Category Archives: History

Justice Jim and the Red Scare focus of Old State House Brown Bag talk today

Posted on by

Justice JimNovember’s Brown Bag Lunch Lecture is presented by Marie Williams.

Arkansas Senator and state Supreme Court Justice, James D. “Jim” Johnson has been portrayed as one of the most outspoken racist politicians of Arkansas’s history. His legacy includes an Amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that gave Arkansas the right to nullify federal law. He is also remembered for being a constant thorn in the side of Governor Orval Faubus.

A look at the evidence surrounding Johnson’s political career suggests that Johnson was not purely motivated by race. Johnson started the White Citizens’ Council of Arkansas in 1955 in response to the integration of the Hoxie School District. Hoxie became Johnson’s soapbox and the Citizens’ Council became his campaign vehicle. The tactics he used to fight integration in Hoxie were unlike those of other Arkansas segregationists. Instead of citing race as the reason for his campaign in Hoxie, Johnson brought the Second Red Scare to Arkansas. He appealed to a wider audience by accusing integrationists of being communists.

Using primary source information, this presentation outlines the methods used by Johnson in 1955 as he started his campaign for governor. Marie Williams is currently finishing her Master’s Degree in History from Arkansas Tech University. She is an Arkansas native who lives in Dover with her husband and their two children.

Little Rock Look Back: Adolphine Fletcher Terry

Posted on by
Photos from the collection of the Butler Center

Photos from the collection of the Butler Center

Adolphine Fletcher Terry was born on November 3, 1882 to former Little Rock Mayor John Gould Fletcher and his wife Adolphine Krause Fletcher.

Raised in Little Rock, in 1889 she moved into the Albert Pike House on East 7th Street, when her aunt transferred the title to her father. That house would be her primary residence the rest of her life.  Her sister Mary Fletcher Drennan never lived in Arkansas as an adult after marriage. Her brother John Gould Fletcher spent much of his adulthood in Europe before returning to Little Rock and establishing his own house, Johnswood.

At age 15, Adolphine attended Vassar. She later credited that experience as broadening her views on many issues.  After graduating at age 19, she returned to Little Rock.  Her parents both died prior to her 1910 wedding to David D. Terry, which took place at what was then known as the Pike-Fletcher House (and today is known as the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House).

She is perhaps best known today for establishing the Women’s Emergency Committee in 1958 and for her subsequent deeding of the family house to the City for use by the Arkansas Arts Center.  But her entire life was based on civic engagement.

She was instrumental in establishing the first juvenile court system in Arkansas and helped form the first school improvement association in the state. She was long an advocate for libraries, serving 40 years on the Little Rock public library board.  Through her leadership, the library opened its doors to African Americans in the early 1950s. Today a branch of the Central Arkansas Library System (the successor the Little Rock public library) is named after her.  Another branch is named after her Pulitzer Prize winning brother.

Adolphine formed the Little Rock chapter of the American Association of University Women, the Pulaski County tuberculosis association and the Community Chest.

In 1958, when the Little Rock public high schools were closed instead of allowing them to be desegregated again, she called Harry Ashmore the editor of the Gazette and exclaimed, “the men have failed us…it’s time to call out the women.”  With this, she formed the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools. This group played a major role in getting the four high schools open the following year.

From 1933 to 1942, David Terry served in the U.S. Congress. During that time, Adolphine alternated her time between Washington DC and Little Rock. But she spent much time in Little Rock raising her five children.

After her husband’s death in 1963, she continued to remain active in civic affairs. In the 1960’s, she and her sister deeded the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House to the City of Little Rock for use by the Arkansas Arts Center upon both their deaths.  Following Adolphine Fletcher Terry’s death in 1976, Mary turned over the title to the City.

Adolphine Fletcher Terry is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery alongside her husband. Three of her children are also buried in that plot.  Her parents and brother are buried in a nearby plot.

Her son William Terry and his wife Betty continue to be active in Little Rock. Their daughters and their families also carry on Adolphine Fletcher Terry’s commitment to making Little Rock better.

 

Little Rock Look Back: J. N. Heiskell

Posted on by
At the age of 87, J. N. Heiskell in 1960.

At the age of 87, J. N. Heiskell in 1960.

John Netherland (J. N.) Heiskell served as editor of the Arkansas Gazette for more than seventy years.

He was born on November 2, 1872, in Rogersville, Tennessee, to Carrick White Heiskell and Eliza Ayre Netherland Heiskell. He entered the University of Tennessee at Knoxville before his eighteenth birthday and graduated in three years at the head of his class on June 7, 1893.

His early journalism career included jobs with newspapers in Knoxville and Memphis and with the Associated Press in Chicago and Louisville. On June 17, 1902, Heiskell’s family bought controlling interest in the Arkansas Gazette. Heiskell became the editor, and his brother, Fred, became managing editor.

Governor George Donaghey appointed Heiskell to succeed Jeff Davis in the United States Senate after Davis’s death in office. Heiskell served from January 6, 1913, until January 29, 1913, when a successor was elected.

On June 28, 1910, Heiskell married Wilhelmina Mann, daughter of the nationally prominent architect, George R. Mann. The couple had four children: Elizabeth, Louise, John N. Jr., and Carrick.

In 1907, he joined a successful effort to build the city’s first public library. He served on the library board from that year until his death and was issued the first library card.  He also served on the City’s Planning Commission for decades.

In 1912, he was instrumental in bringing John Nolen to Little Rock to devise a park plan. Heiskell was also largely responsible for the location of Robinson Auditorium. When City Council members had competing locations, he advocated for the corner of Markham and Broadway. And kept at it until the site was selected.

