Pryor Center to Present 'Centennial Celebration of Arkansas Women Legislators, 1922-2022'

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Published by the University of Arkansas Press

The Pryor Center Presents lecture series continues with Lindsley Armstrong Smith and Stephen A. Smith at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, as they discuss their new book, Stateswomen: The Centennial Celebration of Arkansas Women Legislators, 1922-2022 at the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. This event is cosponsored by the University of Arkansas Press.

Stateswomen celebrates the centennial of women serving as members of the Arkansas General Assembly and situates the important but neglected role of women in Arkansas political history. The authors combine documentary research and oral histories of women in Arkansas politics to enrich the existing record and enhance public knowledge of Arkansas' female state legislators. 

The book features concise and carefully-researched biographies of all 146 Arkansas women legislators, situating their political activity and public service within the historical and ongoing expansion of the role of women in the public sphere. The authors will discuss this book, the researching of it, the symbolic and substantive influence demonstrated in the book's biographies that representation by these women leaders entails, share stories from some of the legislators through video biography excerpts from the Pryor Center collections, highlight the obstacles and opportunities women in Arkansas experienced and their contributions to Arkansas and share some of the joys and frustrations of researching women's history.

Armstrong Smith earned a J.D. from the U of A, clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals and the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and served as research assistant professor in the U of A's Department of Communication, where she taught courses in legal and political communication. She was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, 2005-2010. Her research has appeared in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Communication Law Review, American Communication Journal, Free Speech Yearbook, The Encyclopedia of American Law, Journal of Communication Studies and The Speech Teacher.

Smith holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and is professor emeritus of communication at the U of A. He was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, 1971-1974; vice president of the Arkansas Constitutional Convention; chief of staff to the Arkansas attorney general; and executive assistant to Governor Bill Clinton. Smith's publications include nine books and more than 60 book chapters and journal articles.

Pearl's Books will have copies of the book available for sale, and a book signing will follow the event.

This event will be held in person and via Zoom. If you wish to attend virtually, please register in advance with an email address that is associated with a Zoom account. Registration is not required for in-person attendance.

The Pryor Center is located at 1 E. Center St., Suite 120. The event is free and open to the public, and parking is available on the Fayetteville Square.

About The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History: The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History is an oral history program with the mission to document the history of Arkansas through the collection of spoken memories and visual records, preserve the collection in perpetuity, and connect Arkansans and the world to the collection through the Internet, TV broadcasts, educational programs, and other means. The Pryor Center records audio and video interviews about Arkansas history and culture, collects other organizations' recordings, organizes these recordings into an archive, and provides public access to the archive, primarily through the website at pryorcenter.uark.edu. The Pryor Center is the state's only oral and visual history program with a statewide, seventy-five county mission to collect, preserve, and share audio and moving image recordings of Arkansas history.

About the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences: The Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is the largest and most academically diverse unit on campus with three schools, 16 departments and 43 academic programs and research centers. The college provides the majority of the core curriculum for all University of Arkansas students.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas' economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.