Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Arkansas Tech Professor To Be 2022 Statehood Day Speaker
FAYETTEVILLE – Dr. Kelly Houston-Jones, a professor of history at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, will deliver the 2022 Statehood Day Address at 2 p.m., Sunday, June 12, at the Headquarters House.
The afternoon event, held outside on the lawn at 118 E. Dickson Street, is free and open to the public.
The Washington County Historical Society is one of the only county historical groups in Arkansas continuing to observe Statehood Day with an annual address, according to Maylon Rice, Statehood Day chairman.
“Every year since the mid-1970s, the Washington County Historical Society has invited a speaker to give a Statehood Day Address,” Rice said.
Past speakers have included former U.S. Senator and Governor David Pryor, former Governor Jim Guy Tucker, historians Tom Dillard, Charles Bolton, Jeannie Whayne, Brooks Blevins and last year’s speaker in 2021, Rex Nelson, a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
The speech will be made with the speaker on the front porch of the Headquarters House at 118 E. Dickson Street with lawn chairs provided for those attending.
The actual date for Statehood is June 15, but WCHS observes the date on the Sunday before the actual date each year.
Houston-Jones, a native of Clarksville, Ark., holds degrees from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and North Texas State University and her doctoral degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
She is currently a board member of the Arkansas Historical Association and an officer in the Arkansas History Instructors Association.
Houston-Jones specializes in American slavery, usually focusing her research efforts on the Trans- Mississippi South, especially Arkansas. She has worked on uncovering the histories of slave life on the ground in Arkansas and carries an enduring interest in the history of Arkansas as the western edge of the American South, which informs her teaching and participation at public history events.
Houston- Jones also is the graduate director for the history department at Arkansas Tech.