From the Smith Family Papers:

Smith Family Papers

BC.MSS.02.20

About the collection
The papers consist of letters, an autobiography, various publications, photographs, and other materials pertaining to the Smith family. The bulk of the collection is 19th century correspondence among various family members. Colonel Smith was a devout Methodist, and a great deal of information can be gleaned from the materials about the denomination. The collection also covers such topics as education, early reminiscences, travel and description, slavery, economic conditions, the Civil War, and agriculture. Additional items within the papers include genealogical information, financial notes and receipts, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia.

About the Smith family
In 1843, Colonel Maurice Smith journeyed from Fayette County, Tennessee, to Dallas County, Arkansas, with the hope of starting a new life for his family. Col. Smith, a native of Caswell County, North Carolina, ventured into the recently created state with Dr. W. B. Langley and Cornelia (Smith) Langley, his son-in-law and daughter, and their overseers and slaves. In October, the group arrived at the hamlet of Tulip. A new home was soon built, and Smith subsequently returned to Tennessee, where he spent the following year disposing of his lands and preparing his family for the movement to Arkansas. In October 1844, the entire family made the arduous trip westward and soon settled into life at "The Athens of Arkansas." Thus began the enduring legacy of one Arkansas family.

Selected items

Colonel Maurice Smith, undated

Series III, Box 2, Item 2

Funeral sermon for Colonel Maurice Smith, 1835

Series III, Box 1, File 21

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Featured Manuscript Collection: Little Rock Garden Club Records

Little Rock Garden Club Records
MSS.01.12
Finding Aid
From the Club's website:
"The Little Rock Garden Club was organized in 1923 under the leadership of Mrs. J.N. Heiskell and was the first garden club in Arkansas. After encouraging and assisting other groups to organize, LRGC became one of nine charter clubs in 1931 of the Arkansas Federation of Garden Clubs. In 1960, LRGC became a member of the Garden Club of America.

When Mrs. Heiskell and our charter members began this club, they had a dream it would enrich the life and enhance the appearance of Little Rock. Since 1923, our members have continued in their path. Our many past projects and their impact in Little Rock show how the original dream continues as reality today."

Early projects of the Little Rock Garden Club included restoration of the Old State House and the Arkansas Territorial Restoration (now the Historic Arkansas Museum). The Club also successfully promoted the preservation of native dogwood and holly and provided landscaping for several parks and the grounds of several public buildings in central Arkansas. Today, the Club continues to promote horticultural and environmental education.

This collection contains organizational and financial records of the Club dating from 1923-2002, including board minutes, photographs, scrapbooks, and memorabilia.

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Researching the Central High Crisis: Manuscript Collections

Butler Center staff is used to getting requests for help researching topics related to the Central High Desegregation Crisis. If you are interested in the Crisis, visit the Arkansas Studies Institute and we can help you access these one-of-a-kind manuscript collections full of primary and secondary sources.

Eight of the Little Rock Nine (Carlotta Walls, Gloria Ray, Ernest Green, Jefferson Thomas, Terrance Roberts, Thelma Mothershed, Minniejean Brown, and Melba Patillo) after filing affidavits on the cases with U.S. District Attorney, Little Rock, Ark., September 1957
International News Photograph

PHO.2.A.4.156

Bobbie Forester Collection
BC.MSS.99.26
This collection contains the personal records and correspondence of a writer and editor for the Arkansas Democrat who was honored for her coverage of the Little Rock school desegregation crisis.

Elizabeth Paisley Huckaby Collection
BC.MSS.97.19
This collection contains many materials related to the Central High Crisis including letters to the Little Rock Nine and a series of letters written to her brother Bill Paisley during the turbulent time at Central High School which she compiled and entitled "Letters to Bill." It also contains news clippings about her retirement, her movie and book, the Central High integration crisis, and the related issues of segregation and race relations. Most of these newspaper clippings are from the Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Democrat and a fair amount of them are saved in two scrapbooks along with printed propaganda from the segregationist forces and memos from the Little Rock school board to the teachers.

