A Look at Films Funded by the Arkansas Humanities Council

ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Little Rock, AR Permit No. 2622 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED 407 PRESIDENT CLINTON AVENUE REFLECTIONS SUITE 201 LITTLE ROCK, AR 72201

Major Grant Categories, Maximum Awards, Application Deadlines and Project Start Dates

AMOUNT APPLICATION DEADLINE PROJECT START DATE

PUBLIC PROGRAM $10,000 February 15 May 1 September 15 December 1

RESEARCH Individual $2,000 February 15 May 1 September 15 December 1

Collaborative $10,000 February 15 May 1 September 15 December 1

PUBLICATION $3,500 February 15 May 1 A look at films funded September 15 December 1 by the Arkansas

MEDIA Humanities Council Film and Video $5,000 February 15 May 1 Preproduction September 15 December 1

Film and Video $10,000 September 15 December 1 Production

Other Media $10,000 February 15 May 1 September 15 December 1 VOL. 38, ISSUE 5 SUMMER 2016 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL FROM THE CHAIR CHEWING THE FAT Thank you for allowing me to serve a second con- secutive At this year’s annual Humanities on the Hill, we enjoyed Like Proust’s madeleine, a delta tamale, a pig sandwich, a term as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas very productive conversations with each of the members of plate of buffalo ribs, or catfish steaks evoke memories of Humanities Council. In this, my seventh and final year on our congressional delegation and their staffs. We were times past with Faulkner’s admonition: “The past is the board, I am poised to reflect on the achievements that we honored to have our very own 2nd District Congressman never dead. It’s not even past.” made together. Although many of these remarkable accom- French Hill (R-AR) not only join the House of Representa- plishments are presently coming to fruition, we also continu- tives’ Humanities Caucus, but also give a rousing speech at The hottest show on radio is Chewing the Fat with ously sow the seeds of future success. I am proud of our time the Federation’s eveningreception, making the Arkansas Rex and Paul, a production of Radio CALS that airs on KABF well spent working together. During this past academic year, Humanities Council the envy of every state council member 88.3 FM every Friday at noon. Rex and Paul have been we continued to sponsor innovative academic projects, in the room! taping the show since January. The format is simple: they fascinating public programs, and informative public exhibits come into the studio and start talking,and after about an throughoutevery region of the Natural State. We are also proud of our newest board members, who hour the folks at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies have attended their first meeting in Little Rock this past March. I enough content for three or four episodes. We are also honored to again sponsor our annual summer thank all of them for their service to the Humanities. Sadly, a institute, which allows schoolteachers to obtain continuing number of our veterans will be rotating off the board. They It’s as if you are riding along eavesdropping on conversations education credit by visiting Arkansas’s historic sites while are living proof that board members are irreplaceable, but if about Arkansas food, festivals, and folks. Rex and Paul regale hearing today’s most important scholars who are working on you know of qualified citizens of Arkansas, including the audience with their adventures exploring Arkansas, Arkansas-themed subjects. Our public program in honor of yourself, who would like to serve on the board, please make eating, visiting, swapping tales, and reminiscing. You follow Arkansas’s recipients of the Pulitzer Prize began with Dr. Ben our staff aware of their interest. Again, thank you for this along as they drop in on restaurants and eateries across the Johnson’s lecture on the poet John Gould Fletcher, which opportunity and for your continuing support of the Arkansas state. was held in conjunction with the Arkansas Literary Festival Humanities Council. (which we also sponsor). Our next three lectures will include One recent adventure found them eating their way deep into While Rex and Paul aren’t necessarily “old,” they often end a program remembering Ernest Hemingway’s sojourn in — Kyle Day, Chair of the Board the Mississippi delta. They enjoyed breakfast with Clarksdale up talking about the “old days.” Rex recently told of his Arkansas, a reunion of the Arkansas Gazette from the 1950s, farmers, a catfish lunch on the grounds with a former starring role in Damn Yankees at Arkadelphia High School. and a fete held to honor one of Arkansas’ greatest newspa- ARKANSAS HUMANITIES COUNCIL congressman in Cleveland, and two days of culinary Paul countered with his leading role in Granpa’s Red permen, the Inky Wretch himself, Paul Greenberg. debauchery in Greenwood that included pompano at Pajamas at the Lawrence County 4H-Orama in 1963. Both 2016 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Luscos, baked oysters at Giardinas, and the iconic lunch at reminisce about church groups, Sunday drives, ballgames Our newest public exhibit, Foot Soldiers of Freedom: the Crystal Grill. They finished the trip with Sunday brunch and life in small town Arkansas. The best burger, the best Melanie Baden, Little Rock Civil Rights in Arkansas, is now touring the state. The exhibit at the Cow Pen in Lake Village. BBQ, the best tamales, and the best catfish … the debate has already made stops at the annual meetings of the Marynell Branch, Little Rock never ends. Arkansas Political Science Association and the Arkansas Jamie C. Brandon, Fayetteville They also talk about interesting places to visit that Historical Association, as well as Taylor Library at the Paul Custodio Bube, Batesville include Arkansas’s wonderful state parks, B&B’s, and Is anything more relevant to the public humanities than a University of Arkansas at Monticello. We are also partnering John Kyle Day (Chair), Monticello museums. Festivals are famous in Arkansas, and the boys discussion of food and its relationship to our culture with the Smithsonian Institution to bring the Museum on Tom DeBlack, Conway have managed to work them into their schedule as well. A and heritage? A pleasant repast or a visit to the groaning Main Street initiative to Arkansas. The exhibit, Hometown Claudine James, Malvern visit to the Slovak Oyster Supper where the duo polished off board gathers folks around a table in ways that cross lines Teams, will be a platform to tell local stories of sports a mound of both fried and raw oysters was featured in a of class, education, race, and politics. So next Friday, pull Cherisse Jones-Branch (Treasurer), Jonesboro programs in Arkadelphia, Batesville, Blytheville, Fordyce, recent segment. up a chair,tune your radio to Chewing the Fat with Rex and Allyn Lord, Fayetteville Helena, and Wynne. The Friends of the Library Pancake Breakfast in Imboden this Paul,and take a big bite of Arkansas. Freeman McKindra, Little Rock past spring found Paul cooking bacon, flipping pancakes and This past November at the annual National Humanities Robert Moore, Siloam Springs fighting over who would get the last of the fried pies. Rex Full disclosure: Rex is Rex Nelson, Vice President for Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri, our council Rex Nelson, Little Rock shared his stay at the charming and newly remodeled Queen Corporate Communications at Simmons Bank, columnist for supported the increase to the state councils’ support of the Justin Nolan, Fayetteville Wilhelmina State Park lodge. I hear rumors that the Purple the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and AHC board member... work of our Federation of State Humanities Councils as it Stan Poole, Arkansas Hull Pea Festival at Emerson and the Grady Fish Fry are on and I’m Paul. makes the case for Federal support of the Humanities. Felicia R. Smith, Fort Smith the agenda for upcoming episodes. The Johnson County Indeed, the work that we do in conjunction with the Federa- Peach Festival? The Hope Watermelon Festival? O gout, you — Paul Austin, AHC Executive Director *Marlane Stakemiller, Maumelle tion is producing productive, real and transparent results. cruel mistress! After last summer’s site visit, the NEH’s new director of the Stuart Towns, Forrest City Federal State Partnership, Scott Krawczyk, Shelina Warren (Vice Chair), Pine Bluff ARKANSAS Paul S. Austin Jama Best Newsletter Design by generously offered to provide professional consulting James F. Willis, Little Rock HUMANITIES Executive Director Senior Program Officer Lesley Cooper services to help our Council with strategic planning so COUNCIL Lavona Wilson Robin Phelps Cooper Design, LLC thatwe may grow and prepare for new challenges in coming *Governor’s Appointee STAFF Associate Director Operations Officer Little Rock, AR years. 