In Action: AR Civil Rights Symposium

The UALR Department of History hosted the symposium “Sit-Ins, Freedom Rides, and Beyond: Direct Action and Civil Rights in 1960s Arkansas” on Saturday, July 9, 2011, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center at 501 West 9th Street in downtown Little Rock. The symposium was free and open to the public.

The symposium focused on the members of the Arkansas Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (ARSNCC) who led sit-in demonstrations at segregated local business in downtown Little Rock during the 1960s. The activists later referred to themselves as “Arsnick.” Learn more about the SNCC movement in Arkansas.

The symposium included Frank James, a participant in the first “sit-in” and one of the founding members of Arsnick – the Arkansas chapter of the national SNCC – at Philander Smith; Bill Hansen, the first SNCC representative from the national organization to arrive in Arkansas in 1962 and director of SNCC’s Arkansas Project from 1962-1966; and Worth Long, an organizer of the sit-in movement at Philander Smith College from 1960-62 who successfully pressured – along with Hansen – for the desegregation of downtown lunch facilities in 1963.

John Curtis Raines, one of the five Freedom Riders arrested in Little Rock on July 10, 1961, and Laura Foner, one of the few white women who worked with SNCC in Arkansas, also participated.

Symposium sessions discussed the Pine Bluff Movement, a SNCC affiliate whose leader, Robert Whitfield, later successfully filed suit to desegregate dormitories at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He was among the participants, along with:

• Jim Jones, who became joint director of the Arkansas SNCC Project with Bill Hansen from 1964-1966

• Howard Himmelbaum, who came to state to work with SNCC, stayed and – almost 50 years later – is still here as office manager to Gov. Mike Beebe
• Michael Simmons, an activist in the Helena-Forrest City SNCC organization now living in Budapest, Hungary, where he operates a Human Rights organization
• Dwight Williams, a SNCC worker in Arkansas
• Bryan Rybolt, who came to Arkansas as a SNCC photographer and now is a professional photographer in London
• Jennifer Jensen Wallach, assistant professor of history at University of North Texas and co-editor with Kirk of new book published this month by the University of Arkansas Press, Arsnick: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas

Symposium sessions explored the activities of the Gould Citizens’ for Progress, a SNCC affiliate, that fought against the town’s “freedom of choice” school attendance plan that hampered efforts to desegregate until the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the use of such plans.

Sanderia Smith, who just completed a novel set in the fictional town of rural Maeby, Arkansas, during the civil rights movement, moderated a panel about the school battle. Panelists included:

• Essie Dale Cableton, secretary of Gould Citizens’ for Progress—a SNCC affiliate— and wife of SNCC field worker Bob Cableton
• Lucy Whitfield, president of the Gould Citizens’ for Progress
• Marion Cox, who was involved in the Gould case that outlawed “freedom of choice” schools nationwide
• Kenneth Harris, also involved in the Gould case

Symposium Agenda

9:00-10:30a.m — From Sit-Ins to Freedom Rides: Little Rock, 1960-1962

Moderator: John A. Kirk, chair and Donaghey Professor of History, UALR; co-editor of Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas
Panelists: Frank James, Worth Long, Freedom Rider John Curtis Raines, Bill Hansen

BREAK

10:45-12:15p.m. — SNCC in Arkansas: Little Rock and Pine Bluff

Moderator: John A. Kirk
Panelists: Bill Hansen, Robert Whitfield, Jim Jones, Howard Himmelbaum

LUNCH BREAK

2:00-3:30p.m. — SNCC in Arkansas: Forrest City and West Helena

Moderator: Jennifer Jensen Wallach, assistant professor, University of North Texas, Denton; co-editor of Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas
Panelists Michael Simmons, Dwight Williams, Bryan Rybolt

BREAK

3:45-5:15p.m. — SNCC in Arkansas: Gould

Moderator: Sanderia Smith, author of novel based on experiences of growing up in Gould
Panelists: Lucy Whitfield, Marion Cox, Kenneth Harris, Laura Foner, John Walker