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

Civil Rights Heritage Trail Induction Ceremony to Honor Elaine 12

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 19:17:53 +0000

The 12 exonerated defendants from the 1919 Elaine Massacre will become a permanent part of the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail on Nov. 5. Markers commemorating each of them will be unveiled at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s annual Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail Induction Ceremony at 10 a.m. Nov. 5 at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Downtown, 333 President Clinton Ave.�� Speakers at the ceremony will include ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Chancellor Christina Drale; U.S. Congressman French Hill; Lenora Marshall, a member of the Elaine Quorum Court, Kwami Abdul-Bey, co-convenor of the Arkansas Peace and Justice Memorial Movement; and Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott. Dr. Brian Mitchell, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock assistant history professor, and his students will read the names and birth and death places of the Elaine 12 defendants. Dr. Mitchell and his students have done extensive research on the Elaine Massacre. This year’s event will honor the Elaine 12, a group of black sharecroppers in Phillips County who were wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death by all-white juries in the wave of quick, unjust criminal prosecutions of black people that followed the Elaine Massacre of 1919. This is the 100th commemorative year of the Elaine Massacre. The Elaine 12 include Alfred Banks, Ed Coleman, Joe Fox, Albert Giles, Paul Hall, Ed Hicks, Frank Hicks, Joe Knox, John Martin, Frank Moore, Ed Ware, and William Wordlaw. Two of the men are known to be buried in Arkansas. Frank Moore, a World War I veteran, is buried in the National Cemetery in Little Rock, while Joe Knox also is buried in Arkansas at the Haven of Rest Cemetery in Little Rock.�� The convictions of six of the Elaine 12 were overturned in the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Moore vs. Dempsey, in 1923. Following their release from prison, most members of the Elaine 12 fled the state and changed their names. Many of them lived the rest of their lives in exile, fearing for their safety, with their family members never knowing what happened to them. The Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail was created by the Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity in 2011 to acknowledge the sacrifices and achievements made by those who fought for racial and ethnic justice in Arkansas. Last year, the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail was named a part of the. The trail begins in front of the Old State House Convention Center on Markham Street and will eventually extend to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Each honoree’s name is commemorated with a 12-inch bronze marker on the trail and a biography on the trail’s website.�� This year’s markers will be installed on the north sidewalk of President Clinton Avenue between Cumberland Street and Rock Street.�� Since the trail’s inception in 2011, East-Harding Construction has partnered with the university to install each year’s markers along the trail.�� East-Harding has provided the labor and supplies for the installation, representing a key role in the trail’s development and expansion.�� New markers are added to the trail each year in a public ceremony that also recognizes civil rights activities of the past and those who work for racial equality today. The ceremonies have honored sit-ins and freedom rides, the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, the desegregation of downtown Little Rock, the efforts of professionals in the areas of medicine and healthcare, politics and law, and economic advancement, as well as Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts events commemorating 62nd anniversary of Desegregation of Central High School

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 16:34:28 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock will host two events commemorating the 62^nd anniversary of the desegregation crisis at Little Rock Central High School in partnership with the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law will host a conscience conversation at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, in the Friday Courtroom. Featured speakers will discuss their roles in the civil rights movement. They include Rev. Peter Johnson, a member of the NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Conference activist who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Sterling Plumpp, a poet, author, educator, and critic; and Judge Wiley Branton Jr., an Arkansas circuit judge. Omavi Shukur, a civil rights attorney and former legal clerk at the Equal Justice Initiative, will facilitate a conversation on applied strategies, impact on communities, and activism today. In the second event, a conscience conversation with members of the Little Rock Nine will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Donaghey Student Center Ledbetter Hall. The speakers include Elizabeth Eckford, author and member of the Little Rock Nine; Jane Hill Williams, one of the original 10 students selected to desegregate Central High School in 1957; and Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton, the first three-year African American graduate of Central High School. Dr. Terrence Roberts, psychologist and one of the Little Rock Nine, will facilitate a conversation of the impact of the desegregation crisis, examine the speakers’ narrative roles in the civil rights movement, and discuss their activism today. J.A. Fair High School band, choir, and theater students will perform a selection of civil rights-themed songs to begin the program, while a book signing will follow this event. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 501-374-1957.