1 Cover photo of Honus Wagner courtesy National Baseball Hall of Fame 2 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL FROM THE CHAIR CHEWING THE FAT Thank you for allowing me to serve a second con- secutive At this year’s annual Humanities on the Hill, we enjoyed Like Proust’s madeleine, a delta tamale, a pig sandwich, a term as Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Arkansas very productive conversations with each of the members of plate of buffalo ribs, or catfish steaks evoke memories of Humanities Council. In this, my seventh and final year on our congressional delegation and their staffs. We were times past with Faulkner’s admonition: “The past is the board, I am poised to reflect on the achievements that we honored to have our very own 2nd District Congressman never dead. It’s not even past.” made together. Although many of these remarkable accom- French Hill (R-AR) not only join the House of Representa- plishments are presently coming to fruition, we also continu- tives’ Humanities Caucus, but also give a rousing speech at The hottest show on radio is Chewing the Fat with ously sow the seeds of future success. I am proud of our time the Federation’s eveningreception, making the Arkansas Rex and Paul, a production of Radio CALS that airs on KABF well spent working together. During this past academic year, Humanities Council the envy of every state council member 88.3 FM every Friday at noon. Rex and Paul have been we continued to sponsor innovative academic projects, in the room! taping the show since January. The format is simple: they fascinating public programs, and informative public exhibits come into the studio and start talking,and after about an throughoutevery region of the Natural State. We are also proud of our newest board members, who hour the folks at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies have attended their first meeting in Little Rock this past March. I enough content for three or four episodes. We are also honored to again sponsor our annual summer thank all of them for their service to the Humanities. Sadly, a institute, which allows schoolteachers to obtain continuing number of our veterans will be rotating off the board. They It’s as if you are riding along eavesdropping on conversations education credit by visiting Arkansas’s historic sites while are living proof that board members are irreplaceable, but if about Arkansas food, festivals, and folks. Rex and Paul regale hearing today’s most important scholars who are working on you know of qualified citizens of Arkansas, including the audience with their adventures exploring Arkansas, Arkansas-themed subjects. Our public program in honor of yourself, who would like to serve on the board, please make eating, visiting, swapping tales, and reminiscing. You follow Arkansas’s recipients of the Pulitzer Prize began with Dr. Ben our staff aware of their interest. Again, thank you for this along as they drop in on restaurants and eateries across the Johnson’s lecture on the poet John Gould Fletcher, which opportunity and for your continuing support of the Arkansas state. was held in conjunction with the Arkansas Literary Festival Humanities Council. (which we also sponsor). Our next three lectures will include One recent adventure found them eating their way deep into While Rex and Paul aren’t necessarily “old,” they often end a program remembering Ernest Hemingway’s sojourn in — Kyle Day, Chair of the Board the Mississippi delta. They enjoyed breakfast with Clarksdale up talking about the “old days.” Rex recently told of his Arkansas, a reunion of the Arkansas Gazette from the 1950s, farmers, a catfish lunch on the grounds with a former starring role in Damn Yankees at Arkadelphia High School. and a fete held to honor one of Arkansas’ greatest newspa- ARKANSAS HUMANITIES COUNCIL congressman in Cleveland, and two days of culinary Paul countered with his leading role in Granpa’s Red permen, the Inky Wretch himself, Paul Greenberg. debauchery in Greenwood that included pompano at Pajamas at the Lawrence County 4H-Orama in 1963. Both 2016 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Luscos, baked oysters at Giardinas, and the iconic lunch at reminisce about church groups, Sunday drives, ballgames Our newest public exhibit, Foot Soldiers of Freedom: the Crystal Grill. They finished the trip with Sunday brunch and life in small town Arkansas. The best burger, the best Melanie Baden, Little Rock Civil Rights in Arkansas, is now touring the state. The exhibit at the Cow Pen in Lake Village. BBQ, the best tamales, and the best catfish … the debate has already made stops at the annual meetings of the Marynell Branch, Little Rock never ends. Arkansas Political Science Association and the Arkansas Jamie C. Brandon, Fayetteville They also talk about interesting places to visit that Historical Association, as well as Taylor Library at the Paul Custodio Bube, Batesville include Arkansas’s wonderful state parks, B&B’s, and Is anything more relevant to the public humanities than a University of Arkansas at Monticello. We are also partnering John Kyle Day (Chair), Monticello museums. Festivals are famous in Arkansas, and the boys discussion of food and its relationship to our culture with the Smithsonian Institution to bring the Museum on Tom DeBlack, Conway have managed to work them into their schedule as well. A and heritage? A pleasant repast or a visit to the groaning Main Street initiative to Arkansas. The exhibit, Hometown Claudine James, Malvern visit to the Slovak Oyster Supper where the duo polished off board gathers folks around a table in ways that cross lines Teams, will be a platform to tell local stories of sports a mound of both fried and raw oysters was featured in a of class, education, race, and politics. So next Friday, pull Cherisse Jones-Branch (Treasurer), Jonesboro programs in Arkadelphia, Batesville, Blytheville, Fordyce, recent segment. up a chair,tune your radio to Chewing the Fat with Rex and Allyn Lord, Fayetteville Helena, and Wynne. The Friends of the Library Pancake Breakfast in Imboden this Paul,and take a big bite of Arkansas. Freeman McKindra, Little Rock past spring found Paul cooking bacon, flipping pancakes and This past November at the annual National Humanities Robert Moore, Siloam Springs fighting over who would get the last of the fried pies. Rex Full disclosure: Rex is Rex Nelson, Vice President for Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri, our council Rex Nelson, Little Rock shared his stay at the charming and newly remodeled Queen Corporate Communications at Simmons Bank, columnist for supported the increase to the state councils’ support of the Justin Nolan, Fayetteville Wilhelmina State Park lodge. I hear rumors that the Purple the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and AHC board member... work of our Federation of State Humanities Councils as it Stan Poole, Arkansas Hull Pea Festival at Emerson and the Grady Fish Fry are on and I’m Paul. makes the case for Federal support of the Humanities. Felicia R. Smith, Fort Smith the agenda for upcoming episodes. The Johnson County Indeed, the work that we do in conjunction with the Federa- Peach Festival? The Hope Watermelon Festival? O gout, you — Paul Austin, AHC Executive Director *Marlane Stakemiller, Maumelle tion is producing productive, real and transparent results. cruel mistress! After last summer’s site visit, the NEH’s new director of the Stuart Towns, Forrest City Federal State Partnership, Scott Krawczyk, Shelina Warren (Vice Chair), Pine Bluff ARKANSAS Paul S. Austin Jama Best Newsletter Design by generously offered to provide professional consulting James F. Willis, Little Rock HUMANITIES Executive Director Senior Program Officer Lesley Cooper services to help our Council with strategic planning so COUNCIL Lavona Wilson Robin Phelps Cooper Design, LLC thatwe may grow and prepare for new challenges in coming *Governor’s Appointee STAFF Associate Director Operations Officer Little Rock, AR years. 1 Cover photo of Honus Wagner courtesy National Baseball Hall of Fame 2 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL FIRST BOYS OF SPRING A Baseball Tradition Born in Hot Springs, AR By Larry Foley

