��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.”

Epiphany Morrow brings ‘The Glow’ to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 17:53:36 +0000

Stanford-educated international emcee, speaker, and community builder Epiphany “Big Piph” Morrow will bring his unique one-man show, “The Glow: The Hopes and Ambitions of a Rhymer,” to ��Vlog��ý Little Rock on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at 6:30 p.m. The Glow will feature songs, visuals, and stories that follow him on his journey to shake up the universe. Crowd participation is a must. The show will be held in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall and is free to the entire campus community. Contact Kalan Horton at kghorton@ualr.edu for more information.

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

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture Launches Online Exhibit Commemorating Arkansas’s First African American Optometrist

����Vlog��ý Little Rock receives grant to commemorate history of Arkansas civil rights leader William Townsend

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Alum Brian Rodgers Brings African American History to Life at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center

����Vlog��ý Little Rock to hold virtual conversation with Mayor Scott, Sen. Elliott, and Jannie Cotton