Grant will support purchase of Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail markers to honor Elaine 12

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 13:49:51 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity received a $4,000 grant from Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock’s Social Justice Advocacy Committee toward the purchase of markers for the 2019 Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail.�� This year’s event will honor the Elaine 12, a group of black sharecroppers who were convicted of murder and sentenced to death by all-white juries in the wave of quick, unjust criminal prosecutions of black people that followed the Elaine Massacre of 1919. The convictions of six of the Elaine 12 were overturned in the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Moore vs. Dempsey, in 1923. Following their release from prison, most members of the Elaine 12 fled the state and changed their names. Many of them lived the rest of their lives in exile, fearing for their safety, with their family members never knowing what happened to them. The markers will be unveiled at a ceremony in the fall as part of a conference at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Elaine Massacre. The Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail was created by the Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity in 2011 to acknowledge the sacrifices and achievements made by those who fought for racial and ethnic justice in Arkansas. The trail begins in front of the Old State House Convention Center on Markham Street and will eventually extend to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Each honoree’s name is commemorated with a 12-inch bronze marker on the trail and a biography on the trail’s website. New markers are added to the trail each year in a public ceremony that also recognizes civil rights activities of the past and those who work for racial equality today. The ceremonies have honored sit-ins and freedom rides, the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, the desegregation of downtown Little Rock, the efforts of professionals in the areas of medicine and healthcare, politics and law, and economic advancement, as well as Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller. Last year, the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail was named a part of the.

Kirk to serve as guest narrator during chorus performance

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:09:11 +0000

Dr. John Kirk, director of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity, will serve as a guest narrator during the River City Men’s Chorus performances of” in April.�� The performances, which are free and open to the public, will take place on Sunday, April 7, at 3 p.m., Monday, April 8, at 7 p.m., and Thursday, April 11, at 7 p.m. at Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive in Little Rock. The songs in the concert focus on the ideals of seeking justice, peace, and the fight for freedom. The concert includes Mark Hayes’ suite based on Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “Glory” from the 2014 film “Selma.” The chorus will perform a setting of “Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor,” the last stanza of Emma Lazarus’ sonnet “The New Colossus,” the lines inscribed on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. David Glaze, conductor and artistic director of the River City Men’s Chorus, asked Kirk to serve as a guest narrator after hearing the “ series, , a special feature on ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Public Radio that explores the history of the Civil Rights movement in Arkansas. �� “He thought that they would be the perfect accompaniment to the ‘Imagine: Justice-Freedom-Peace’ performances, which feature many songs inspired by the Civil Rights movement, and also includes a suite of songs based on Maya Angelou’s writings, the author and poet who spent some of her childhood in Arkansas,” Kirk said. “Drawing on my expertise in Arkansas and United States civil rights history, I agreed to put together a number of narrations that I could perform between the songs to tie the songs together and to provide historical context for them.”

Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail joins new U.S. Civil Rights Trail

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 23 May 2018 15:37:50 +0000

The Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail, a project of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity, has been named a part of the new.�� “I think it is great that we were ahead of the curve by about seven years and that the rest of the country has finally caught up with us,” said Dr. John Kirk, director of the Anderson Institute. “We are delighted that the people on the trail will be recognized nationally.” The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is a collection of churches, courthouses, schools, museums, and other landmarks, primarily in the Southern states, where activists challenged segregation in the 1950s and 1960s to advance social justice. After former National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis encouraged historians to identify surviving landmarks where major events of the civil rights era occurred, Georgia State University found 60 sites. Southern state tourism directors added more than 40 secondary sites. The trail, which includes more than 100 attractions across 14 states, debuted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which was also the 155th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Places where activists successfully sought equal access to public education, public transportation and voting rights comprise many of the locations grouped under the theme “What happened here changed the world.”��

Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail. Photo by Lonnie Timmons/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

Established in the summer of 2011, the honors those who made significant contributions to civil rights in Arkansas. The trail raises public awareness of the long and rich legacy of Arkansas’s civil rights history. “The purpose of the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail is to remind people of the long and wide history of civil rights in Arkansas, and that it is more than just about the 1957 desegregation of Central High School,” Kirk said. “We wanted to bring attention to the events and people who encouraged civil rights before, during and after the events at Central High.” The trail begins in front of the Old State House Convention Center on Markham Street and will eventually extend to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park. Each honoree’s name is commemorated with a 12-inch bronze marker on the trail and a biography on the trail’s website. New markers are added to the trail each year in a public ceremony that also recognizes civil rights activities of the past and those who work for racial equality today. The ceremonies have honored sit-ins and freedom rides, the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, the desegregation of downtown Little Rock, and the efforts of professionals in the areas of medicine and healthcare, politics and law, and economic advancement. The 2018 theme honored Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, who in 1967 became Arkansas’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction. While in office, Rockefeller appointed a number of African Americans to state commissions and departments for the first time. “We will keep going until we run out of space,” Kirk said. “There are still plenty of little known events, organizations ��and people whose names need to be known and whose stories need to be told.”

Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, nine others inducted into Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 21:27:40 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity��honored the legacy of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller and nine other individuals at the 2018 induction of the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail honorees.�� Established in the summer of 2011, the honors those who made significant contributions to civil rights in Arkansas. The trail raises public awareness of the long and rich legacy of Arkansas’s civil rights history. This year’s theme is “Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller.” The Anderson Institute inducted the new honorees Wednesday, April 4, on the steps of the state Capitol. The ceremony was held in partnership with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. John Kirk, director of the Anderson Institute and George W. Donaghey Distinguished Professor of History at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, is writing the first full-length biography on Rockefeller. His book will be the first to extensively explore the Rockefeller papers housed at the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture. Rockefeller was inaugurated as governor of Arkansas in 1967, becoming the first Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction. Rockefeller’s election victory depended heavily on black votes against his segregationist opponent James D. Johnson. Rockefeller’s family background and upbringing nurtured a lifelong commitment to pursuing fairer treatment of African Americans. While in office, Rockefeller appointed a number of African Americans to state commissions and departments for the first time. In 1968, Rockefeller was the only governor in the Southern states to hold a memorial service in remembrance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. after his assassination on April 4, 1968. Rockefeller ran for a third term as governor in 1970 but was defeated by Democrat Dale Bumpers. Rockefeller