Courtesy Garland County Historical Society

Beginning in 1886, baseball spring training was held for the Foley, Professor and Chair of Journalism Department at the first time in a southern city — not in Florida or Arizona, but University of Arkansas, will present the film in June at the in the Arkansas resort town of Hot Springs, and that’s where Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture the annual rite caught on. For parts of eight decades, many of at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The film is now part the best who ever played the game came to Hot Springs to of the permanent collection in the Hall of Fame’s audio and shake off the rust from winters of sedentary indulgence to visual library. prepare for long seasons ahead, with such teams as the Red Sox, Dodgers and Pirates — and the Negro League’s The film has been screened at venues in Little Rock, Kansas Monarchs, Crawfords and Grays. City, Fort Smith, Fayetteville, Rogers, Mena and Bentonville. In April, the film received the Best of Competition award The First Boys of Spring, funded in part by the Arkansas from the International Broadcast Association’s Festival of Humanities Council and Department of Arkansas Heritage, is Media Arts. a one-hour documentary by filmmaker Larry Foley, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Billy Bob Thornton. The A central figure in the film is a young Babe Ruth, who belted film tells stories of baseball Hall of Famers who worked out, a 573-foot home run into the Arkansas Alligator Farm in gambled and partied in Hot Springs, including Cy Young, March of 1918 while trying to convince Boston Red Sox Satchel Paige, Honus Wagner and baseball’s first superstar, management to play him every day, even though he was Mike “King” Kelly. already one of the game’s dominant pitchers. In an era before weight training and performance-enhancing drugs, it seems The film premiered at 2015 Hot Springs Documentary Film implausible, if not impossible, to fathom a ballplayer hitting Festival before a packed house at the Convention Center. It a ball 573 feet. But remember: he was Babe Ruth. And as has aired twice (February 13 and 21, 2016) on MLB teammate Joe Dugan once said, “to understand him you had Network, the ultimate national television destination for to understand this—he wasn’t human!” baseball fans, and will air again on the network later this spring. The program has aired on AETN and in April aired on continued on page 5 the Kansas City PBS station KCPT. 3 4 Courtesy Garland County Historical Society REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL FIRST BOYS OF SPRING A Baseball Tradition Born in Hot Springs, AR By Larry Foley

