Category Archives: Government

Explore Little Rock’s civil rights history with new app

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Little Rock-area residents and visitors have a new way to explore the city’s rich civil rights history.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Institute on Race and Ethnicity and Little Rock city officials  have unveiled the Arkansas Civil Rights History Tour app.

The free Apple and Android app guides users on an excursion through some of the city’s most influential historical sites, going back to the 1840s. Each of the 35 stops on the GPS-guided tour includes compelling narratives, historic photos, audio, and links to related content.

Tour stops range from the L.C. and Daisy Bates House to the Trail of Tears. The tour includes a total of three National Historic Landmarks, three National Register Historic Districts, and numerous buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.

Narrated in both English and Spanish, the app also offers information about Jewish history in Little Rock, Hispanic migrations to Arkansas, and Native American tribes.

Organizers recommend app users begin their route at Broadway and West Ninth Street in downtown Little Rock, but the app can help people customize their own path.

A collaboration of the Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the City of Little Rock, the Mayor’s Tourism Commission, and KUAR, UALR’s public radio station, led to the creation of the Arkansas Humanities Council-funded app.

“The institute’s mission is to remember and understand the past, to inform and engage the present, and to shape and define the future in the area of race and ethnicity,” said Dr. John Kirk, director of the Institute on Race and Ethnicity.

“The tour app helps us to do all those things: It powerfully sheds light on the past, it allows people to engage with the past in the present moment, and it helps us to consider how those legacies and lessons can shape and define the future of the city and state.”

The app can be found in the Apple App Store and on Google Play by searching for “Arkansas history.”

Little Rock Look Back – Mayor Horace Knowlton

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IMG_3227On November 25, 1872, future Little Rock Mayor Horace A. Knowlton Jr. was born.

In April 1920, he was elected City Clerk of Little Rock.  He served in that position until April 1931.  That year, he was chosen as the Democratic nominee for Mayor, denying incumbent Mayor Pat L. Robinson a second term.  The primary race against Mayor Robinson was close.  When the results were first announced, it looked as if Mayor Robinson had prevailed.  But after challenging ballots, Mr. Knowlton was declared the winner.  Since Little Rock was primarily a Democratic Party city, unsurprisingly Mr. Knowlton was elected Mayor in April 1931 and served two terms as Mayor.

He oversaw the start of some of President Roosevelt’s New Deal programs in Arkansas during his tenure.  In 1934, he negotiated the purchase of Gillam Park for the City which established the first public park in Little Rock for African Americans.  While a segregated park would one day be viewed as wrong, he was viewed as very progressive at the time for providing a public park for African Americans.  One of his final acts as Mayor was to participate in the groundbreaking for the Museum of Fine Arts building in City Park (now a portion of the Arkansas Arts Center building in MacArthur Park).

Following his departure from public office, Mayor Knowlton and his wife (who had been an elementary school teacher) eventually moved to Florida and resided in the Tampa Bay area.  His son and grandson (Horace III and Horace IV) have both been lawyers in the Tampa Bay area.  Mayor Knowlton died on February 14, 1965.  He is buried in the Oak Grove cemetery in Conway.

Learn more about Native American Heritage at Historic Arkansas Museum

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HAMCollectionHeadPotNovember is Native American Heritage Month.  It’s a great time of year to visit Historic Arkansas Museum and explore their permanent exhibit “We Walk In Two Worlds: The Caddo, Osage and Quapaw in Arkansas.”

And remember – Admission to the galleries at Historic Arkansas Museum is FREE!

This exhibit tells the story of Arkansas’s first people–the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw Indian tribes–from early times to today. More than 150 objects, such as pottery, clothing and weapons, are on display.

The exhibit has six thematic areas that are arranged chronologically.  Along with objects and a historical timeline are passages of relevant research from archeologists, historians and ethnographers.

Throughout the exhibit, is the dominant presence of the Native American voice, from each of Arkansas’s three prominent tribes. During the two years of exhibit development, many tribal members were interviewed and it is this voice that informs, educates and guides visitors through the exhibit. Historic Arkansas Museum chief curator and deputy director Swannee Bennett said, “What makes this exhibit unique is that it is a story of the Arkansas Native American told in large part with an Indian voice.”

This permanent exhibit enables the museum to tell the bigger story of Arkansas’s frontier history. “We Walk in Two Worlds is a milestone as the State of Arkansas officially partners with the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw Nations and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian to tell this story of struggle and endurance.” said museum director Bill Worthen.

Dr. Dean Kumpuris to be honored by Arkansas Arts Council

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Dean Kumpuris 2014Dean Kumpuris will receive the Governor’s Arts Award for Arts Community Development in early 2016.  The Arkansas Arts Council announced today the recipients for next year’s awards.

Kumpuris is being honored for his three decades of work to improve the cultural and civic life of Little Rock. In particular, he has focused much of his work on the revitalization of downtown, the development of the River Market, and expansion of Riverfront Park.

Through his vision and efforts to place public art downtown, in less than 10 years, nearly 100 sculptures have been installed in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden, as well as in parks along the Arkansas River and throughout Little Rock. He created the annual fundraiser, Sculpture at the River Market Show and Sale, which attracts thousands of visitors to Little Rock each year and features hundreds of sculptures from internationally recognized artists.

He is a gastroenterologist and has served on the Little Rock City Board of Directors since 1995.  He is also the Chairman of the UALR Board of Visitors and a past member of the Advertising and Promotion Commission.

