Newswise — The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s (UALR) Department of History and new Institute on Race and Ethnicity will host the symposium, “Sit-Ins, Freedom Rides, and Beyond: Direct Action and Civil Rights in 1960s Arkansas” from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 West 9th St. in downtown Little Rock to explore the history of movement in the state 50 years after the arrest of five Freedom Riders in Little Rock.
“Little Rock and Arkansas have a rich, deep and complex civil rights history that stretches well beyond the events at Central High,” said John Kirk, UALR history department chair and Donaghey professor. “The sit-ins and Freedom Rides launched the 1960s civil rights movement in the United States and Arkansas. The story of Arkansas and the civil rights movement in the 1960s is one that has seldom been told, often overshadowed by the events of the 1957 Little Rock School Crisis.”
The symposium, free and open to the public, will focus on the members of the Arkansas Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (“Arsnick”) who led sit-in demonstrations at segregated local business in downtown Little Rock during the 1960s. C-SPAN will record the the event.
The conference will bring back activists who worked in the state in the 1960s to tell the story in their own words.
The symposium will include Frank James, a participant in the first “sit-in” and one of the founding members of Arsnick – the Arkansas chapter of the national SNCC – at Philander Smith; Bill Hansen, the first SNCC representative from the national organization to arrive in Arkansas in 1962 and director of SNCC’s Arkansas Project from 1962-1966; and Worth Long, an organizer of the sit-in movement at Philander Smith College from 1960-62 who successfully pressured – along with Hansen – for the desegregation of downtown lunch facilities in 1963.
John Curtis Raines, one of the five Freedom Riders arrested in Little Rock on July 10, 1961, and Laura Foner, one of the few white women who worked with SNCC in Arkansas, will participate.
Seminars will discuss the Pine Bluff Movement, a SNCC affiliate, whose leader, Robert Whitfield, later successfully filed suit to desegregate dormitories at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He will be among the participants, along with: * Jim Jones, who became joint director of the Arkansas SNCC Project with Bill Hansen from 1964-1966. * Howard Himmelbaum, who came to state to work with SNCC, stayed and – almost 50 years later – is still here as office manager to Gov. Mike Beebe. * Michael Simmons, an activist in the Helena-Forrest City SNCC organization now living in Budapest, Hungary, where he operates a Human Rights organization. * Dwight Williams, a SNCC worker in Arkansas. * Bryan Rybolt, who came to Arkansas as a SNCC photographer and now is a professional photographer in London. * Jennifer Jensen Wallach, assistant professor of history at University of North Texas and co-editor with Kirk of new book published this month by the University of Arkansas Press, “Arsnick: the Student Nonviolent Coodinating Committee in Arkansas.”
Symposium sessions also will explore the activities of the Gould Citizens’ for Progress, a SNCC affiliate, that fought against the town’s “freedom of choice” school attendance plan that hampered efforts to desegregate until the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the use of such plans.
Sanderia Smith, who just completed her work of fiction based on her experiences growing up in Gould, will moderate a panel about the school battle.Panelists include: * Lucy Whitfield, president of the Gould Citizens’ for Progress. * Essie Dale Cableton, secretary of Gould Citizens’ for Progress and wife of SNCC field worker Bob Cableton. * Marion Cox, who was involved in the Gould case that outlawed “freedom of choice” schools nationwide. * Kenneth Harris, also involved in the Gould case.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, July 10, at the Old State House, UALR, the city, and the Clinton Foundation will mark the historic integration ride at the 1961 Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary Celebration.
The event will commemorate the bus ride and honor the five Freedom Riders who braved the mob 50 years ago to help integrate the segregated Trailways Bus Terminal.
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, and John Curtis Raines, a Freedom Rider arrested 50 years ago in Little Rock, will be on hand.
Also attending will be the family of the Rev. Benjamin Elton Cox, leader of the Little Rock Freedom Riders who died recently, and civil rights activists who were members of Arkansas’ SNCC chapter.
They will unveil a marker on the site of the old Trailways Depot and inaugurate the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail that begins at the former bus station and stretches to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center. Plaques honoring the five Freedom Riders will be placed in the sidewalk to start the trail. In the coming years, plaques honoring 10 more Arkansas civil rights activists will be added annually.
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