Courtesy Garland County Historical Society

FIRST BOYS OF SPRING continued

Other highlights include:

• The story of the 1886 Chicago White Stockings, the first fields of Hot Springs. “It was a parallel society in many team to travel to Hot Springs for spring training. The event respects,” said Ray Doswell, curator at the Negro Leagues was chronicled in the inaugural edition of The Sporting Baseball Museum in Kansas City. “There was great baseball News, published March 17, 1886. According to team being played all around. There was great baseball being owner Al Spalding, “I have written to a professor down there played in the white leagues and there was great baseball and he is making arrangements to build a vat in which he being played in the Negro major leagues.” can boil the whole nine at once — boil out the alcoholic microbes which may have impregnated the systems of these • Rare 1934 sound film of the Ray Doan baseball school men during the winter while they have been away from me and head instructor Rogers Hornsby. “One of the things that and (Cap) Anson.” he enjoyed doing was to inculcate in them a love of baseball — a love of playing baseball,” said author Charles Alexan- • John McGraw’s 1901 effort to circumvent the unwritten der about Hornsby. “He always thought that was the only color barrier by attempting to pass off African-American game. ‘Why would anybody play anything else’?” infielder Charlie Grant as an American Indian named Chief Charlie Tokahoma of the Cherokee Nation. McGraw was in • A trip to Cooperstown where two historians, Bill Jenkinson Hot Springs scouting talent for the Baltimore Orioles and and Tim Reid, marvel at the early day stars enshrined at the Grant was working as a bellman at a local hotel. Charles National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum — names like Comiskey of the White Sox foiled the plan when he learned Tris Speaker, Lefty Grove, Connie Mack and Rube Foster. of McGraw’s scheme. • A trip to the Hot Springs Historic Baseball Trail, which • Smoky Joe Wood’s frightening beaning of Pirate third honors the legends of the game from an era when ballplay- baseman Bobby Byrne in March 1913. “Joe Wood had an ers looked forward to taking the train to Arkansas to practice incredibly fast, fast ball. The only other player he was and soak in the famous therapeutic mineral baths. “The tubs compared with was Walter Johnson,” said author Gerald of Bathhouse Row attracted visitors from around the country. Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Dept. at the University of Arkansas Wood. “Wood knew he was fast and he knew he had the The healing waters brought relief from arthritis, rheumatism, potential to hurt people. It was something he carried with or other discomforts long before drugs had been concocted him his whole life.” to do the job,” wrote author Leigh Montville. THE CAGED BIRD • Tales of what the players By James Greeson did in Hot Springs during Courtesy Garland County Historical Society the spring training heyday, including gambling, betting The documentary film The Caged Bird: The Life and Film Festival, which has presented it in St. Louis, Philadel- at the Oaklawn Park horse Music of Florence B. Price tells the inspiring story of an phia, Barbados and Trinidad. On March 28, as part of racing track, ostrich races Arkansas native who became the first African-American Women’s History Month, The Caged Bird was broadcast and trips to the alligator woman to have her music performed by a major on PBS’ World Channel, public television’s signature farm to watch gators eat symphony orchestra. “This was a story that needed to be nonfiction documentary, science and news programming chickens. told” was a comment often heard following screenings channel. • Stories about Negro around Arkansas of this film, which was funded by grants League stars who trained in from the Arkansas Humanities Council. But it is a story the Florence B. Price was born in Little Rock in 1887 into an Arkansas including Cool rest of America seems eager to hear as well. extraordinary family. Her mother was a businesswoman, Papa Bell, Josh Gibson and teacher and Florence’s first piano teacher. Her father, Oscar Charleston. While After being premiered on AETN last November, The Caged James Smith, was the first black dentist in Arkansas, an major league and Negro Bird was accepted for nationwide distribution and has inventor who held six patents, a novelist and a painter League players sometimes been broadcast on 186 PBS stations across the U.S., whose work was shown in the 1893 Columbian Exposi- barnstormed together in the including PBS affiliates in Southern California, Maine, tion. Dr. Smith moved to Little Rock after his dental office off-season, baseball Florida, Oregon and even Alaska. It has also been in Chicago was consumed in the great Chicago Fire. In remained a segregated accepted by many film festivals across the U.S., including Little Rock, where even the white governor was one of his game. There is no evidence the Ozark Foothills Film Festival here in Arkansas, but also patients, he became an important leader of the African- black and white teams ever the Los Angeles Women’s Film Festival, the San Diego American community. He spoke out publicly against the played one another on the Black Film Festival, and the Africa World Documentary “Separate Coach Law” in 1891, the first of the infamous continued on page 7 5 6 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL

FIRST BOYS OF SPRING continued

Other highlights include:

