Tag Archives: Little Rock Central High School

Black History Month Spotlight: Ozell Sutton

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Ozell Sutton has been a writer and eyewitness to history, while making some of his own too.

Born in Gould, he moved with his family to Little Rock and graduate from Dunbar High School and Philander Smith College. In 1950, he became the Arkansas Democrat‘s first African American reporter.

He was at Central High when the Little a Rock Nine integrated, marched with Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington in 1963 and was with Dr King when he was assassinated in 1968.

He served as an aide to Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller from 1968 to 1970. From 1972 to 2003 he work for the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service in Atlanta. In that capacity he was often on the forefront in efforts to diffuse racially tense situations.

In 1962, he received an honorary doctorate from Philander Smith in recognition of his political activism in the civil rights movement. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Department of Justice in 1994.
He also was awarded the Medallion of Freedom by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

In 2012, he was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal in recignition for his being one of the first African Americans to serve in the Marine Corps. His book “From Yonder to Here:” A Memoir of Dr. Ozell Sutton was publiahed in 2009.

Ozell Sutton was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 2001. For more on Ozell Sutton and the other inductees, visit the exhibit at Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Shakespeare Scene Festival at UALR today and Friday

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The 2015 Shakespeare Scene Festival will be held in UALR’s University Theater in the Center for Performing Arts on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 26 and 27.

shakespeare scene

The festival, held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. both days, is free and open to the public.

The Shakespeare Festival brings students from central Arkansas schools to campus to celebrate learning through the performance of Shakespeare.

Approximately 600 students are expected to visit UALR over the two-day the festival and about 300 are expected to perform, with players ranging from fifth graders to high school seniors.

Participating schools include Oak Grove Elementary, Warren Dupree Elementary, Henderson Middle School, Sheridan Middle, J.A. Fair High, Little Rock Central High, Clarendon High School, and Perryville High School.

Sponsored by the UALR Departments of English and Theater Arts and Dance, the festival was founded by Roslyn Knutson in 1998 and inspired by a workshop at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

To see a schedule of performances and to find out more about the festival, visit ualr.edu/shakespeare.

Questions should be directed to the festival’s director, Dr. Kris McAbee, at 501.569.8312.

Little Rock Look Back: Robinson Auditorium officially opens

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auditoriumduskOn February 16, 1940, after three years of planning and construction, the Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium officially opened. It was a cold, rainy night, but those in attendance did not care.

Searchlights painting arcs in the sky greeted attendees. They were borrowed from the Arkansas National Guard. Newspaper accounts noted that only a few of the men who attended were in tuxedos, most were simply in suits. The work to get the building opened had been so harried, that it was discovered there was not an Arkansas flag to fly in front of the building. Mayor Satterfield found one at the last minute courtesy of the Arkansas Department of the Spanish War Veterans.

The weather delayed arrivals, so the program started fifteen minutes late. Following a performance of Sibelius’ Finlandia by the fledgling Arkansas State Symphony Orchestra, Mayor J. V. Satterfield, Mrs. Joseph T. Robinson, Mrs. Grady Miller (the Senator’s sister-in-law and a member of the Auditorium Commission) and D. Hodson Lewis of the Chamber of Commerce participated in a brief ribbon cutting ceremony. Mrs Robinson cut the ribbon on her second attempt (once again proving that nothing connected with getting the building open was easy).

The ceremony was originally set to be outside of the building but was moved indoors due to the inclement weather. The ribbon cutting took place on the stage with the ribbon stretched out in front of the curtain. The opening remarks were broadcast on radio station KGHI.

Though he had previously discussed how he had voted against the auditorium in 1937 before entering public life, the mayor’s remarks that evening were appropriately gracious, statesmanlike and a testament to the effort he had invested to get it open upon becoming mayor. “We hope you have a very pleasant evening and hope further that it will be the first in a long series which you will enjoy in this, your auditorium.”

20140215-172047.jpgTickets for the event, advertised as being tax exempt, were at four different pricing levels: $2.50, $2.00, $1.50 and $1.00.

The estimated attendance was 1700. Following the ribbon cutting, the main performance took place. The headliner for the grand opening was the San Francisco Opera Ballet accompanied by the new Arkansas State Symphony Orchestra (not related to the current Arkansas Symphony Orchestra). The featured soloist with the ballet was Zoe Dell Lantis who was billed as “The Most Photographed Miss at the San Francisco World’s Fair.”

At the same time that the gala was going on upstairs in the music hall, a high school basketball double-header was taking place in the downstairs convention hall. North Little Rock lost to Beebe in the first game, while the Little Rock High School Tigers upset Pine Bluff in the marquee game.

Black History Month Spotlight: Deborah Mathis

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bhm deborahDeborah Mathis has deep Arkansas roots.  She grew up in Little Rock the daughter of Rev. Lloyd Myers, a Baptist minister, and Rachel A. Myers Jones, a teacher.