In the paper and in his own personal opinions, he crusaded on a variety of progressive causes.  Perhaps the most famous was the Gazette’s stance in the 1957 Central High desegregation crisis.  It was for this effort that the paper received two Pulitzer Prizes.

Although Heiskell stopped going to the office at age ninety-nine, he continued to take an active interest in the newspaper. He began by having a copy of the newspaper delivered to his home by messenger as soon as it came off the press each night. Eventually, he switched to having his secretary call him daily at his home and read the entire newspaper to him. He operated on the premise that “anyone who runs a newspaper needs to know what’s in it, even to the classified ads.”

A few weeks after turning 100, Heiskell died of congestive heart failure brought on by arteriosclerosis on December 28, 1972. He is buried in Little Rock’s Mount Holly Cemetery.  Interestingly, he is buried in the same cemetery as two of his most notable adversaries: Governor Jeff Davis, and segregationist Congressman Dale Alford.

Little Rock Look Back: A town becomes a city

Posted on by

LR sealOn November 2, 1835, the Town of Little Rock became the City of Little Rock upon the signature of Territorial Governor William S. Fulton.  The Town of Little Rock was established on November 7, 1831.

The new charter deemed that the election of officers (including a Mayor and eight aldermen) would be on November 10 at the Pulaski County Courthouse. To be eligible to serve, candidates had to be free white men who were aged 30 and above.

The charter established a constable and a court system, gave the City the ability to levy fees and fines, and provided the fact that the City would not have responsibility for maintaining county roads.

This transformation, cut short David Fulton’s term as Mayor of Little Rock by two months. James Pitcher would be elected the first Mayor of the City of Little Rock.

LR Cultural Touchstone: Mary Fletcher Worthen

Posted on by

JJLR-MaryWorthen-MayMary Fletcher Worthen has cultivated history and music with the same grace and skill as she has cultivated gardens.

Born outside of Scott, she attended Vassar and Little Rock Junior College. After marrying banker Booker Worthen, she has devoted her life to improving Little Rock. Together with Stella Boyle and George Smith, she and Booker helped found the precursor to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.  Through its many iterations, she has been a steadfast supporter and is now a life member of the ASO Board.  She has also been a supporter of many other music organizations in Little Rock including the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock, of which she was a founder.

Another hallmark of her involvement is Mount Holly Cemetery Association.  For over 50 years she has served on the board of this body.  Without notes, she can recite the history of practically every resident buried there.  The tours she would lead with the late Peg Newton Smith were hot commodities when auctioned at fundraisers.  These two loving and lifelong friends would sometimes remember things differently. They playfully prodded and needled each other as they wended and winded their way through the headstones and history regaling rapt audiences with yarns of yore, quips and quotes, plus an anecdote or two.  In the decade since Peg passed, Mary has continued to entertain and engage visitors to the cemetery, especially at the annual Mount Holly Rest in Perpetuity (RIP) picnic.

She has also served on the Old State House Museum Board and the Pulaski County Historical Society Board.  As a historian, she literally wrote the book on Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.  She combined her interest in herb gardening and history with the creation of the Medicinal Garden at Historic Arkansas Museum, which is now named in her honor.

Born in 1917, Mary Worthen continues to learn new facts, share her love of history and music, and works to cultivate the next generations of cultural enthusiasts.

 

Learn about some historic late night killings in the safety of daylight at Old State House

Posted on by

OSH logoAs part of the ongoing Brown Bag Lectures, today the Old State House Museum features “On the Hunt For the Texarkana Moonlight Phantom”

In 1946 a number of murders and assaults were committed late at night in and around Texarkana. The unknown killer was nicknamed by the press the “Moonlight Phantom.” Thirty years later, Arkansas filmmaker Charles B. Pierce loosely based his film The Town That Dreaded Sundown on these incidents. For a special Halloween edition of Brown Bag Lunch Lectures, Brian Irby of the Arkansas History Commission will talk about this spooky, unsettling case that has remained unsolved for almost 70 years.

It will take place starting at noon today at the Old State House Museum.

 

LR Cultural Touchstone: Joa Stafford-Humphrey

Posted on by

JoaJoa Stafford-Humphrey loved music and poetry.  But her most lasting cultural contribution is the creation of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.

She had admired General MacArthur for many years.  In the 1980s, while serving on the Board of the Museum of Science and History, her interest heightened.  The museum (now known as the Museum of Discovery) was at the time located in the Arsenal Building in MacArthur Park. It was in this building that the General had been born.

Later, when the museum was planning to relocate to the River Market district, Joa asked City leaders about the future plans for the building. When there were not any definite plans, she informed them that the building should house a museum about MacArthur and also the state’s military history.  She succeeded in lobbying the Future-Little Rock planning process to include this as plans for the soon-to-be vacant building.

In 1994, the MacArthur Military History Museum commission was established, and Joa was appointed as a founding member.  She led the commission for several years.  Over the years, she lobbied for funds and artifacts as well as recruited other volunteers.  Eventually, the City hired a full-time museum director Stephan McAteer.  The project received a setback in January 1999 when a tornado damaged the building.  However, on May 19, 2001, Joa’s dream became a reality as the new museum opened its doors.

While the museum was important to her, it was not her only interest.  She was active in the Geyer Springs neighborhood and Southwest Little Rock activities. Joa was also known for her New Year’s Day open houses which would attract political leaders as well as her neighbors.

Joa died in July 2013.