Elizabeth Jacoway Little Rock Crisis Collection
BC.MSS.10.48
This collection contains documents and audio-visual materials accumulated by Elizabeth Jacoway during more than 30 years of research for her 2007 book, Turn Away Thy Son: Little Rock, the Crisis that Shocked the Nation.

Office of Desegregation Monitoring Records
BC.MSS.08.67
This collection contains records from the Office of Desegregation Monitoring, including legal documents, correspondence, news clippings, maps, school profiles, monitoring and various other reports concerning school district compliances, operations, and policies.

William T. Shelton Desegregation Materials
BC.MSS.97.03
The collection includes journalistic material associated with the reportage of desegregation of public schools in the South.

Grif Stockley Papers
BC.MSS.01.01
Stockley published Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas in 2005. This collection contains primary documents and research notes related to his book, as well as drafts of the manuscript. Topics include the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Arkansas, race relations, and discrimination in the Arkansas court system.

Tom W. Dillard Black Arkansiana Materials
BC.MSS.00.10
This collection is arranged into fourteen series: Series I contains biographical data on black Arkansans, which is arranged alphabetically. The remaining materials are grouped into series by subject. The final series pertains to general African-American history.

This list is by no means exhaustive and does not include the numerous books and other printed materials available for researchers. For more information about the resources available at the Butler Center, please call 501-320-5700 or email arkinfo@cals.org.

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From the Smith Family Papers:

Smith Family Papers

BC.MSS.02.20

About the collection
The papers consist of letters, an autobiography, various publications, photographs, and other materials pertaining to the Smith family. The bulk of the collection is 19th century correspondence among various family members. Colonel Smith was a devout Methodist, and a great deal of information can be gleaned from the materials about the denomination. The collection also covers such topics as education, early reminiscences, travel and description, slavery, economic conditions, the Civil War, and agriculture. Additional items within the papers include genealogical information, financial notes and receipts, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia.

About the Smith family
In 1843, Colonel Maurice Smith journeyed from Fayette County, Tennessee, to Dallas County, Arkansas, with the hope of starting a new life for his family. Col. Smith, a native of Caswell County, North Carolina, ventured into the recently created state with Dr. W. B. Langley and Cornelia (Smith) Langley, his son-in-law and daughter, and their overseers and slaves. In October, the group arrived at the hamlet of Tulip. A new home was soon built, and Smith subsequently returned to Tennessee, where he spent the following year disposing of his lands and preparing his family for the movement to Arkansas. In October 1844, the entire family made the arduous trip westward and soon settled into life at "The Athens of Arkansas." Thus began the enduring legacy of one Arkansas family.

Selected items

1 oz. Spirits Turpentine

1 oz. Coal Oil

1 oz. Sweet Oil

2 drams Spirits Ammonia

2 drams Chloroform 

2 drams Gum Camphor

"A valuable linament"

Series III, Box 1, File 22

"Cure for cancer," partial selection

Series III, Box 1, File 23

Note: These are presented for historical value only. The Butler Center does not endorse these home remedies.

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From the Korean War collections:

Airplanes from the 154th warming up for take off, unused trenches in the foreground, unidentified location, Korea, ca. 1951

6 x 4, black and white copy

KWP.23  L. Clyde Chaney Korean War Collection

Box 2, Item 30

Catholic Priest with three unidentified airmen, unidentified location, Korea, ca. 1951

 6 x 4, black and white copy

KWP.23  L. Clyde Chaney Korean War Collection

Box 2, Item 54

Two unidentified troops replacing an engine on an F-84 airplane, unidentified location, Korea, ca. 1951

3 1/2 x 4 3/4, black and white copy

KWP.23  L. Clyde Chaney Korean War Collection

Box 2, Item 31

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From the Smith Family Papers:

Smith Family Papers

BC.MSS.02.20

About the collection
The papers consist of letters, an autobiography, various publications, photographs, and other materials pertaining to the Smith family. The bulk of the collection is 19th century correspondence among various family members. Colonel Smith was a devout Methodist, and a great deal of information can be gleaned from the materials about the denomination. The collection also covers such topics as education, early reminiscences, travel and description, slavery, economic conditions, the Civil War, and agriculture. Additional items within the papers include genealogical information, financial notes and receipts, newspaper clippings, and memorabilia.

