As part of its celebration of the passage of the 13th Amendment in Arkansas, the Old State House Museum and the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission will hold a mini-seminar this afternoon from 1pm to 5pm.  The seminar’s topic will be “Emancipation and Reconstruction.”

1:00 pm Introduction
1:15 pm Speaker – Tom DeBlack, End of the war
2:00 pm Speaker – Angela Walton-Raji, Emancipation
2:4 5pm Break
3:00 pm Speaker – Carl Moneyhon, Reconstruction
3:45 pm Q & A/Wrap-up
4:15 pm Program Ends

The Old State House Museum and the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission are programs of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Bio Information:

Tom DeBlack: End of the war
Thomas DeBlack is a professor of history at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, Arkansas. He is a 1969 graduate of Nashville (Arkansas) High School and holds a B. A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas (1973), an M.S.E. from Ouachita Baptist University (1979), and a PhD from the University of Arkansas (1995). Tom taught in the public schools in Arkansas for twelve years. He is a past president of the Arkansas Historical Association and the Arkansas Association of College History Teachers and currently serves on the board of the Arkansas Humanities Council.He is co-author Arkansas: A Narrative History (University of Arkansas Press, 2002; 2nd edition, 2013 ), and author of With Fire and Sword: Arkansas 1861-1874 (University of Arkansas Press, 2003). In 2003 Arkansas: A Narrative History was named the winner of the Arkansas Library Association’s Arkansiana Prize, and With Fire and Sword was named the first winner of the Butler-Remmel Arkansas History Literary Prize. Tom is currently working on a book on Lakeport Plantation in Chicot County and on a centennial history of Arkansas Tech University. He lives in Conway with his wife Susan, an optometrist, and their eleven-year-old daughter, Susannah.

Angela Walton-Raji: Emancipation
Angela Walton-Raji is a genealogist and researcher specializing in the Freedmen of Indian Territory. She is the author of Black Indian Genealogy Research, African Ancestors Among the Five Civilized Tribes and the co-publisher of VOICES of Indian Territory a scholarly journal with focus on the historical documents pertaining to the Freedmen of the Five Tribes. She has spoken at a number of national conferences and institutes throughout the nation. A native of western Arkansas, Ms. Walton-Raji earned a bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages from St. Louis University and a master’s degree from Antioch University. She works at the University of Maryland Baltimore County as Director of Graduate Recruitment, and continues to study, research and lecture on the history of Indian Territory Freedmen.

Carl Moneyhon: Reconstruction
Dr. Moneyhon joined University of Arkansas-Little Rock faculty in 1973 and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is faculty liaison with the University History Institute, an organization that develops closer ties between the department and the community. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. He was won the UALR Faculty Excellent Award for Research and the UALR Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching. Dr. Moneyhon is a specialist in the history of the American Civil War and the South and is widely published in the field. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he recently received one of the first College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Summer Fellowships for Research. He is a Fellow of the Texas Historical Association.