Arkansas Books

The very title of the book suggests that a great deal of help was needed in overcoming one of the most shameful events in the annals of America's very dark racial history. The events in question have to do with Robert Whitaker's award winning story about what happened to a group of black sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta, in Elaine, Arkansas, just up the street from Helena, about a 4 hours drive from my own hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

What happened on the night of September 30, 1919 has been seared into the collective memory of all blacks affiliated with the Helena area. On that night, a group of Black sharecroppers, who had gotten tired of years of being cheated out of their fair share of their cotton crops, decided to take matters into their own hands by forming a union with the intention of petitioning and eventually suing their landowners to redress this long-running economic inequity and injustice.

This injustice, incidentally was common practice used against black farmers, whether sharecroppers or not, and existed all over not just Arkansas, but all over the South. As a small boy, I can distinctly remember my grandfather, Silas Brown, who was not a sharecropper, but happened to own his own proverbial "forty acres and two mules (Blue and Cake)," bitterly complaining about how he too was being cheated out of his cotton crop by the unscrupulous "buyers and ginners of cotton."

In any case, the group didn't get very far along in their plans to form a union, as a car pulled up to the wooden church where the meeting was taking place and with a posse of "federalized concerned white citizens" began a four day massacre that ended up killing more than 100 black men, women and children, and was also coincidentally responsible for the death of a solitary white man.

This "white instigated vigilante action," as is customary in the U.S., was of course referred to as a "race riot." Meaning of course that the blacks inside the church, and not the white terrorists outside, were responsible for the occurrence of the incident. In the "mop up operation," following this clear white vigilante action, massacring more than 100 blacks, more than 300 black farmers were also arrested and charged with a variety of crimes ranging from illegal assembly, rioting, resisting arrest, carrying concealed weapons, to the murder of the lone white man.

In the "kangaroo court" that followed, the court-appointed defense attorneys refused to call any witnesses; prosecution witnesses were whipped if they didn't lie; and a mob held sway outside the courthouse, threatening to burn it down if there were no convictions. Some of the defendants were sentenced to die in the electric chair in less than two minutes; the rest in no more than a few hours. The all-white jury consisting of the normal cast of characters, of local leaders and "distinguished concerned white citizens" sentenced the "so-called union ring leaders" to death in the electric chair.

In 1919, this was American justice in its fullest racial glory.

The book however, is not about the "so-called race riot" per se, but is about the heroic legal efforts of a black Little Rock attorney named Scipio Africanus Jones, an about how he succeeded in taking the case (Moore vv. Dempsey) all the way to the Supreme Court and getting six of the death sentences overturned. And while the author readily admits that many of those involved in the legal victory were white, for obvious reasons his focus was on the bravery, courage and skill of this lone black lawyer, who risked his life in taking up the cause of the defense.

Since the context and circumstances of the story constituted a virtual leitmotif of small town southern racial injustice, it is puzzling how some Arkansas white historians (especially the author of Blood in Their Eyes, which is "a decidedly white account" of the same set of events) can call the incident controversial? It is also difficult to see why they chafe over the fact that Scipio Jones was made into a black legal hero. It is a black hero story, told about black people. Do whites have to always steal all black narratives, when American history is written? Why not just leave it alone?

As a footnote, there was once a black High School in North Little Rock, Arkansas, in the same AA Conference as my own Merrill High, name Scipio Jones High School. Until reading this book, I had never known who Scipio Jone was.

Worthy of a movie for sure! Five stars

On the Laps of Gods by Robert Whitaker: This is a MUST READ book by a jornalist formerly with the Wall Street Journal. It focuses on an attempt by tenant farmers in Southeastern Arkansas to organize and collectively confront the land owners with theft of profits due the tem. Land owners learned of the cooperative meeting and ambushed them in their local church, beginning a trail of killing that eventually took the lives of 100 black tenant farmers and their families. They were assisted by Federal Troops from a local barracks who used machine guns on the tenant farmers. Whitaker pictures this confrontation in the larger picture of consistent and planned disenfrantisement of the black in all of the the states of the Confederate south by agreement with the local law officers and the local court systems as they passed law after law diminishing the rights of blacks. The Supreme Court USA of the time looked the other way arguing states rights dispite abuse of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Whitaker paints a lesson for us all. In a day when the US government easily condemns lack of freedom for citizens of other countries, we must look back on our own recent past. It is an agonizing moral dilemma and should tax our own moral code. The hero here is Scipio Africanus Jones, born a slave who rose to practice law and free the 87 Arkansas prisoners falsely accused of murder by collusion of the courts and the law and who faced either long prison sentences or execution. WHAT A STORY.