About the Smith family
In 1843, Colonel Maurice Smith journeyed from Fayette County, Tennessee, to Dallas County, Arkansas, with the hope of starting a new life for his family. Col. Smith, a native of Caswell County, North Carolina, ventured into the recently created state with Dr. W. B. Langley and Cornelia (Smith) Langley, his son-in-law and daughter, and their overseers and slaves. In October, the group arrived at the hamlet of Tulip. A new home was soon built, and Smith subsequently returned to Tennessee, where he spent the following year disposing of his lands and preparing his family for the movement to Arkansas. In October 1844, the entire family made the arduous trip westward and soon settled into life at "The Athens of Arkansas." Thus began the enduring legacy of one Arkansas family.

Selected items

Executive Officers of the Woman's Missionary Society, 1894

Series III, Box 4, Item 24

"Send Me" newsletter, Woman's Missionary Society, August 1894

This item contains a memorial for Annie Maurice Smith Strong.

Series I, Box 2, File 23

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Featured Manuscript Collection

Arkansas Music Collection
BC.MSS.99.01
Finding aid
The Arkansas music collection contains an eclectic mix of materials related to the rich Arkansas music scene. Arkansas music includes many genres, from country and folk to blues, jazz, and rock. In addition to the music created here and by Arkansans, Arkansas has often been the subject of songs created both in the state and outside, reflecting the perceptions of natives and of outsiders at various points in the state's history. Many important venues and events have and still take place in Arkansas, and significant contributions have also been made by Arkansans behind the scenes in music production, management, and technology.

The collection is organized into the following large categories: People and Events; Sheet Music/Lyrics; Posters/Musician Items; Miscellaneous (mostly magazines and publicity clippings).

Items of particular interest include the Ruth and Howard Bearden Scrapbook collection, containing photos and memorabilia from the big band era, as well as, photographs and memorabilia from The Light Brigade, a local band who performed and recorded mostly during the mid-sixties through the late seventies. The Light Brigade materials include articles of clothing worn by band members during some of their performances.

Tommy Scott Band, 1965 (from Ruth and Howard Bearden scrapbook collection)

The Light Brigade, undated
The Arkansas music collection is an open and growing collection. As relevant materials are acquired, they will be processed and added to the collection.

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From the Korean War Collections:

Jack Currie with an unidentified woman with the USO
POW Camp at Koje-do Island, Korea, 1952
5 1/2 x 3 3/4, black and white copy
BC.KWP.20 Jackson D. Currie Korean War Collection

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Featured Collection: Maxwell Lyons Sr. Papers

The Maxwell Lyons Sr. papers are now available to the public through the Arkansas Studies Institute research room. This collection contains documents related to the military service of Maxwell J. Lyons Sr., including numerous letters written by Lyons during World War I. The collection also includes other related correspondence and military documents, several photographs, and a scrapbook.

Maxwell Joseph Lyons was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on May 30, 1896. After the outbreak of World War I, he left Princeton University to enlist in the Army, but was turned away twice for being overweight for his height. He then tried to enlist in the National Guard with the same result before moving on the U.S. Marine Corps. Although he faced the same weight regulations with the USMC, the examining physician did not believe his weight should stop Lyons from service and encouraged him to continue to push for acceptance. Eventually, Lyons traveled to Washington D.C. and sought the help of Congressman Henderson M. Jacoway to reach the military officials. In December 1917, he was finally successful. Soon after enlisting, Lyons was sent to France with the 6th Marines. He received the Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross, as well as the Croix de Guerre and Fors a Guerre from France. After the armistice was signed, Lyons remained in Germany with the Army of Occupation before returning to the United States in April 1919.

Lyons was president of the Lyons Machinery Company, a family business. He was involved with the Marine Corps League and served as state commandant during World War II. He died in October 1978 in Little Rock.