died in 1973. His legacy lives on today through the work of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, and Winrock International. A 12-inch bronze marker will be placed on the trail for each honoree. The trail begins in front of the Old State House Convention Center on Markham Street and will eventually extend to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park and other points throughout the downtown corridor. For more details, please contact the Anderson Institute at 569-8932 or race-ethnicity@ualr.edu. The honorees include: Elijah Coleman was appointed to the Arkansas State University Board of Trustees by Rockefeller in September 1970 and was the first African American to serve on the board. Coleman became principal of Townsend Park High School in Pine Bluff and was later elected president of the Arkansas Teachers Association. William Louis “Buck” Currie Jr. was appointed to the Arkansas Penitentiary Board by Rockefeller in January 1968 and was the first African American to serve on the board. His vision was to establish a vocational education program within state prisons to offer the inmates an opportunity to become productive members of society upon release. Reverend M. L. Hendricks was the first African American appointed to the Arkansas State Police Commission by Rockefeller in February 1968. The appointment followed criticism over the scarcity of African-American state troopers in Arkansas. At the time of his nomination,. Hendricks was the presiding elder of the Little Rock District CME Church, and he had been active in the Urban League of Greater Little Rock and in the NAACP. Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton was the first African-American student to attend every grade at Little Rock Central High School after its desegregation. After teaching at many universities throughout the United States, Hampton returned to Arkansas in 1996 to become the executive director of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, a position that she held until her retirement in 2006. In 2014, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel appointed Hampton to the state Ethics Commission. James “Jimmy” Hudson, who began working for Rockefeller in 1937, served as general superintendent of his Winrock Farms project on Petit Jean Mountain, contravening the segregated racial hierarchy that existed in the state. When Rockefeller founded the Rockwin Fund (today the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation) in 1956, he named Hudson as one of its founding trustees, ensuring that the fund would be integrated from the very outset. In 1960, Hudson left Arkansas to accept a position with Nelson A. Rockefeller’s New York State Labor Commission. Annie R. Zachary Pike was appointed to the Arkansas Board of Public Welfare by Rockefeller in April 1967, a position that she held until 1985. At the time of her nomination, Pike was the president of the Marvell District 22 Parent-Teachers Association. Minnie Pearl Ross was appointed as junior auditor to the State Income Tax Division of the Arkansas Revenue Department by Rockefeller in September 1967. In the following year, she became the first African-American woman to serve on the Republican State Committee. The Reverend Doctor Emery Washington was appointed to the Arkansas Board of Education by Rockefeller in March 1969. At the time of his nomination, Washington was director of the Christ Church Episcopal kindergarten and nursery in Forrest City. He was also chairman of world relief for the Episcopal Diocese and a board member of the Diocese Executive Council. Washington stated that his main concern as an educator was for every child to receive a quality education. Austine White Williams was the first African American appointed to the Arkansas Board of Cosmetology by Rockefeller in January 1967. Williams had served as an inspector for the board between 1950 and 1956 and was an instructor in cosmetology at the Arkansas School for the Deaf at the time of her nomination.