THE CAGED BIRD continued “Jim Crow” laws tjhat had such a crushing effect on African Florence Price’s “Symphony in E minor” at the 1933 Chicago graphs and lost music this new documentary film would not Americans for decades until struck down in 1965. World’s Fair it was a momentous cultural event. It was have been feasible. deemed a great success by newspaper reviews from across the As a child, Florence was both an intellectual and musical country. The writer and producer of the The Caged Bird is Dr. James prodigy. She performed for the famous touring pianist Blind Greeson, a professor of music composition at the University of Boone at age 4. At age 11 she saw one of her compositions During the 1930s, Price developed an especially close Arkansas. Since his first years at the UA Greeson’s in print, and she was the valedictorian of Little Rock’s Capitol musical relationship with vocalist Marian Anderson, and it self-assigned mission had been to promote the work of Hill High School at the tender age of 14. One of her child- was Anderson who gave one of Price’s compositions its widest Arkansas composers. After composing documentary music for hood friends in Little Rock was William Grant Still, who audience ever. Anderson was said to have “a voice heard once a number of films by Arkansas filmmakers Larry Foley and became famous as the first African-American man to have his in 100 years.” In 1939, at the peak of her popularity, she was Dale Carpenter, Greeson decided to jump in and try produc- music performed by symphony orchestras. Arkansas historian invited to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. ing his own documentaries on Arkansas born-composers. Tom Dillard has written, “I think it amazing that the two most However, the Daughters of the American Revolution would With support from the Arkansas Humanities Council his first prominent black composers of the 20th Century had deep not permit Anderson to sing there since they maintained a dealt with Texarkana native and MacArthur “Genius Grant” roots in Arkansas.” “white-artist-only” policy. This outraged many, including recipient Conlon Nancarrow. After learning of the newly Eleanor Roosevelt, the President’s wife, who resigned her discovered Florence Price materials Greeson decided to make After graduation, Florence moved to Boston to study music at membership in the D.A.R., sending shock waves through the her the focus of his second film. He collaborated with Dale the New England Conservatory, one of the few institutions nation. The Roosevelt Administration arranged for Anderson to Carpenter, his UA colleague in the Journalism department, a that accepted African-American students in that era. Even in perform instead on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on documentary filmmaker who has won seven regional Emmys this sophisticated environment young Florence continued to Easter Sunday in 1939. This performance attracted a huge for his numerous productions. With the crucial support of the excel. She graduated in 1906 from this renowned music audience of more than 70,000 people and was broadcast live Arkansas Humanities Council, this production engaged conservatory after only three years with a double major in on NBC radio to millions more. This legendary event is known outstanding performers from Washington D.C., Atlanta, North piano and organ. In the graduation recital she was selected as the “Concert That Awakened America,” and Anderson’s Carolina and Arkansas. It also features on-camera comments to perform last on the program, the most prestigious position final song that Easter Sunday was composed by Arkansas from experts on Price from Chicago and Los Angeles, as well reserved for the most-talented musician. native Florence Price. as Arkansas. A special moment is 92-year-old Georgia Herron, who tearfully recalls standing in the audience as a Florence then returned to Arkansas, where she taught for a In time however Florence Price’s star began to fade. Her child at Marian Anderson's Lincoln Memorial concert in few years in a Presbyterian school in Cotton Plant before music received fewer high-profile performances and by the 1939. All of these recollections, scholarly interview clips, moving to a teaching position at Shorter College in North time of her death in 1953 she was well on her way to being musical performances and long-lost photographs were woven Little Rock. In 1910, Florence accepted a position as chair of forgotten. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Chicago’s into this story of one of Arkansas’s greatest gifts to the world, the music department at Clark University in Atlanta, but Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Dept. at the University of Arkansas Lincoln Cemetery. Florence B. Price. returned to Little Rock in 1912 to marry Thomas Jewell Price. Thomas Price was an associate of the dean of black lawyers In the 1970s, however, two musicologists worked to revive her in Arkansas, Scipio Africanus Jones, and was a highly lynched, dragged through the African-American section of reputation. The first scholarly research on Price was published regarded lawyer in his own right. Thomas and Florence Price the city, and then burned by a rampaging mob while the by Dr. Barbara Jackson, who taught at the University of soon started a family and had two daughters, Florence Louise police stood by and did nothing. It was an act of terrorism Arkansas for 31 years. Building on Dr. Jackson’s work, a and Edith. Florence Price turned to teaching music lessons that shook the African-American community and in fear for young musicologist at Yale University, Dr. Rae Linda Brown, privately out of her home but also continued to work on her the safety of their two daughters the Price family moved to wrote her 1987 dissertation on the life of Florence Price. own compositions. Chicago soon afterwards. These two women were the primary humanities scholars contributing to this documentary film. In 1926 she won second prize in a competition sponsored by In Chicago, Florence Price’s career as a composer flourished Opportunity magazine. This competition launched the and she associated with other artists in the Chicago Black In 2010, Arkansas historians Tom Dillard and Timothy Nutt, careers of such writers as Langston Hughes and fostered the Renaissance. However, during the bleak years of the Depres- who were then working at the Special Collections Department Harlem Renaissance. Price’s winning composition, “In the sion her marriage dissolved and she was left to raise her two of the University of Arkansas Libraries, were able to acquire Land O’ Cotton,” had been lost for decades until an almost- daughters alone. But in 1932 she won first prize the Wana- boxes of long-lost letters, musical scores and family photos miraculous recovery by Arkansas historians in 2010. Stein- maker composition competition, both for a piano sonata and belonging to Florence Price. A young interracial couple had way artist Karen Walwyn, professor of piano at Howard her first symphony in. She won $750 of the prize money, and bought a number of dilapidated houses south of Chicago and University, performed this award-winning suite for this her private student Margaret Bonds won the other $250 one of those houses was the final home of Florence Price. documentary. prize. This achievement also brought her to the attention of Abandoned after her death, Price's small frame house had Frederick Stock, the conductor of the world-famous Chicago been damaged by falling trees. Inside were file cabinets filled The most traumatic racial incident in the history of Little Symphony. At this time the Chicago Symphony consisted with Price's compositions, correspondence and much more— Rock was the lynching of Robert Carter in 1927. Carter was solely of white male musicians, so when they premiered though in poor condition. Without this trove of family photo-

