Arkansas’s Past and Future: An Internship Experience at the CALS EOA

As a heritage studies PhD student at Arkansas State University, I spend a lot of my free and scheduled time with my head buried in books and peer-reviewed articles that reveal intimate details about the lives of individuals and communities that have impacted the social sphere. This summer, I got the opportunity to occupy my time with an internship here at the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, a resource that you will find cited in all of my research papers on anything reflecting the state’s history.

I started the assignment eager to jump into the busy life of documenting and archiving Arkansas heritage, but quickly and thankfully found a home tucked away in a quiet cubicle, engaging with entries with the same interest as I would any reality TV show. What I found in the EOA not only gave me a glimpse into our recent past, but it also gave me hope for what a future grounded on the legacies created right here at home could look like for the Natural State.

My journey started with the Civil War. My first assignment was creating summaries for the EOA’s “This Day in Arkansas History” section of the website’s homepage. The beginning of the list was full of entries of Civil War skirmishes, affairs, and engagements that gave me new meanings for all the terminology as well as a new picture of the details of the war. I learned that within the state, much of the war involved moving battalions from one area to another, getting lost, and finding cover from small bands of opposing forces. Other skirmishes involved brief scuffles, many without the discharge of weapons, to prevent enemies from interrupting communication by cutting telephone wires. It was not the war I read about in textbooks or saw in movies. For either side.

Later on the spreadsheet of entries I found information about African American pioneers of various fields that I knew little to nothing about, like the first female mayor of Little Rock, Lottie Holt Shackelford; Robert Lee Hill, who was the grand counselor of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America during the Elaine Massacre of 1919; and award-winning author of the book Perfect Peace, Daniel Black. This glimpse into the lives and experiences of African Americans in the state was the perfect introduction to my next assignment, building quizzes.

After a few weeks of working on summarizing entries, I was asked to begin creating quizzes for an upcoming feature on the EOA’s website. As this was a new initiative, there weren’t many clear instructions in the beginning for what the quizzes should entail, so I was given the go ahead to create at my discretion. Because my personal interests and degree concentration are heavily aligned with the experiences of African Americans, I started with the state’s blues history. Although I grew up attending annual blues festival events with my mother, I was never the biggest fan of the music. However, after learning about the history, I can’t wait to be one of the many people along the riverfront at the King Biscuit Blues Festival swaying to the sound of slide guitars and robust vocal styles with their origins from Helena, Arkansas. Knowing that a unique style of singing, playing, and composing lyrics shaped nearly every genre of music to come after—pioneered by Arkansas legends such as Roosevelt “The Honeydripper” Sykes, Rose Marie McCoy, and Howlin’ Wolf—gave me a whole new appreciation for its legacy.

By far, my favorite self-directed assignment was the quiz on Black women’s history. I have never been prouder to be a Black woman from Arkansas than I was after sitting and reading through forty+ entries on all the ways Black women pioneered new advancements in industries from science to education to healthcare. There was Lena Lowe Jordan, a registered nurse who managed the Lena Lowe Jordan Hospital located on 16th and Chester in Little Rock that was in operation until 1953. There was also Mame Stewart Josenberger, educator turned businesswoman who was heavily involved in anti-lynching measures and activism, holding membership in several associations for women of color both locally and internationally. There was even Hot Springs native Mamie Phipps Clark, who revolutionized child psychology with the development of the doll test that helped to prove that the doctrine of “separate but equal” with regards to education was unconstitutional due to the fact that it generated feelings of inferiority in Black students. Not only had I never heard of their names, but I was also completely unfamiliar with the trails that each of them blazed.

A part of me believes that I needed that Civil War disillusionment before diving into the robust history and heritage of African Americans born in, raised in, or transplanted to the state. Something about throwing away a fictional narrative about one of our state’s darkest legacies allowed me to make space for the wealth of information I was going to learn about some real heroes. Learning about how African Americans across Arkansas, regardless of the condition of state politics, were working together to create the systems and institutions they needed to ensure they didn’t get left behind made me wonder what a present and future grounded in that knowledge could do for the state. What would our Black communities look like if we knew we were walking right next to a place where history happened? Not just the dark history, but history to be proud of? What would our neighborhoods look like if we knew that doctors, lawyers, engineers, and scientists once lived on those exact same blocks? How would our priorities shift if we grounded our communities in what they once were and could be again instead of what they’ve become? This summer’s learning experience provided me with a new optimism that has me excited to find out.

Click here to see ways to get involved with the EOA, including internships.

By Shandrea Murphy-Washington, the EOA’s summer 2024 intern, who holds a BA in anthropology from UA Little Rock, holds an MA in public service from the Clinton School of Public Service, and is pursuing at PhD in heritage studies from Arkansas State University