Four Major Events Planned for Black History Month

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Gregory Bright and Charles Holt

UPDATE: Due to the likelihood of inclement weather, the performance of Never Fight a Shark in Water will be postponed and rescheduled. A book signing on Thursday is still tentatively scheduled but may be rescheduled depending on the storm.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas will host four major events during February in recognition of Black History Month. Subjects range from the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad to an innocent man’s struggle for justice in the American legal system.

The innocent man is Gregory Bright, who was wrongly convicted of murder in New Orleans in 1975. His story is told in the one-man play, Never Fight a Shark in Water. Bright was sentenced to life in prison without parole, but in the Louisiana State Prison at Angola he taught himself to read, then taught himself the law. He filed appeals that went as far as the Louisiana Supreme Court before a lawyer from the Innocence Project New Orleans stepped in to help. It took Gregory Bright more than 27 years to prove his innocence, but in 2003 he was finally exonerated.

The play, based on Bright’s own words, was written by Lara Naughton and is performed by Charles Holt. It premiered in New Orleans last October. The title comes from something Bright told Naughton: “The odds were against me, but it’s like my main man Wing Ding used to say when we was in prison: ‘Never fight a shark in water, get him on land and you got him.’ Well, it took me 27 1/2 years but I finally got that shark on land.”

Never Fight a Shark in Water , which had been planned for presentation this week, will be postponed because of inclement weather and rescheduled. The performance is sponsored by the University of Arkansas Multicultural Center. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

“This is an important play and is an excellent way to begin Black History Month,” said Cedric Kenner, director of the Multicultural Center. “It is about more than injustice, or the way African American men are often treated in the legal system. This is a story of one man’s survival, of his spiritual triumph as well as his legal victory. I’m proud that the university will be among the first college campuses in the country to present this play.”

The African American experience at the University of Arkansas itself is the subject of the oral history Remembrances in Black: Personal Perspectives of the African American Experience at the University of Arkansas, 1940s—2000s, edited by Charles F. Robinson and Lonnie R. Williams and published by the University of Arkansas Press.

The University of Arkansas was the first major southern university to integrate voluntarily and peacefully, without threat of a lawsuit. That does not mean that African American students necessarily felt welcome on campus. In fact Robinson maintains that because the university desegregated without the violence and excessive public attention that occurred at other schools such as Alabama and Mississippi, the pace of true integration moved more slowly.

The University Bookstore is hosting a book signing with the authors from 3-4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 3, outside Peet’s Coffee in the Garland Center. The public is invited.

Some of the next generation of African American students at the university may be among the high school students on campus Feb. 24-26 for the three-day Diversity Impact event, organized by the Office of Admissions, University Housing and the Multicultural Center. The admissions office is involved in a major initiative to recruit underrepresented students of all races to experience campus life at the University of Arkansas. Diversity Impact will provide prospective minority students with opportunities to tour the University of Arkansas campus, meet with faculty, talk to current students, and learn about specific scholarships and financial aid opportunities. As many as 100 students are expected to attend.

One event these students and others may attend is “Sweet Chariot,” a simulation of the experience of African American slaves seeking freedom through the Underground Railroad in the pre-Civil War south. This nationally recognized annual program provides the University of Arkansas community a chance to interact with students in a living history setting. Some of the stops on the program’s journey include a quilt room, a constellation room and a music room where program participants learn of the role these areas had in the Underground Railroad.  The office of university housing is hosting the event from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 24 at Gibson Hall.