Panel Discussion: 'A Confederate Star: Arkansas' Flag and the Lost Cause'

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Join the University Libraries and Department of History doctoral candidates Airic Hughes, Will Teague and Marie Totten for the panel presentation "A Confederate Star: Arkansas' Flag and the Lost Cause" from 4-5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, on Zoom. This event is free and open to the public, and registration is required. 

Panelists will discuss the Arkansas state flag's history within the context of the Lost Cause myth, the Klan, nativism, and racism. The presentation will provide a historical survey from the Civil War through the early 1920s in order to contextualize how Arkansas ended up with a large KKK presence and the flag's confederate commemoration.

One of the presenters, Will Teague, said they want to "offer an educational section that explores the state flag's commemoration of the Confederacy and how it got there."

 "It is expected that in the next legislative session the Arkansas General Assembly will once again be faced with a bill that addresses the issue," said Teague. "The Confederate star is not just a commemoration of the Confederacy, but one that was placed there by the Arkansas Ku Klux Klan in 1923 — a group that was fiercely anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, and racist. We feel it is important to start talking now about why this matters and want to promote respectful conversation and debate on this point through general education."

All registrants will receive a Zoom link via email on the day of the event. 

Hughes, Teague and Totten have all previously participated in the Libraries' and Graduate School and International Education's Graduate Student Speaker Series. Graduate students from all majors interested in presenting on research they have done using Special Collections materials are encouraged to apply.