Dr. Barbara Jackson and Dr. Rae Linda Brown 7 8 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL

By Vivienne Schiffer RELOCATION ARKANSAS backfired into more confusion and rebellion. In the depths the process, she became the touchstone for the thousands of his rebellion, Paul’s thoughts went to one person: his who have returned to Arkansas over these last three decades, grandfather, a proud and accomplished man whose life had like Paul, to try to understand their past. been inexorably altered by the incarceration. Once vaunted community leaders, Paul’s grandparents could only find Rosalie Santine Gould, a female mayor before such a thing work as domestics to a wealthy family in Washington, D.C. was commonplace, made one thing very clear. She didn’t Although he carried out his life and his duties with immense care what the community thought — if you had been quietude and dignity, Paul’s grandfather was a broken man. imprisoned at Rohwer or Jerome, you were welcome to And that fact had haunted Paul his entire life. come back to the Arkansas Delta.

The film travels with Paul as he confronts his grandfather’s And Mayor Gould would not only welcome you, she would past, first at Jerome and Rohwer, and then in Washington, take you there. Personally. For the twelve years that she was D.C., outside the historic house where his grandfather found mayor of nearby McGehee, Arkansas, she fought battles with work as a domestic after his imprisonment. her neighbors and friends. Some called in death threats. What did Rosalie Santine Gould do that was so remarkably When the Rohwer camp closed in 1945, Richard Yada’s terrible? She not only acknowledged that there had once family, along with several families, chose not to return to been prisons at Rohwer and Jerome, she had the audacity to California. They would wait out the post-war years in the see the prisoners as Americans who had been wronged. Her quiet farming hamlet of Scott, Arkansas. The Japanese preservation work with the Rohwer and Jerome sites led to American families who moved to Scott to share-crop were her amassing an unrivaled collection of incarceration camp not only accepted, they were celebrated. But there was a art, all of it gifts from the former art teacher at the Rohwer deep-rooted code of segregation in the post-war rural South camp, Mabel Rose Jamison, and former prisoners. In 2010, that ruled every social and community interaction. In that Rosalie donated her collection to the people of Arkansas — system, a person could be only one of two things: black or it is now housed at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in white. Where did these non-white, non-black newcomers fit Little Rock. in? Production began in May 2011 and the film was completed With his sweet molasses accent and Southern manners, in November 2015. The stories of Paul, Richard and Rosalie Richard Yada is pure Arkansas, but unlike his neighbors and are augmented by interviews with local Arkansans, survivors friends, Richard was born in the wartime prison camp at of the camps, such experts as The Art of Gaman author Rohwer. Growing up in the civil rights era of the Central Delphine Hirasuna, State Rep. Mark McElroy, former Photo courtesy Butler Center High crisis, Richard was planted squarely in the white camp, President Bill Clinton and the Little Rock Nine’s Elizabeth but how had it happened? In the world of black and white, Eckford. the Scott community had decided that Richard would be white. He talks unflinchingly about the irony of his upbring- n 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive of the film Relocation, Arkansas — Aftermath of Incarcera- I ing, and his reactions to racism as a member of the majority, Order 9066, which sent nearly 120,000 Americans of tion, which was supported in large part by the Arkansas Photo courtesy UALR racism that was pervasive, dangerous and violent, just as had Japanese ancestry, most of them American citizens, to hastily Humanities Council. been the racism his family and friends had endured in built prison camps. Two of those camps were in Arkansas: at California. Rohwer and Jerome, both rural communities in the Missis- The film focuses on three main characters: Maryland native sippi River Delta, an undeveloped and depressed but beauti- Paul Takemoto, Arkansas native Richard Yada, and McGehee’s In the 1980s, the Japanese Americans who had been impris- ful landscape. Prior to the arrival of Japanese Americans in former mayor, Rosalie Santine Gould. oned in Arkansas began to come back. Little by little they 1942, the area where these camps were located had had trickled in, then they came in waves, large numbers charter- virtually no contact with anyone of Asian ancestry. In 1945, Paul Takemoto was a typical American kid except for one ing buses in Little Rock and descending on Desha County, the camps were closed and dismantled and most of the thing — he didn’t look like his friends. And he wanted so where Rosalie Santine Gould treated them like family, prisoners returned to the West Coast. desperately not to be different. He knew his grandparents, Japanese language school teachers and community leaders, facilitating tours, hosting old-fashioned community dinners, and welcoming them back. Along the way, people told But close to 20,000 Japanese Americans did not return to the had been arrested by the FBI at the outbreak of World War II. Mayor Gould stories they would not tell, or could not bring West Coast. Suddenly thrust into other cities and towns in the He knew that his mother had been in a prison camp in themselves to tell, their children. A former prisoner once interior, these families had to build their lives from scratch, Arkansas. But that was all he knew, and more than he wanted asked Mayor Gould who would take care of the Rohwer site. and build their own cultural communities among themselves. to know. Themselves deeply ambivalent about their heritage Her answer was that she would. Despite vehement opposi- This aftermath of the incarceration experience is the subject because of the incarceration, his parents attempted to instill some measure of cultural identity in Paul, but those attempts tion to her actions, Mayor Gould was true to her word. In 9 10 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL

