Stories, items sought for exhibit

Shutt said the exhibit will begin traveling in the state in February 2020.

An effort is underway to collect stories, artifacts and memorabilia for a “traveling exhibit on the history of African-American education in Arkansas,” according to a news release from the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

“We’re hoping to collect stories over the next couple of months so we can get it put together,” said Christina Shutt, director of The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, a Little Rock museum that is part of the Heritage Department.

Shutt said the exhibit will begin traveling in the state in February 2020.

Danielle Butler, the exhibit curator, said the oral histories will be recorded and digitized.

The stories can be from people who attended, taught at or worked at segregated black schools in Arkansas, Shutt said. School-related items from earlier generations may also be included in the exhibit.

Shutt said the exhibit will consist primarily of posters. Items can be loaned or donated to the cultural center. In most cases, photographs will be made of the items and the pictures will be used on the posters, she said.

Butler said the exhibit will address primary and secondary education in Arkansas from Reconstruction to the present.

“We will not have the space to talk about every school in Arkansas, obviously, but we are hoping to cover the major categories as follows: Freedmen’s Bureau schools, early religious

schools, agricultural and training schools, Rosenwald schools, company schools, public high schools and public primary schools,” she said.

In addition to those segregated black schools, the Arkansas School for the Blind and Deaf will be included, she said.

The Arkansas Black Schools Project has compiled a list of several of the state’s segregated black schools at arhistoryhub.com/ blackschoolsproject.

Butler said the focus of the exhibit won’t be centered on the desegregation period of the 1950s, but integration will be discussed in the overall narrative. Many Arkansas school districts didn’t fully desegregate until years after the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

Butler said she doesn’t know how many segregated black schools there were in the state, but the schools built by businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald were well-documented.

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program has spearheaded the effort to identify Rosenwald schools in Arkansas. Eighteen of the original 389 Rosenwald buildings still remain in Arkansas, according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.

“Today, a few of the buildings have been rehabilitated, and some schools have active alumni associations,” according to the encyclopedia entry. “However, most are vacant and deteriorating, lacking markers to indicate their important place in Arkansas’ history.”

After the exhibit is complete, schools, museums and other institutions across the state can schedule the exhibit to visit their locations, according to the news release.

“The Department of Arkansas Heritage works diligently to tell the complete history of Arkansas,” said Stacy Hurst, director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage. “Black history is Arkansas history, and we want to preserve those stories and share them with Arkansans for generations to come.”

Anyone with stories to tell or items to be considered can contact Butler at (501) 6833593 or dtmoses@ualr.edu.

In addition to those segregated black schools, the Arkansas School for the Blind and Deaf will be included, she said.