The Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has completed work on a $106,908 grant to digitize materials related to the history of segregation and integration of Arkansas’s educational system. The award was part of the Digitizing Hidden Collections and Archives initiative sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The CAHC partnered with the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site to complete the project. The collection is housed in three different archives, but digitally available in a single location. Additionally, the CAHC published a virtual exhibit featuring digital objects from the project along with a timeline, lesson plans, and short essays by scholars.
“Understanding the multiple dimensions of segregation and integration in Arkansas is greatly enhanced as a result of the grant-funded work completed by University of Arkansas at Little Rock archivists and students,” said Deborah Baldwin, associate provost of the Center for Arkansas History and Culture.
The 350,000 digital files of the new collection may be accessed here. The virtual exhibit may be accessed here.