This book is heartrending but also uplifting. It brings into focus a national hero, Scipio Jones, who was born a slave but rose to prominence. Now forgotten, he brought about--through his deft legal work--changes in our national law that we would do well to remember now in these days when habeous corpus seems to have gone by the wayside. Truly this book can be seen as examining the changes in our law that made it possible for the civil rights movement to emerge. It really is a great book and a great read. It can be hard to get through some of the gripping--but painful--accounts of the killings in the beginning of the book--but the end is worth it.

I am an Arkansans who has recently started quilting and I have learned several of the patterns. I have started my own yo-yo quilt. I love the quilts featured in this book. One of my favorites is plate 13.

A Piece Of My Soul: Quilts By Black Arkansans showcases more than seventy-five individual pieces of patchwork quilt art in full-color photography. Each is accompanied by Cuesta Benberry's informative commentary as she details the importance of quilting to black Arkansas and the extensive holdings of African American quilts in the Old State House Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas. Enthusiastically recommended reading for students of Black History, southern popular culture, and the needlecraft arts, A Piece Of My Soul explains the quilt's uses, materials, and construction, as well as what each piece featured says about the needlecraft artist and her beliefs.

Cuesta Benberry has been a well-respected and internationally known quilt curator and historian for many years. With this book, she again "raises the bar" for those who research and wish to preserve the history of American quilt making. For many years, the dominant critical voices ignored the full range of quilt making by Black quiltmakers of the past. Ms. Benberry now has written and published a thoroughly documented and exciting work that clearly documents that Black quilters were part of the mainstream--not an exotic offshoot. In fact, one could argue that it is just as likely that some of the traditional patterns might have been invented by Black quilters--as easily as we assume that all the patterns were Euro-American inventions!

The State Museum of Arkansas, whose collection she is documenting, is to be congratulated for their support. Most importantly, her book can be used to challenge other state museums, regional quilt collections and national museums to seriously track, document and collect a full range of all types of quilts by Black quilters from the 19th and early 20th century--before this powerful and important legacy is lost forever. As a contemporary Balck artquilter, I am so grateful to Ms. Benberry for her continuing work! This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in the history of American and African American quilt making.

This book is the authority on where to raft/kayak/canoe - you get all the info you need about drop-off and pick-up points, plus mile-by-mile information. Great book - I wish the authors would revise their last edition (2000)! Still, the 2000 edition is very helpful. Highly recommended to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas canoeists/kayakers!

This book is the perfect guide to Texas rivers. It gives a description of each river, including different runs on each. It provides information on camping in the area, where to rent a canoe, rapid class categories, phone numbers for flow information and myriad other details that give you the confidence to literally pick a trip from the book and do it! I'm buying my second copy.

This Essential Reference book opens with detailed local fish population info and photos. Statewide canoe/paddling clubs are listed next along with recommended equipment diagrams & checklists and a glossary of useful river/paddling terms.(worthy of purchase alone) THEN you get an alphebetically listed, turn by turn, comprehensive diagram and description of multiple rivers in 3 states. Enough said? Too bad this is getting so hard to find!

While at times the book is difficult to read it illustrates an important point you cannot just draw a line in the dirt and expect everyone on one side to be loyal to this country or that country. There were people in the south that supported the Union a lot of people and the same holds true for Confederate sympathizers in the north. The Civil War is not and never was a crusader like story of armies of light from the north and soldiers of darkness from the south it is the story of incredibly human people who had to make an incredibly difficult choice. Also as the narrative will show America during the time of the Civil War was not nearly as romantic as everyone wishes it was.

The tragic part about the course of history and the passage of time is that none of those people thought to write an account as Captian Dennis E. Haynes did.

Overall-I would like to thank the captain for his account and Arthur W. Bergeron Jr. for preserving it for future generations.

It is well known that during the Revolutionary War there was a substantial portion of the population that remained loyal to England. Even though I was born and grew up in Louisiana I did not know that there were 'Unionists' in the area that remained loyal to the United States.

Captain Dennis E. Haynes was one such individual. Born in Ireland in 1819, he came to the US sometime in the early 1830's. This makes him a 45 year old man by the time the enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1864. By the standards of the time, he was an old man. By the standards of an Army he was an old man.

Besides the shock of seeing the names of towns near where I grew up (and where I thought nothing had ever happened), I was surprised to see how much and how far Capt. Haynes traveled. He was always on the move, going hundreds of miles to New Orleans or Texas. In one case, trying to get to Port Hudson (near Baton Rouge) he walked in a little over a day and a night 52 miles having had only one small meal.

This book is reprinted from the original which was published in 1866 and of which only two copies are known to exist. As such it is written in the style of the time and reads a bit differently than a current book. Still, it is one of the very few personal memoirs from a southern Unionist, and the only one known from Louisiana. To the Civil War reader, this is a book on a little known aspect of the war.