Little Rock Look Back: Mayor C. P. Bertrand

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Bertra1On November 23, 1808, future Mayor Charles P. Bertrand was born in New York.  He was the son of Pierre and Eliza Wilson Bertrand; his father died in 1809 in an uprising in Haiti and his mother eventually remarried.  With her new husband, Dr. Matthew Cunningham, she and the family moved to Little Rock in 1820.

After apprenticing with family friend William Woodruff at the Arkansas Gazette, Bertrand opened the Arkansas Advocate newspaper.  He later studied law under Robert Crittenden and entered the legal profession.

In 1835-1836, he served as State Treasurer for the Arkansas Territory, and in 1836 as secretary for the first constitutional convention. He was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1840-1841 and 1844-1849.

Bertrand followed in his stepfather’s footsteps and became Mayor of Little Rock.  (Dr. Cunningham had been the first Little Rock Mayor in 1831.)  He was in office from January 1855 through January 1857, serving two one-year terms.  He later served on the City Council and filled in as acting mayor. (Another influence on his upbringing was studying under future Mayor Jesse Brown who taught at the first school in Little Rock.)

Bertrand, as acting mayor, was involved in the negotiations of the surrender of Little Rock to federal troops in 1863.  He also later corresponded with President Lincoln on behalf of Little Rock citizens.

Though a staunch Confederate, his good will toward the Union soldiers and federal officials is credited with helping to save Little Rock from the destruction which befell many other Southern cities.  He is also credited with delaying the start of the Civil War.  Prior to the attack on Fort Sumner, members of the Arkansas Militia were planning to attack the Federal Arsenal at Little Rock during the absence of Governor Rector.  This would have been viewed as an act of war.  Bertrand was able to dissuade them from the attack.  Had he been unsuccessful, the Civil War would have likely started in Arkansas instead of South Carolina.

He had put his considerable fortune into Confederate money during the war. At the Civil War’s conclusion, the family was financially ruined. Though they had vast land holdings, those would be sold off in parcels to pay for taxes.

Bertrand died August 27, 1865, shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War.  He, like his mother, step-father, and several other relatives, is buried in Mt. Holly Cemetery.

Little Rock Look Back: Remembering JFK

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JFK LROn November 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was felled by an assassin’s bullet in Dallas.  A mere seven weeks earlier he had delighted crowds in Little Rock and at Greers Ferry.

Little Rock Mayor Byron Morse issued a proclamation declaring November 25, 1963, an official day of mourning in Little Rock.  On December 2, 1963, the Little Rock City Board passed a resolution mourning the loss of President Kennedy and expressing their support for his successor President Johnson.

While he had made remarks to open the State Fair on that day in October, the President was actually in the state to speak at the dedication of the Greers Ferry Dam. He agreed to make that appearance as a part of a negotiation with Congressman Wilbur Mills as they were deadlocked over changes to the tax code.  He had previously visited Little Rock in 1957 when he came to the state to address the Arkansas Bar Association meeting in Hot Springs.  In his speeches, he went into detail praising the six members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation – each of whom held powerful leadership positions and committee chairmanships.

On the day after the President was killed, the Arkansas Gazette ran quotes from several Arkansas leaders, still shocked and in profound mourning.  Senator J. William Fulbright called the killing “a tragedy beyond words.”  Senator John L. McClellan noted he was “shocked beyond expression.”  Congressman Mills declared he was ‘too shaken and stunned to say much at this time.”  Congressman Oren Harris confessed he “could not adequately express” his feelings, while Congressman J. W. Trimble called it “very, very tragic” and Congressman E. C. Gathings termed it “a calamity.”

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, the second of nine children. Groomed for leadership by his father Joe and mother Rose, he was thrust even more into the path of political greatness following the World War II death of his elder brother Joe Jr.  A war hero himself, following his leadership after the attack of PT-109, he was first elected to Congress from Massachusetts in 1946. He would be re-elected in 1948 and 1950.  In 1952, he challenged incumbent Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and beat him.  He was re-elected to the Senate in 1958.

 

Following the oldest President (at the time), the young Kennedy administration seemed to captivate the country.  During his 1000 days in office, Kennedy faced many challenges both foreign (Bay of Pigs, Cuba missile crisis, start of Vietnam) and domestic (civil rights, organized crime). His ambitious “New Frontier” focused on education, additional services to rural areas and medical care for the elderly.  He also focused on getting the US to the moon.

Together with Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, JFK embodied not only his generation but the mood of the country.  And his quotes resonate today including:

My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Ich bin ein Berliner

Sculpture Vulture: Native Knowledge

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Native American Face

November is Native American Heritage Month.  One way to learn more about Native Americans in Little Rock’s history is to visit Riverfront Park.

There are several exhibits in the park that discuss the importance of Native Americans in this region prior to and since the settlement of Little Rock.  Denny Haskew’s Native Knowledge is a tribute to the Caddo, Osage, and Quapaw Native American Cultures of Arkansas.

It is sited near the Quapaw Line and La Petite Roche.  The location is important because the Quapaw Line was used as demarcation to separate the Quapaw Tribe from land available for white settlers.  It ran from La Petite Roche due south.  In addition, La Petite Roche was a stop along the “Trail of Tears” as Native American tribes were resettled from their original homes in the American Southeast to points west.

Three bronze twice life-size representational sculptures are mounted on 6” thick hexagonal buff colored sandstone panels suspended between I-beam arches representing the outline of theout canoes of the Osage, Caddo and Quapaw. The bronze sculptures are patinated to match the stone panels giving the appearance of being carved from stone. The back of each panel is etched with a pottery design from each of the three tribes mentioned above.