The Little Rock Conference of the Arkansas Historical Association, 2016
2016; Arkansas Historical Association; Volume: 75; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2327-1213
Autores Tópico(s)American History and Culture
Resumoseventy-fifth annual conference of the Arkansas Historical Association (AHA) convened in Little Rock, April 21-23, intent on Celebrating Years of the AHA. event featured an array of sessions focusing on people and events that helped to shape Arkansas's history since the Association was founded in 1941.The annual conference committee included local arrangements chair Rachel Silva, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program; conference and program chair Susan Young, Shiloh Museum of Ozark History; and doing-whatever-needs-to-be-done chair David Sesser, Henderson State University.The soaring thirty-foot ceilings and timber-frame architecture of the Historic Arkansas Museum's Stella Boyle Smith Atrium provided a lovely backdrop for a conference-opening Thursday evening reception. A bounty of food and drink was provided by generous sponsors: Historic Arkansas Museum; Pulaski County Historical Society; and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Library Historical Research Center. Of special note was the craft beer from AHA sponsor Stone's Throw Brewing, co-owned by one of our members, Ian Beard.Friday morning found all attendees making their way to the jaw-dropping marble halls of the Albert Pike Memorial Temple. After welcoming remarks from Little Rock mayor Mark Stodola, concurrent sessions began. Resistance, moderated by Guy Lancaster of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, featured presentations by Michael Pierce, University of Fayetteville, who discussed The Southern Cotton Oil Mill Strike and the Forging of a Black-Labor Alliance in Postwar Arkansas, Sarah Riva, also of the University of Fayetteville, with 'Freedom, Freedom, Freedom Now': SNCC and the Search for Equality in Arkansas, and Blake Perkins, Williams Baptist College, on The War on Poverty and the Shaping of New Anti-Government Discourse in the Arkansas Ozarks. Meanwhile, and Scholarship since 1941, moderated by Joseph Key of Arkansas State University, featured Jamie Brandon and Lydia Rees, both with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, presenting Samuel Dellinger and the Archeology of Arkansas Ozark Bluff Shelters and Ann Early, Arkansas's state archeologist, on Rewriting Arkansas's Native History.After a break sponsored by the University of Arkansas Press, concurrent sessions resumed. Shelle Stormoe of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program moderated The Passing Game, a session that included Ron Kelley from the Delta Cultural Center reflecting on Seventy-Five Years of Passin' the Biscuits, Thomas A. DeBlack of Arkansas Tech University discussing The Arkansas Travelers Football Team, and Unsung Heroes in the Natural State, by Catherine Barnes, Sara Belk, Nicole Brownderville, Dylan Caubble, Suh Young Choi, LeAnna Douglass, Valeria Flores, Kenneth Kirkwood, Ella Klingensmith, Gabe Smith, and Nathan Vestal, all students of Lisa M. Lacefield at Valley View Junior High School (Jonesboro). Simon Hosken of Arkansas State University moderated a session focusing on Shifts, which included The Political Cartoonist as Entrepreneur: Arkansas Cartoonists Working Both Sides of Campaigns, by Revis Edmonds, Arkansas State University; James D. 'Jim' Johnson: Shaping Arkansas Politics, by Marie Williams, University of Fayetteville; and The Arkansas GOP Reemerges: Election of 1966, by Rodney Harris, University of Fayetteville.Next on the schedule was a truly auspicious event. To commemorate the diamond anniversary of the AHA, a special session featuring former presidents of the organization was moderated by current AHA president Timothy G. Nutt. Former AHA Presidents Tell All: Shocking Truths Behind Arkansas's Most Notorious Club, featured sage commentary and tearful confessions from Tom Dillard (1982-1984), Michael Dougan (1984-1986), Ellen Compton (1986-1988), Martha Rimmer (19881992), John Graves (1992-1996), Frances Mitchell Ross (1996-2000), Ann Early (2000-2004), Tom DeBlack (2004-2008), and Laura Miller (2008-2012). …
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