Her journalistic pursuits began as early as junior high school, when she became the first black editor of West Side Junior High’s school newspaper. In 1970 she became the first black and first female editor of Central High School’s Tiger student newspaper. From the early 70′s through the early 90′s, Mathis was busy establishing herself as a journalist and broadcaster. She served in various positions ” reporter, editor, columnist and anchor ” at statewide media outlets including the Arkansas Democrat, Arkansas Gazette, KARK-Channel 4, KTH V-Channel 11, and KATV-Channel 7 From Arkansas, Mathis career took her to briefly to Jackson, Mississippi before she landed in Washington, D.C., where she was a White House Correspondent for Gannett News Service from 1993-2000.

Since 1992, Mathis has been a syndicated columnist, appearing in more than 100 U.S. publications and periodicals. She is also a contributor to such outlets as USA Today and BlackAmericaWeb.com and a frequent commentator on political and public affairs talk shows such as PBS’s Frontline, CNNs Inside Politics NPR’s All Things Considered America’s Black Forum and Oprah, to name a few. She also field-produced, wrote and narrated two nationally aired documentaries: “Edukashun: The Cost of Failure” (1982) and “Return of the Little Rock Nine” (1987).

Mathis is the author of Yet A Stranger Why Black Americans Still Don’t Feel at Home, Sole Sisters: The Joy and Pains of Single Black Women and What God Can Do: How Faith Changes Lives for the Better.  She has also been an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism (Washington office).  In 2003, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

For more on Deborah Mathis and other inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame, visit the permanent exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. That museum is an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

Little Rock Look Back: The Copper Bowl

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Copper Bowl

A Little Rock police officer tackles a NLR player in one of the Copper Bowls.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, so it seems to be a good time to remember the five year series of football games in Little Rock known as the Copper Bowl.

From December 1959 through December 1963, the Little Rock Police Department played the North Little Rock Police Department in a series of football games.  The Copper Bowl games were fundraisers to help the LRPD provide food and presents for needy families during the Christmas season.

The agreement was that the teams would play for five years. The team with the most wins would permanently receive the Copper Bowl trophy.  The LRPD was outfitted with uniforms from Little Rock University and Louisiana State University (thanks to the efforts of Sgt. Harold Zook).  The games were played at Quigley Stadium.

Before the final game on December 1, 1963, the series was tied at 2-2.  The LRPD team won the game and permanently captured the trophy.  Over the five year period several thousand dollars were raised.

“Then and Now – The Central High Neighborhood” focus of architecture lecture tonight

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centralentranceThe Architecture and Design Network is hosting a panel presentation on the historic Central High neighborhood this evening at 6pm at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Panelists are:

  • Rachel Silva, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program
  • Kwendeche, an architect
  • Nancy Rousseau, principal of Central High School
  • Vanessa McKuin, president of the Central High School Neighborhood Assocation

The westward expansion of Little Rock in the mid-1890’s gave rise to the West End, a section of the city which, in time, became known as the Central High School neighborhood. At the time the high school was completed in 1927 it was designated by the American Institute of Architects as “the most beautiful high school in America.”  For its time it was the largest and most expensive high school building in the United States.  Thirty years later its reputation would be changed as it became the site of international media coverage of efforts to fight the integration.

In addition to discussing the history and development of the area, the panel will talk about the future of historic properties in the neighborhood. A trio of neighborhood groups is actively involved in the effort. The three are: Wright Avenue Neighborhood Association, Capitol Hill Neighborhood Association and Central High Neighborhood Association.

The Architecture and Design Network is a non-profit organization. It is supported, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Center, Central Arkansas section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and friends in the community.

A reception will begin at 5:30 prior to the lecture.

Little Rock Look Back: Basketball at Robinson Auditorium

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Former entrance to Robinson off Garland Street. Used to attend basketball games.

Former entrance to Robinson off Garland Street. Used to attend basketball games.

While Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium is known today as a performance and meeting venue, in its early days it was also the home to sports. Seventy-five years ago tonight the first basketball game was played at Robinson.

One of the first regular activities which took place in the lower level exhibition hall was a series of boxing and wrestling matches.  Building on the success of this, basketball came to the convention hall in January 1940.

A series of games featuring Little Rock High School and North Little Rock High School were announced by Coach Earl Quigley to take place from January 11 through February 16, the official opening day for the facility.

At that time, neither high school had a gymnasium; therefore both schools played their basketball games on their school auditorium stages with fans seated in the audience. The convention hall offered a regulation size floor (made of pecan block parquet) with seating for over 1,300 people along the sidelines and in the balcony.  The first men’s basketball game in Robinson Auditorium took place between the Little Rock High School Tigers and the North Little Rock High School Wildcats on January 11, 1940.

The Tigers lost the game before a crowd estimated to be 1,300.  Earlier in the evening there had been an exhibition between two women’s basketball teams.  The cost for admission to the games was 35 cents for the reserved seating and 25 cents for general admission.