John Kirk to reflect on 60th anniversary of desegregation of Central High School

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 17:49:45 +0000

Dr. John Kirk, director of the Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will present a lecture on the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School as part of the Evenings with History series.�� The talk will begin at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St. in Little Rock, with refreshments served at 7 p.m. Sixty years have passed since the dramatic events surrounding the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock’s Central High School, which led to President Dwight D. Eisenhower deploying federal troops to ensure the safety of nine black students, known as the Little Rock Nine. Kirk’s talk reflects on how the events have been depicted by historians within the context of the broader Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It also explores how popular culture representations of the school crisis have influenced and shaped intellectual debate in theatre, film, essays, poetry, and music. Additionally, the lecture will examine how different approaches to the school crisis by historians from local, state, regional, national, and international perspectives have produced different understandings of the events that unfolded in the city. “In many ways, the historiography of the 1957 Little Rock school crisis provides a microcosm of the wider trends that have shaped historical representations of the Civil Rights movement,” Kirk said. The Evenings with History series, sponsored by the University History Institute, features presentations by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty members sharing their current research. Admission to the series is by subscription to the University History Institute, although visitors to individual talks are welcome to attend for free. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock students may attend free of charge.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock professor seeks to preserve ancestor’s place in African-American history

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 17:21:35 +0000

When Brian Mitchell was a child growing up in New Orleans, Louisiana, he would stay with his great-grandmother after school and ask her to tell him family stories.�� His great-grandmother told him tales of his great-great-great uncle, Oscar James Dunn, who was the first elected African-American lieutenant governor of a U.S. state. Proud of his famous relative, Mitchell, now an assistant professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, recalled how he once happily told his second-grade teacher about Dunn. His teacher’s response: “There has never been an African-American lieutenant governor in Louisiana.” At the time, there had been three: Dunn, Pinckney Pinchback, and Caesar Antonine. “What was surprising to me was that the teacher did not offer to look it up,” Mitchell recalled. “My great uncle was the equivalent to Barack Obama in his time, but it wasn’t until I got to college that I began hearing about these political figures in any sort of detail.” Dunn was born a slave in 1826 in New Orleans. His stepfather, James Dunn, was a free man of color and stage carpenter for James Caldwell, an English actor who founded the St. Charles Theatre and New Orleans Gas Light Company. James Dunn arrived in the city in 1819 and shortly thereafter began courting a slave named Maria, the mother of Oscar Dunn. On Feb. 5, 1831, James purchased Maria and her children from George P. Bowers, a commission merchant living in the city and freed them the following year on Dec. 13, 1832. Although illiterate himself, James Dunn paid for his stepson, Oscar, to be educated at one of the city’s free black schools. Dunn was later apprenticed and trained as a plasterer. Dunn plied his skills as a plasterer for a number of years before deserting his post after an argument with his employer, Thomas Dryden, a white contractor and retired vocalist. Having abandoned his job, Dunn began a new but short-lived career as a music teacher. Although a popular and skilled teacher, Dunn was forced to stop giving musical instruction after a well-known free black music teacher, Thomas J. Martin, was discovered to have had a series of affairs with his pupils, all of whom were the daughters of well-to-do white families. �� “People begin to scrutinize these African-American music teachers, and Dunn no longer believed it was safe to take on pupils,” Mitchell noted. After the Civil War, Dunn began a business of writing contracts for the freed slaves. His contracts assured former slaves that they would be paid fairly by plantation owners and required that education be provided to their children. “Plantation owners needed workers, and free blacks needed protection,” Mitchell said. “This helped Dunn build trust in the former black slave community. In the free black community, he was the leader of the black Freemasons in the state. Dunn’s connection to both communities made him the ideal candidate for leadership.” Dunn was a rising political star who fought for public education for children, universal suffrage, and civil rights. In 1867, Dunn was elected to the New Orleans Board of Aldermen and proposed free public education for all children between ages 6 and 18. “Dunn was later given the post of assistant recorder in New Orleans, which is similar to a judge,” Mitchell said. “The first case Dunn hears as a city judge, both the plaintiff and the defendant objected to him being the judge, and they both claimed that none of the laws in the state recognized African-Americans as citizens. Dunn quelled the dissent by levying fines on both parties for contempt of court.” In July 1868, Dunn ran on the Republican gubernatorial ticket with Henry Warmoth and was elected Louisiana’s first African-American lieutenant governor. �� “When he became lieutenant governor of Louisiana, Dunn immediately bumped heads with the white governor,” Mitchell said. “Blacks in the state believed that (Warmoth) would be an advocate for African-Americans rights. However, the first bill the integrated legislature put forth was a civil rights bill, which the governor promptly vetoed.” Louisiana Republicans split their support between Warmoth and Dunn. The Radical Republicans, who supported Dunn, mounted an effort to impeach Warmoth for corruption.

Prof. Brian Mitchell is photographed in front of a portrait of his ancestor, Oscar James Dunn. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