In August 1942, my father, Lt. Antonio Bizio, was flying his 21, studying literature at the University of Rome, in Italy, and then super-secret new Italian fighter plane, the Reggiane Re had a burning desire to visit Camp Monticello. My father 2001, over the Mediterranean Sea. He had taken off from gave me his blessing, but he did not want to accompany me. Malta and was sent to defend the passage of one of the So I got on a plane and flew to Little Rock, Arkansas, where “convogli,” a convoy of Italian ships crossing the sea. Soon, Dr. Klein and his wife Annie picked me up. We stayed at their English fighter planes were in sight and a battle ensued. It house in Texarkana and then drove to Monticello. We walked was the famous mid-August battle, which brought heavy through the camp, which was not covered by trees and casualties to both the English and the Italians, who were then bushes as it is now, and visited the Madonna Del Prigioniero, allied with the Germans. My father was 24, a courageous and built by Catholic prisoners, which was still standing. very talented pilot. He fought valiantly, shooting down an English fighter plane before being hit himself. One wing on The camp always stayed in my life, but it wasn’t until many fire, the engine stopped, he had no choice but to open his years after my father died in 1998 that I finally returned to the plastic canopy, propel himself out of the plane, and camp with my son, Matteo Borgardt, a former professional parachute down to the sea. The life raft on which he had snowboarder and now a documentary filmmaker. What been sitting for months while flying didn’t open and was sparked this renewed interest to visit the camp and do a propelled far away. Fortunately, my father made it, unharmed, “pilgrimage” into my family’s history was Mike Pomeroy, a to the water. His Venetian origin served him well: a strong local historian and a businessman in the timber industry with swimmer, he managed to keep afloat for 10 hours in the a passion for the camp, who contacted me after finding my warm waters of the Mediterranean until a British ship father’s name in a Flavio Giovanni Conti’s book about Italian rescued him. prisoners in the U.S. During that first visit almost two years ago, the clear notion that the history of Camp Monticello, Along with other prisoners of war (POWs), he was brought and of the hundreds of camps that were built in the United first to Gibraltar and then to the Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, States during the war to host Italian and German prisoners of where a detainment center had been set up for both POWs war, should be brought to a film became very vivid, espe- and regular criminals. Here he braved several months of cold cially when we found out that historians at the Arkansas Courtesy of the Drew County Historical Society and lack of food, until with hundreds of other prisoners, Historic Preservation Program are working towards listing mostly Italian, he boarded the Queen Elizabeth to be brought Camp Monticello in the National Register of Historic Places. to the United States. They landed in Panama and from there Matteo and I developed a script and the Arkansas Humanities mostly unknown part of Arkansas and American history, not well known, and a sense of what life could mean in time they were sent by train to a camp in Tennessee and finally, a Council is helping finance a documentary about the camp. alternating images of the camp in its current state with the of war but not in battle. In the end these prisoners knew that year after his capture, to Monticello, Arkansas. narrating voices of prisoners and newsreels recorded during they were in the best situation possible: they were studying, The documentary will tell the story of the history of the camp, World War II when Monticello Camp was operational, using eating, cooking, developing relationship and finally going Camp Monticello was built in 1943. It operated as a training the camp’s present state, and the controversy over the camp’s archival footage from Italy and from the National Archives. back to their lives in Italy. In fact, some of them came back facility for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps from March future plans for development as opposed to being preserved to America, got married and settled after the war. My father 1943 to July 1943 until the arrival of Italian POWs beginning as a National Register site. Over the last decades the camp Such footage will be intercut with interviews with archae- met my future uncle (my mother’s older brother) in the in August 1943. It closed in October 1945. My father was has become overgrown with trees and forest and its remains ologists, historians, scholars and local people from Monti- camp: he was also an officer, a prisoner in Monticello, and never particularly fond of talking about those prison years. have mostly been scavenged, with the exception of a few cello who remember the camp either from personal memo- in my own personal life. My family exists thanks to Monti- He was, after all, a young man who found himself in the concrete foundations and heavy machinery. There is not ries or from their elders’ recollections. cello. position of switching political sides after Italy broke away much left in the camp now, but the little there is shows a from Germany and allied with the Americans and English. fascinating history of the camp and what occurred there What we hope will transpire from the film is both a sense of We close on the beautiful woods that surround the camp But occasionally he talked about the war years and about during the war. the historical, cultural and humanities significance of the and the big red chimney stack that lies in the middle. Monticello. He talked mostly about a good friend he had met camp as an example of a time in the American history that is there, Dr. Arnold Klein, the American medical doctor at the The film, which will be about 45 minutes long, will intercut camp. My father, an officer, worked at the hospital as Dr. interviews with various experts on the camp with historical Klein’s interpreter/assistant, and when my father returned to archival footage of the Italian POW camps in the U.S., Italy after the war they wrote to each other. photographs, and my personal journey returning to visit the camp where my father spent more than two years of his life My first trip to America was inspired by their friendship. I was during the war. The film aims to explore an important yet

10 11 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL MONTICELLO’S ITALIAN PRISONERS By Silvio Bizio