Most of the correspondence in this collection is from Maxwell Lyons while he was stationed in France and Germany to his family in Little Rock. Maxwell writes of the War and his conditions, as well as of his impressions of Europe and the local people. Other correspondence in the collection of note is a series of letters from Joseph Lyons (Maxwell’s father) seeking a speedy discharge of his son due to the health of a family member. The collection also contains eight editions from April 1919, of "The Charleston Daily Roll," a newspaper printed at sea on USS Charleston.

The finding aid for the Maxwell Lyons Sr. Papers can be accessed online or in the research room at the Arkansas Studies Institute. Correspondence and photos from the collection are available online through Arkansas and the Great War.

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From the Korean War Collections:

Soldiers loading injured man onto Mechanized Angel, Captain Albert Sebourn (far left), unidentified location, Korea, ca. 1951.

5 x 4, black and white copy print

KWP-68 Albert Sebourn Korean War Collection

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From the Charles A. Williams Jr. collection:

Charles A. Williams Jr. collection
MSS.05.29

Charles A. Williams Jr. was born in Louisiana in 1916, to Charles A. Williams Sr. and Oma Seahorn Williams. The family moved to North Little Rock, Arkansas, in the early 1920s, where his father worked as a carpenter. He joined the Arkansas National Guard in the 1930s and served in Battery A of the 206th Coast Artillery, a unit based in Little Rock. He served with the 206th through its deployment to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from 1941 until March 1944. Learn more about the 206th time in Alaska and the "Williwaw War" at the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Pencil drawing of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, signed "Little," 10x6 on light weight paper, ca. 1942
Box 1, File 11

World War II diary, Sergeant Charles A. Williams Jr., December 1941-January 1942
Box 1, File 10

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Festive Finds

These gems are from the Arkansas Forestry Commission Collection (currently being processed by Butler Center archival staff).

Click to enlarge.

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Featured Manuscript Collection

City of Little Rock Collection
MSS.07.51
Finding Aid

Box 22, File 26: Housing Authority, Urban Progress Association, Inc., Sneak Preview of Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project, ca. 1965
The City of Little Rock Collection currently contains 29 ledger and record books, which hold city ordinance publication records, financial records, including those dealing with taxes and bond issuance, as well as the day to day transactions of the City of Little Rock, Arkansas. The collection also includes reports from the Mayor and other city officers and information about planning and maintenance of the various city parks and facilities.

Boxes 1-13 contain the financial records, boxes 14-16 contain property tax assessments, and boxes 17- 18 contain records of the Board of Public Affairs and the Board of Health, respectively. Boxes 19-21 contain record books of city ordinance proofs of publication, and box 22 contains the reports from the mayor and city officers, city planning information, and parks and recreation department reports.

Ordinances passed by the city government were posted in the local newspapers. These postings were recorded in record books with a clipping of the posted ordinance from the newspaper, sometimes accompanied by a certified document with the city seal and mayor’s signature.

Two books contain the records of two city boards, the Board of Public Affairs and the Board of Health. The Board of Public Affairs dealt with taking bids for city projects, from paving to construction, and the care and feeding of city service animals. Information about the existence and location of various landmarks of the time, when particular streets might have been paved and who would have done the work can be found in this record. The Board of Health Record records actions taken to address unsanitary conditions and outbreaks of disease in the city.

Box 17, File 1: Record Book, Board of Public Affairs, January 3, 1898-September 15, 1911
Various day to day financial transactions are recorded in some of the ledgers showing the routine business of the city--some include expense records, others include tax collection records from various individuals and businesses.

Records for the sale and maturity dates of various bonds are recorded in many of the various ledger books available in the collection. Many of these were for special projects, such as the construction of Robinson Auditorium, the airport, parks, and other city maintenance and improvement.

Box 3, File 1: Ledger Book, Bonds, various accounts, June 30, 1924-May 1940
While the majority of the collection is in the form of large ledger and record books, there are also smaller items, such as pamphlets and booklets. Most of these are reports from the Mayor and other city officials to the City Board or Reports of the Parks and Recreation Department. Other materials deal with the planning and development, or redevelopment, of the city. Some of these plans are evident today, and some, like a planned sports arena complex on the riverfront at Markham and Main, never made it past the planning stages.

