FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — This September a group of University of Arkansas Press authors whose new books deal with the Little Rock school crisis and civil rights will participate in a number of events in Little Rock as part of the capitol’s month-long 50th anniversary celebration.

ohn Kirk’s new book, Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis (paperback, $19.95), looks at black activism and race relations in Arkansas. Noted British historian Tony Badger describes the book as “masterly . . . no one is better equipped than John Kirk to put the Little Rock crisis in the context of the 'long’ civil rights movement in Arkansas.”

John Kirk is professor of United States History at Royal Holloway, University of London. The book includes a moving foreword by Minnijean Brown Trickey, who was one of the Little Rock Nine students.

Race, Politics, and Memory: A Documentary History of the Little Rock School Crisis, edited by Catherine M. Lewis and J. Richard Lewis (paperback, $19.95), shows how a local conflict became a national cause. This book is a collection of primary source documents-newspaper articles, political cartoons, memoirs, speeches and other material-from 1900 to 2006. They all reveal something significant about the event and its aftermath, while some offer an unconventional or unexpected perspective on the crisis and the issues it raised.

Catherine M. Lewis is an associate professor of history and women’s studies at Kennesaw State University. J. Richard Lewis is a desegregation consultant and former educator and president of JRL Educational Services.

In early September the University Press will issue a new edition of Daisy Bates’ famous memoir about the crisis and her role in it, The Long Shadow of Little Rock, with its original, powerful foreword by Eleanor Roosevelt-“This is a book which I hope will be read by every American.” The book has been one of University Press’ best sellers (paperback, $17.95). This new edition has a handsome cover illustration of John Deering’s painting “The Gauntlet-Little Rock, 1957,” and an afterword by Clayborne Carson, professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

John Kirk will give the “Legacies at Lunch” talk at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5, at the Darragh Center at the Butler Center/Little Rock Main Library.

Kirk will also be participating at the “Little Rock Desegregation Crisis” conference at the Doubletree Hotel, Sept. 7 and 8, where he will sign copies of his book at the University of Arkansas Press’ book display.

 At 5p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, Kirk and Catherine and Richard Lewis will sign copies of their books at the opening of the new Visitor’s Center at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. Judith Kilpatrick, of the UA Law School and author of the recently published UA Press title, There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior, will sign copies of her book at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22 at the Clinton Museum Store and at UA Pine Bluff’s Museum and Cultural Center-Branton was from Pine Bluff-that afternoon at 2p.m. She will also be participating at the UALR’s program on the school crisis at 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 21, where her book will be available for sale. Kilpatrick will also sign copies of her book at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 29 at Borders Bookstore in Rogers.