Category: Butler Banner

On the afternoon of April 27, 2016, I started my first drive from Washington DC to Little Rock. That same day, the Atlantic published a long feature article, written by Alana Semuels, about my destination: “How Segregation Has Persisted in Little Rock.” I remember a friend texting me the link the next day,

I’m always hesitant to wish time away. I try to resist wishing for school to be out, for vacation to be here, for the heat of summer to be over (well, if I’m honest, I usually wish for that). Almost the only time I wish time would pass more quickly is when I’m stuck on an airplane that’s sitting on the tarmac for a couple of hours or when I’m waiting for a really good meal to be ready to eat.

The CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies is excited to offer a new database of fire insurance maps to our patrons. The database, Fire Insurance Maps online, or FIMo, allows patrons to view, annotate, and download images from full-color Sanborn fire insurance maps for Arkansas. The following are some highlights of FIMo’s more innovative features.

I have spent nearly two decades in some capacity or another engaged in matters of Arkansas history and heritage, and while I have absorbed a wealth of scholarship, and produced some of my own, there is one question about the collective soul of Arkansans whose answer continues to elude me:

Why don’t we take ourselves more seriously?

On Saturday, I had the privilege of addressing the Dunbar Historic Neighborhood Association’s annual community festival. Last year, the festival took place in the Sue Cowan Williams Library parking lot, but this year, for obvious reasons, it was held virtually. As part of the “Dunbar Historic Moments” portion of the program, I presented a very brief overview of Herbert Denton Jr.

I’ll never forget when I got the call.

It was more than ten years ago, the night of April 24, 2010. Earlier that day, I was one of four high school seniors to interview at the offices of the Washington Post—my hometown newspaper—for the Herbert H. Denton Jr.

When I say you should “capture memories,” what do you think of?

My guess is that you would get out a camera or your smartphone and get ready to take a picture or get a video.

But a picture captures only a still moment in time. And a video is usually reserved for big events like birthdays or Christmas.

I’m not sure you can find anyone who would dispute the statement that 2020 has been a strange year that has brought many changes to our lives. I certainly would not. For me, some changes have been a little stressful. Early in the pandemic, the Central Arkansas Library System closed down, sending all employees home,

Fusion, a spherical sculpture made of limestone sitting on a limestone base, was commissioned as a memorial to Vernon C. Johnson Sr., who was a security guard at the Central Arkansas Library System for more than twenty years. After Johnson’s death in 2006, the CALS community commissioned the artwork from sculptor Michael Warrick.

Several German communities emerged to the west and southwest of Little Rock in the 1870s and 1880s in response to efforts by the state and by the railroads to promote immigration. These settlements, which still show evidence of their German heritage, continued to use the German language well into the twentieth century. The religious needs of community members were initially served by occasional visits from the pastor of First Lutheran Church in Little Rock.