Box 22, File 26: Housing Authority, Urban Progress Association, Inc., Sneak Preview of Central Little Rock Urban Renewal Project, ca. 1965
This collection is currently available and open to the public in the research room of the Arkansas Studies Institute and will be added to from time to time as additional related materials are accessioned and processed.

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New Collection Highlights

Butler Center archivists are always hard at work processing collections that have been donated to us. Here are a few of the collections newly available in our research room:

BC.MSS.97.47 Pulaski County Schools History Collection
This collection contains directories, programs, yearbooks, newspapers, literary magazines, and other items from various elementary schools, junior high schools, senior high schools, and one college in Pulaski County.

BC.MSS.04.02 Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas Records
This collection contains organizational documents, correspondences, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, and other records covering much of the organization's history.

BC.MSS.03.08 German Evangelical Church Ladies Aid Account Book
This collection contains a cash book recording the activities of the ladies aid of the German Evangelical Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas, along with miscellaneous documents.

BC.MSS.05.37 Women's Auxiliary of the Children's Convalescent Center of Arkansas Collection
This collection contains correspondence, minutes, and a yearbook from the Women's Auxiliary of the Children's Convalescent Center of Arkansas, located in Jacksonville, covering the years 1947-1949.

BC.MSS.08.12 Carl Quaintance Scrapbook
This collection contains a scrapbook of amateur swimmer and diver Carl Quaintance, covering the years 1937-1947.

BC.MSS.08.13 Mattie Mae Ball Collection
This collection consists of two scrapbooks created by a student at Hendrix College in 1944 and 1945.

BC.MSS.09.05 John W. Jordan World War II Letters
This collection contains transcriptions of letters written during World War II.

BC.MSS.11.01 Penzel Family Collection
The collection contains items belonging to a German-American family who lived in Little Rock at the beginning of the twentieth century.

BC.MSS.13.26 John H. Dawson Papers
This collection contains financial records from the operation of Dawson and Pipkin, a cotton factor and merchandising firm operating in New Orleans and Arkansas in the 1840s and 1850s, and material related to the operation of a cotton gin by Lawrence E. Dawson and later his son, John H. Dawson, in Ouachita County, Arkansas, ca. 1890 to 1910.

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Featured Manuscript Collection

Jim Davis Hot Springs Collection
MSS 09-35
Finding Aid
The Jim Davis Hot Springs Collection, purchased by the Butler Center in 2009, contains more than 900 images of the Hot Springs area, as well as documents related to the promotion of Hot Springs. Davis, an Arkansas native and a resident of Hot Springs since 1994, began assembling the collection when he opened an antique store in 1996.

The collection includes photographs of buildings, scenes, people, events, and natural disasters, dating from the 1890s to the 1960s. A large portion of the photographs record the fires of 1905, 1913 and 1923, including images of the fires and of the ruins of the city after the fires. Other special events pictured include the Arkansas State Fair, a parade and the visit of President Franklin Roosevelt to the city.


Arkansaw Club, Hot Springs, Ark., 1913
The larger Hot Springs hotels such as the Arlington and the Majestic are shown, as are a number of smaller hotels and rooming houses, many with the group of guests standing in front of the building. These include the Cozy Hotel, the Home Hotel, the Jefferson and the Rockafellow Hotels. Other group pictures show hotel employees such as waiters and kitchen staff.

The collection also includes numerous photographs taken at McLeod's Happy Hollow, a popular amusement park in Hot Springs, as well as photographs of other tourist attractions such as the Arkansas Alligator Farm, the Ostrich Farm, and the Hot Springs Observation Town. Of course no collection of Hot Springs photographs would be complete without images of the bath houses themselves, both interior and exterior views.


