Looking at how past inequities shape the Arkansas public history terrain of today with Tara Carr of KDIV (98.7FM).
Tara Carr, the host of “Tara Talks” KDIV 98.7 FM in Fayetteville, was kind enough to have me on her show recently to discuss some what compels me to dig so deeply into local African-American history through the context of sports. In the interview below, I discuss how inequalities in the early-mid 1900s—namely, the state gave far less money to public all-black schools than public all-white schools—have shaped much of what today’s generations know, and don’t know, of their past.
For example, better funding meant all-white schools could more consistently print annual yearbooks whereas all-black schools could only afford to produce them during certain years—if at all. This is one small reason the heritage of all-black schools is relatively well-chronicled, while huge gaps exist in the public history of black communities.
I want my book and interviews like these (and my talk at the Clinton School of Public Service) to help spur the launching of a public history project chronicling the heritage of all-black schools. This wouldn’t be sports-centric. It would start out as a simple online locator map of every all-black high school in the state with some basic info, and slowly fill in with details as we crowdsource material (e.g. scanned images of the schools themselves, pages from yearbooks, newspaper snippets). The Butler Center’s George West is very interested in coordinating with his Arkansas History Hub on this front, so we’ll see if we can make that happen.
For more info, reach out to me at evindemirel@gmail.com.
