Tag Archives: Sue Cowan Williams

Tonight at 6:30, CALS presents Sounds in the Stacks with the ASO Quapaw Quartet at the CALS Williams Library Branch

Posted on by

Sounds in the Stacks: Quapaw QuartetExperience the beauty of string music of the highest caliber with the Quapaw String Quartet of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra!

This free concert at the CALS Williams Library will be a lovely way to take a break from the work week or introduce kids to the magic of violin, viola, and cello.

Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Quapaw Quartet includes Meredith Maddox Hicks, violin; Charlotte Crosmer, violin; Ryan Mooney, viola; and David Gerstein, cello.

It is today (February 12) from 6:30pm to 7:30pm at the CALS Sue Cowan Williams Library, which is located at 1800 South Chester Street.

Women’s History Month – Sue Cowan Williams

Posted on by

Sue Cowan Williams was an educator who fought for fair treatment.

After being educated in Alabama and Illinois, she returned to Arkansas, and began her teaching career in 1935 at Dunbar High School in Little Rock.  In 1942, Williams became the plaintiff in a lawsuit aimed at equalizing the salaries of black and white teachers in the Little Rock School District. The NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, including its director-counsel Thurgood Marshall, assisted in the case. The trial ended after a week with a verdict against Williams, and her teaching contract was not renewed for the 1942-43 school year. Other black educators left the school as a result of their involvement in the lawsuit.

In 1945, Williams successfully appealed the verdict to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeal in St. Louis, which ordered equal pay for black and white teachers in Little Rock. Dr. Christophe, the new principal of Dunbar High School, demanded Williams’s reinstatement in the fall of the same year, but it was not granted until 1952. In the intervening years, she taught classes at what is now UAPB and Arkansas Baptist College as well as at the Ordnance Plant in Jacksonville.  Upon returning to the LRSD, Williams taught at Dunbar until 1974, when she retired. She died in 1994.

The Central Arkansas Library Branch located in the Dunbar neighborhood was named for her when it opened in 1997.  She is honored with inclusion in the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail.

Black History Month Spotlight – Sue Cowan Williams Library

Posted on by

sue_cowan_williamsThe new Arkansas Civil Rights History Audio Tour was launched in November 2015. Produced by the City of Little Rock and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock allows the many places and stories of the City’s Civil Rights history to come to life an interactive tour.  This month, during Black History Month, the Culture Vulture looks at some of the stops on this tour which focus on African American history.

In 1945, Sue Cowan Williams successfully sued the Little Rock School District for equal pay for black and white teachers. The existing inequality in pay clearly did not meet the stipulation of “separate but equal” treatment of African Americans required by the law.

Williams was chair of the English Department at Dunbar High School. She had attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Talladega College in Alabama, and the University of Chicago. These impressive credentials made her an ideal standard bearer for the suit. Local lawyers, along with the NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall, successfully appealed Williams’ case to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. In the meantime, however, Williams’ contract was not renewed at Dunbar.

After working several other jobs, she was eventually rehired in 1952. She remained at Dunbar until her retirement in 1974. Williams died in 1994. In 1997, the tenth library in the Central Arkansas Library System was dedicated as the Sue Cowan Williams Library in her honor.

The app, funded by a generous grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council, was a collaboration among UALR’s Institute on Race and Ethnicity, the City of Little Rock, the Mayor’s Tourism Commission, and KUAR, UALR’s public radio station, with assistance from the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.

15 Highlights of 2015 – 86% of voters approve new CALS projects

Posted on by

Cals ELection

For the final fifteen days of 2015, a look back at some of the cultural highlights of 2015.

Up next –

In July 86.10% of those voting approved the Central Arkansas Library System bond refinancing.

The refinancing will allow CALS to:

  • Expand the Thompson, Fletcher, and Dee Brown libraries and reconfigure their children’s areas
  • Limited remodel in the Main Library and refurbish the Williams Library
  • Expand and upgrade the digital/Internet network
  • Purchase thousands of books, eBooks, DVDs, & CDs

Because of the restructuring of the debt, it will actually lower taxes by about $2 per year on a $100,000 home and extend the bond payments by approximately five years.

The final numbers were 3,834 FOR, 619 AGAINST.  Two ballots were cast which were overvotes (voters filled in both bubbles) and five ballots were cast which were undervotes (they were blank). 4400 votes in a special election in July is a fairly decent turnout. It was 3.51% turnout.  When one considers how anemic voter turnout is for presidential elections, this should be viewed as fairly strong.

Looking at the precinct reports, it shows a deep level of support from all areas of the city.  It passed overwhelmingly in every precinct.  The most votes garnered against it in a precinct were 291 at one of the two Pulaski Heights Presbyterian precincts in Hillcrest.  But as that precinct had over 3,000 voters, it was still only 9% of the voters at that ballot box.

The Central Arkansas Library System is in the process of hiring a replacement for retiring director Dr. Bobby Robert

CALS Election Today – Vote Yes!

Posted on by

Cals ELectionVoters in Little Rock need to go to the polls today! (July 14, 2015)

It is your chance to take an already outstanding library system and make it even stronger!

The Central Arkansas Library System is asking Little Rock voters to approve a bond refinance that will generate about $15,000,000 and reduce property tax rates from one mill to 0.9 mill.

Vote YES!
What will CALS do for Little Rock Voters?

  • Expand the Thompson, Fletcher, and Dee Brown libraries and reconfigure their children’s areas
  • Limited remodel in the Main Library and refurbish the Williams Library
  • Expand and upgrade the digital/Internet network
  • Purchase thousands of books, eBooks, DVDs, & CDs

How does it affect the Little Rock taxpayer?

It will lower taxes by about $2 per year on a $100,000 home and extend the bond payments by approximately five years.

Lower property taxes and higher quality libraries!

(This is only the second time the Culture Vulture has gotten political. The other concerned the vote to renovate Robinson Center Music Hall.  In both instances, the financial impact per citizen was negligible, but the cultural impact was phenomenal.  The Culture Vulture will never endorse candidates.)