10 11 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL

AHC Board Awards $94,553.02 in Major Grants Seven Minigrants Awarded The Arkansas Humanities Council board of directors met on April 1, 2016 to consider grant applications. The board awarded from January 2016 through March 2016 eight public program grants and one pre-production grant. The approved projects represent a variety of humanities disciplines. Projects, by grant category, are listed below. The Arkansas Humanities Council board of directors approved the award of seven minigrants to local Arkansas groups. The approved projects are listed below. PUBLIC PROGRAMS Ozark Journey: Instrument Makers of the Ozarks, submitted Historic Will Rogers Marker “Angola Prison in Louisiana: The History and Meaning of REAL Econ for All, Education Conference for Educators by the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, Springdale; Applicant: Arkansas Tech University Foundation, Place” by Natalie Ring K-12, July 13-14, submitted by Economics Arkansas at Little Susan Young, project director. Grant Award: $13,305. Russellville. Project Director: Debra Fithen. Applicant: University of Central Arkansas, Conway. Project Rock; Sue Owens, project director. Grant Award: $10,000. Grant Request: $1,500. Director: Michael K. Rosenow. Grant Request: $1,500. No Laughing Matter: Political Cartoons and the Arkansas The Essence of Arkansas: Using Archival Records to Historical Perspective, submitted by UALR Center for Life on the Delta School Days Document Arkansas’ Culture, submitted by the Arkansas Arkansas History and Culture, Little Rock; Debra Baldwin, Applicant: Arkansas State Parks, Scott. Minigrant applications are History Commission, Little Rock; Lisa Speer, project director. project directors. Grant Award: $10,424. Project Director: Lydia Leatherwood. Grant Request: $805. Grant Award: $24,386.54. accepted the first of every month A Readers’ Map of Arkansas, Phase II: Public Presentations, Early Cinema on the Vaudeville Stage and Turn of the Out of the Ashes, submitted by the Arkansas Holocaust submitted by the Central Arkansas Library System Century Musical Entertainment except December. Our Guidelines Education Committee, Springdale; Thelma Tarver, project Foundation, Little Rock; Hope Coulter, project director. Applicant: Ozark Foothills FilmFest, Inc., Locust Grove. director. Grant Award: $8,150. Grant Award: $6,173.72. Project Director: Judy Pest. Grant Request: $1,500. for Grant Applications and a

Behind the Big House, submitted by the Historic Preservation In Touch with History complete list of minigrant awards Alliance of Arkansas/Preserve Arkansas, Little Rock; VIDEO PRE-PRODUCTION Applicant: Washington County Historical Society, Jodi Barnes, project director. Grant Award: $8,119.60. Fayetteville. Project Director: Judy Costello. may be found at arkhums.org. Gathering, Gardening, and Agriculture: Teacher Workshop Grant Request: $984. 2016/17 Arts and Letters Broadcast and Podcasts, submitted Video Web Series, submitted by the Arkansas Archeological by Arts and Letters/KUAR-Friends of KUAR, Little Rock; Survey, Fayetteville; Jodi Barnes, project director. “Movies at McArthur” Film Series J. Bradley Minnick, project director. Grant Award: $9,000. Grant Award: $4,999.16. Applicant: McArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Little Rock. Project Director: Stephan McAteer. Grant Request: $1,500.

Major grant applications are accepted in February and September of Watts/Davidson Cemetery Association Planning Project Applicant: Angels Anonymous, Waldo. each year. Our Guidelines for Grant Applications and a complete list of Project Director: Ersaline Witcher. Grant Request: $387.05. major grant awards may be found at arkhums.org.

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Bobbie Heffington Calvin Johnson Anncha Briggs Ernest & Cathy Cunningham Roy Reed Bill Henslee Grady & Linda Tabor Don Deweese Mary Heady Timothy Nutt Bettie Mahony David Stricklin Bob Razer James L. Cox, Jr. Shelina Warren Bill Kincaid Harvey Young George Campbell Karen Hodges Mark Christ Carl Miller Jr. Doug Martin Joel Garrison James R. Bennett Ronnie Nichols Bobby Roberts Homer & Edna Hopson Kay Grant Tim Scott Fred Berry James Cathey Emon and Kay Mahony Martha Sutherland Kris Katrosh Allan Pirnique C. Earl Ramsey James Willis Skip Rutherford Bella Vista Historical Stuart Towns Pat Ramsey Judith Stewart-Abernathy Rex Nelson Lillie Fears Dana Steward Chris Allen Jeff & Deborah Root Clark Trim & Society Bill and Judy Gaddy Daniel Levine Marilyn Chlebak Tibor Mazar Majoice Thomas Diane Silberstein Cindy Hale June Freeman Henrik Thostrup Mary Donaghy Ruth Hawkins Kim Smith Paul and Jan Austin Waddy Moore Nese Nemec Gary Walker Claudine James Margaret Bolsterli Gordon & Izola Morgan Marynell Branch Allyn Lord Pamela Hronek Paul Bube Wanda Roe Patrick Williams & Beth Juhl Hoyt Purvis Don Munro Susan Parks-Spencer Josephine Rogers Fnfn. Charlotte Schexnayder Barbara Taylor Art English William Tsutsui Darrel Wilson Peggy Lloyd Ann Early Don Zimmerman Xyta Lucas Michael Bates Sarah Davidson Tom DeBlack Bonnie Hatchet Aaron Pirrera Elliott West Robert Lafferty III Ann Shackelford Felicia Smith Ben & Sherrel Johnson Norman Stafford Tom and Mary Kennedy 13 14 REFLECTIONS ARKANSAS HUMANTIES COUNCIL