University Libraries Announces Black History Month Exhibit

Photo Submitted

Dr. Margaret Clark, who taught at the U of A from 1969-1998, with John Harrison, director of Mullins Library in 1986 (MC1302, University Relations Photographs)

An exhibit honoring Arkansas’ black women leaders is currently on display in the Walton Reading Room of Mullins Library. Arkansas’s Black Women: Making a Difference recognizes women who have shaped Arkansas’s history and culture, whether in the arts, activism, academics, sports, or health care.

Arkansas’ black women have often achieved great fame and recognition, such as celebrated author and poet Maya Angelou or path-breaking Sister Rosetta Tharpe, gospel singer and guitar innovator; while others made significant contributions that are less well known, such as professor emeritus Margaret Clark, one of the first Silas Hunt Legacy Award recipients and the first female African American professor at the University of Arkansas.

The exhibit is enriched by one of a kind and rare materials from Special Collections’ diverse holdings. These include letters of support to Senator Dale Bumpers for the nomination of Joycelyn Elders to the position of United States Surgeon General, personal correspondence between civil rights activist Daisy Bates and pioneering physician Edith Irby Jones, and a limited edition folio-sized book of Maya Angelou’s poem “Grandmothers,” signed by the late author.

“The accomplishments of women, particularly African Americans, are too often overlooked,” said Timothy G. Nutt, head of Special Collections, “but this exhibit shines the light on several remarkable women and their significant contributions to Arkansas and the world.”

The exhibit can be viewed now through the end of March and is a collaborative effort by the Special Collections Exhibit Committee, Amy Allen, university archivist; Ashley Cain, archival assistant; Kasey Kelm, Special Collections assistant; Valerie Robertson, assistant to the head of Special Collections; Catherine Wallack, architectural records archivist and committee chair; and Joshua Youngblood, research and outreach services librarian. Please email specoll@uark.edu for more information.