Central Avenue after the 1913 fire, Hot Springs, Ark.
Four boxes of related documents contain promotional brochures and souvenirs by railroads, government agencies, and tourism groups. These range from a photo-gravure dated 1893, through the 1912 souvenir yearbook and parish guide for the Church of St. John the Baptist, to the 1974 Miss Hot Springs Pageant Program and a management plan and assessment done for the Hot Springs National Park in 1985.

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From the Arkansas Small Manuscripts Materials

Daily schedule and menu from the Arkansas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium, February 1911
Arkansas Small Manuscript Materials, Box 26, File 418
(Click to enlarge)

From the Encyclopedia of Arkansas: “The Arkansas State Tuberculosis Sanatorium was established in 1909 about three miles south of Booneville (Logan County). Once fully established, the sanatorium was the relocation center for all white Arkansans with tuberculosis. By the time the facility was closed in 1973, it treated over 70,000 patients, and in time, its main hospital, the Nyberg Building, became known worldwide for its tuberculosis treatment.”

*The Arkansas Small Manuscripts Materials (SMM) is a large collection containing miscellaneous documents pertaining to Arkansas. This collection is constantly expanding as new materials arrive at the Butler Center.

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Featured Manuscript Collection

Jared C. Martin Family Papers
MSS 05-01
Finding Aid
The Jared C. Martin Family Papers documents life in antebellum Arkansas through the personal correspondence of an early Arkansas settler and his family. Correspondence in the collection is dated from 1824 to 1882, with the largest concentration of letters written in the 1830s-1850s.

[Click to enlarge]
Letter: James H. Martin (opposite Little Rock, Arkansas Territory) to Eli J. Lewis (Post of Arkansas), January 17, 1826.
Martin writes about money owed to Lewis and how to collect payment. James Hutcheson Martin operated a ferry with his brothers in Little Rock on the Arkansas River. He died in 1826.
Jared Carswell Martin, the son of Irish immigrants John and Elizabeth Allen Martin, was born October 11, 1806, in the Cherokee Indian Nation, Georgia. He spent the majority of his childhood in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, before relocating to Little Rock, Arkansas Territory, around 1821. Jared operated a ferry on the Arkansas River with his brother, James Hutcherson Martin, and spent two years carrying mail between Little Rock and the Arkansas Post. Jared served as Pulaski County treasurer from 1840-1842, as a Pulaski County representative in the Arkansas legislature from 1842-1844, and as state treasurer from 1843-1845. Jared married Mary “Polly” Douglas on January 25, 1827, and the couple had eleven children. The Martin family settled in Fourche Bayou near Little Rock and set up a farm. Jared Carswell Martin died November 7, 1857.
[Click to enlarge]
Letter: Amos Byrd (Lawrence County, Arkansas Territory) to Jared C. Martin (Little Rock, Arkansas Territory), June 29, 1834.
Most of the personal correspondence in the collection deals with health, family relations, finances, and the state of the crops. Additionally, Jared C. Martin was a religious man and a few of the letters deal with his involvement with the church. Notably, two letters are from James Wilson Moore (1797-1873), the father of Presbyterian Church in Arkansas.
[Click to enlarge]
Letter: James H. Martin (Jackson, Missouri) to his uncle, Jared C. Martin (Little Rock, Ark.), January 12, 1840.
Many of the letters talk about local and state politics, as various members of the Martin family were involved in state-level Democratic politics. One letter of note is a piece of constituent correspondence regarding traveling ministers addressed to Jared C. Martin, John W. Cocke, and P. T. Crutchfield, Pulaski County Representatives in the Arkansas House from 1842-1844. In addition to Jared C. Martin’s political activities, his brother John Martin III served in the Missouri legislature from 1829-1836 and as postmaster of Batesville, Arkansas, from 1848-1862, and his brother Allen Martin served as Pulaski County surveyor from 1825-1830, as a member of the Arkansas Territorial Legislative Council from 1831-1833, and as Pulaski County sheriff from 1836-1838.

The bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available online.

[Click to enlarge]
Notice: M. Hill to Jared C. Martin (Little Rock, Ark.), July 20, 1840.
[Click to enlarge]
Certificate: commissioning Jared C. Martin Treasurer of the State of Arkansas, 1845.