At the height of Dunn’s political career, just before he was poised to become the first African- American governor of Louisiana, he mysteriously died on Nov. 22, 1871, after a brief and sudden illness. “It was right on the verge of Warmoth’s impeachment that Dunn dies,” Mitchell explained. “Had Dunn lived, he would have become the first African-American governor in the U.S. Many of his supporters contended that Dunn’s conveniently timed death was due to poisoning.” Dunn’s death was the target of speculation and political intrigue. Dunn’s symptoms were consistent with arsenic poisoning, according to Nick Weldon of the Historic New Orleans Collection. Four of the seven doctors who examined Dunn’s body refused to sign an official cause of death because of their suspicions of murder. However, the cause of Dunn’s death – whether natural or murder – remains unknown since his family refused an autopsy. Mitchell, who wrote his dissertation about Dunn, found a document that alludes to the idea that Dunn was threatened by a political rival shortly before his death. “Thomas Chester Morris maintained that Pinchback (who became lieutenant governor after Dunn’s death) approached a friend of Dunn’s and said he had information that would ruin Dunn’s family if the information got out,” he said. Mitchell believes the information may have been an allegation that Dunn and his wife, Ellen Boyd Marchand, who was a widow, may have had an affair while Ellen’s first husband was still alive. “Dunn had formed a broad-based coalition of blacks and whites, Creoles and Anglo, free men and former slaves, and Catholics and Protestants on the basis of morality and decency, ” Mitchell said. “With Louisiana being divided between Catholics and Protestants, he didn’t bring religion into it. He ran on a very moral ground. He didn’t accept bribes, nor did he smoke, gamble, or drink. The allegations that he had taken part in an adulterous affair would have been extremely scandalous at the time. A report like this could have derailed early efforts for civil rights.” An estimated 50,000 people attended Dunn’s funeral, one of the largest in New Orleans history. His unexpected death left his widow financially destitute and a fundraising drive was started on behalf of the family. Frederick Douglass, former slave and noted black orator, helped to raise funds for the family, and the state legislature passed a bill to pay the mortgage on the lieutenant governor’s home. Louisiana allocated $10,000 to build a monument to honor Dunn, but it . Mitchell is in talks to have his book on Dunn’s history published as both an academic book and a graphic novel for younger audiences. “I remember thinking as a child that the only things we were taught were that our ancestors were slaves and then Martin Luther King Jr. came,” Mitchell said. “There is this huge absence of discussions of free African-Americans before the Civil Rights movement. I thought Dunn’s story might be a good draw to children to study African-American history.”

John Kirk commemorates integration of Central High School with Little Rock Nine

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 29 Sep 2017 14:05:53 +0000

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the integration of Central High School, John Kirk, director of the Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, signed copies of his books on African American civil rights history in Arkansas along with members of the Little Rock Nine. On Sept. 2, 1957, Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent nine African American students, known as the Little Rock Nine, from integrating Central High School. Kirk was invited to participate in the book signing and discussion on the integration of Central High School with five members of the Little Rock Nine on Sept. 23 as part of the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site’s participation in Arkansas Peace Week. Reliving history with members of the Little Rock Nine was both “humbling and enlightening,” Kirk said. “What is remarkable about the Nine is not just what they did back then in 1957 as teenagers in desegregating Central High, but what outstanding models of civil rights heroes they have continued to be ever since,” Kirk said. “Still today, sixty years later, they rise to their responsibilities with incredible good humor and grace, while continuing to be steadfast and uncompromising in their ideals and in their pursuit of justice and equality.” Kirk autographed copies of his books, “Redefining the Color Line: Black Activism in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1940-1970” and “Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High School Crisis.” Members of the Little Rock Nine shared their stories with members of the public and encouraged students to continue to be strong and strive for equality. “The most memorable and clear collective message from the Nine is that the struggle for educational equality continues today, and that they are still very much part of that ongoing struggle,” Kirk said. In the upper right photo,��Dr. John Kirk (middle) speaks with members of the Little Rock Nine, Dr. Terrence Roberts (left) and Melba Pattillo Beals (right), during a book signing at Central High School.

John Kirk to serve on panel discussing media coverage of Central High School integration

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:50:40 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor will be one of five panelists discussing crisis media coverage during the integration of Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957.�� One of the panelists is Dr. John Kirk, the George W. Donaghey Distinguished Professor of History and director of the Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity. He is also a commentator on civil rights history on K��Vlog��ýR 89.1 FM in Little Rock. The panel, “,” will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 13, at the Darragh Center Auditorium in the Central Arkansas Library System Main Library, 100 S. Rock St. in downtown Little Rock. Admission is free and open to the public. The event, which is organized by the, is one of many events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the integration of Central High School. Additional panelists include:

Phyllis Brandon, a former reporter and editor for the Arkansas Democrat and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Ernie Dumas, a columnist with the Arkansas Times and a former reporter and editor for the Arkansas Gazette.
Bill Lewis, a former Arkansas Gazette reporter.
Tafi Mukunyadzi, a reporter with The Associated Press.

Brandon, Dumas, and Lewis all worked as reporters at Little Rock’s daily newspapers in 1957 and helped to cover the events.

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