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Solomon Munger and the Civil War

Solomon V. Munger, ca. 1862
When the Civil War began, Solomon V. Munger, a thirty-eight year old farmer living in Barry County, Michigan, enlisted at Battle Creek in 1862. Due to recruitment and organizational difficulties, two companies of Michigan men (including Munger), sought service in a Missouri regiment. These two companies became companies "H" and "I" of the 2nd Missouri Cavalry. In the summer of 1863, the unit moved into Arkansas, where it participated in the Little Rock Campaign and later the Camden Expedition. In February 1864, Solomon's son, Hiram, enlisted in the Union Army against his father's wishes. Hiram volunteered for service in the 2nd Missouri Cavalry and soon joined his father in Arkansas.

The pair wrote many letters home and several of these letters can be found in MSS 03-23 Munger Family Civil War Letters.

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Featured Manuscript Collection

Office of Desegregation Monitoring Records

MSS.08.37

Finding Aid

The Office of Desegregation Monitoring (ODM), a federal office created on December 12, 1990, by the Eighth Circuit Court and charged with the duty of monitoring and assisting Pulaski County’s three school districts—Little Rock School District (LRSD), North Little Rock School District (NLRSD), and Pulaski County Special School District (PCSSD)—in meeting their respective desegregation obligations and mandates. ODM was preceded by the Office of Metropolitan Supervisor (1989-1990). However, after the untimely death of Metropolitan Supervisor, Eugene Reville in a car accident on March 17, 1990, the Office of Metropolitan Supervisor was converted into the Office of Desegregation Monitoring.

The Pulaski County School desegregation case was filed on November 30, 1982, when the LRSD, composed mostly of African American students due to “white flight” from the city, sued the NLRSD, the PCSSD (composed mostly of white students), and the State of Arkansas. Represented by the law firm of Heller, Friday, Eldredge & Clark, the LRSD sought to obtain a remedy for the effects of segregation practices, charging that the actions and policies of the other districts had racially segregated it. The suit asked that all three districts consolidate into one countywide district to address the issue. Two intervenors eventually entered the litigation. The Joshua Intervenors, with Lorene Joshua as plaintiff, hired civil rights attorney John Walker to represent African American students with the goal of eliminating racial discrimination and its effects in the LRSD. The Knight Intervenors had Katherine Wright Knight, president of the Classroom Teachers Association, as plaintiff.

The request to consolidate all three school districts into one was ultimately denied, but the districts were required to take steps to end the remnants of racial discrimination in their schools. The final plan involved a series of programs to improve education and attract white students from the suburbs. As a part of the settlement, the state agreed to subsidize the districts’ desegregation efforts over several years.

The case came under the jurisdiction of the United States District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, which eventually granted unitary status to two of the three districts. Unitary status is obtained when desegregation has occurred to a practical extent. At that point, the district is allowed to manage its affairs without federal court approval. The LRSD was granted unitary status in 2007 and the NLRSD in 2011. Currently, the PCSSD has not obtained complete unitary status.

The collection contains legal documents, including court filings, motions, responses, orders, and exhibits. It also contains correspondence; news clippings; maps; school profiles; monitoring and various other reports concerning school district compliances, operations, and policies. The case has been heard by five federal judges: Henry Woods (1982-1990), Susan Webber Wright (1990-2002), and William R. (Bill) Wilson Jr. (2002-2009), Brian Miller (2009-2011), and D. Price Marshall (2011-present). ODM federal monitors have included: Ann S. Marshall, Judge Andrea Roaf, and Margie Powell.

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Advertising in the Arkansas Democrat

Contract for Worthen Bank advertising space in the Arkansas Democrat newspaper, August 3, 1923.
For a rate of $0.70 net per inch, Worthen Bank agreed to take the minimum required advertising space in the Arkansas Democrat for one year. Specifically, Worthen Bank was committed to a 4 inch double column on Wednesdays and Sundays or a total of 16 inches each week.

Location of this document: MSS 08-06 Worthen Bank Collection, Series I, Box 1, File 17.

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