A Thrilling Narrative: The Memoir Of A Southern Unionist is the memoir of Captain Dennis E. Haynes, and a rarity indeed - the true tale of a Southern unionist. Few Southern Unionists wrote of their experiences after the American Civil War, and A Thrilling Narrative is the only publication of Louisiana Unionist, and the only account of the First Louisiana Battalion Cavalry Scouts, a unit that existed for less than three months and only saw action during the Red River Campaign of 1864. In A Thrilling Narrative, Haynes speaks of how he opposed the secession of Texas and became a hunted man for it, his terrible journey to reach Union troops in Louisiana, and the cruelty that he and other Union sympathizers suffered at the hands of the Confederates. Notes and an index round out this powerful glimpse at the harrowing difficulties of taking a stand that is unpopular to one's neighbors.

The Whiskey Killing pulls you into the story from the very first page . . . and you can't stop reading until you learn `who done it'. Full of surprises and unusual twists and turns, it will hold your attention to the end. An extremely realistic and believable story. This writer is talented . . . no doubt about that. If you love a good mystery, keep an eye on him.

After midnight in Medford, Arkansas, a man carrying a 22 caliber rifle walks up to liquor store owner seventy two year old Edwin Mayhew and fires four point blank range shots into his chest. Before leaving Mayhew's front yard, the killer pours whiskey onto his face. The victim's older sister Lavonnie sees his corpse and calls the cops.

Medford Police Department CID Captain Billy Walker leads the murder investigation assisted by CID 2 Sergeant Cordelia Hull and CID 3 Bob Claggert. The obvious suspects are those with an interest in the town's gambling as Mayhew was heavily involved with that. Billy and Cordelia start with Hawaiian Nightclub owner Earl "Uh Oh" Gilby who provides him three sharks wanting the action. However, the case meanders much more than just who will run the illegal gambling business as others die too; Billy works hard to eliminate the obvious until he realizes the killer waits for him.

Billy makes this police procedural so much fun to follow as he methodically seeks clues while training Cordelia; the latter enables the audience to better understand the logic CID 1 applies to the homicide. Filled with twists that occur just when it seems case solved, sub-genre fans will appreciate THE WHISKEY KILLING even if Billy never received admin time for justifiably killing crazy dangerous Eddie Partee.

Harriet Klausner

H.R. Williams offers a character-rich, softly drawn story in his Five Star Mystery, The Whiskey Killing. Set in the Crowley's Ridge environment of eastern Arkansas, the novel avoids the whodunit "puzzle world" of intricate paths meant to "trick" the reader. Rather, Williams offers a fine story with believable characters, a straightforward plot, and an honest relationship with a host of Southern folk that populate this work. The Whiskey Killing is a mellow read.

I miss the fun I had catching critters when I was a kid, and I always enjoy bumping into the various animals that show up in my garden. But as a recent transplant to Arkansas, I don't always recognize the species. I spotted this book at a local bookstore and took a peek. Then I bought it.

This is the best herptile guide I've seen. It has lots of info, lots of color photos, and lots of species. There are even color photos of larval forms and egg masses. If you have an interest in reptiles and amphibians, you'll find this book useful, even if you don't live in Arkansas. I may never crack open my North American field guides again.

And next time I go hiking, I think I'll turn over a few logs just to see what I've been missing.

This book is one of the most exhaustive treatments of reptiles and amphibians for a region that I have seen. The photography is excellent. I would recommend it for scholar and interested layperson alike.

DEAR RON HOWARD ! OLIVER STONE ! or SOME ONE ???????
BLACK OAK ARKANSAS EARNED HAVING A BIO / MOVIE OF THEIR LIFE..! WHO EVER PUT THE CONCERT FOR NEW YORK CITY TOGETHER
NEVER HEARD BOA`S " FORGIVE AND FORGET..! "
OR " REVOLUTIONARY ALL AMERICAN BOYS "
" FULLMOON DRIVE "
" BACK TO THE LAND "
READ THIS BOOK ! BLACK OAK ARKANSAS ARE MORE THAN LEGEND..!!!!!! THEY ARE ALL IT MEANS TO HAVE.., HEART..!
I HAVE EVERY ALBUM ! READ THIS BOOK ! MET THEM !
IN THIS DAY AND AGE OF REALITY SHOWS ! BLACK OAK ARKANSAS
WAS AND IS REALITY BEFORE IT WAS HIP..!!!!!!!!
Sincerely
OWL > mountainharmony3000@yahoo.com
BLACK OAK ARKANSAS FOREVER # 1 FOREVER BLACK OAK ARKANSAS

This is a great book for anyone that really understands Black Oak Arkansas. Jim Dandy and the boys started the whole hard rock movement of the 80s. Find out where it all started. A must have book for all true Oakheads. This should be a TV movie.

I did not know before that they had this kind of poetry. It was in my library and when I read it I found it very interesting.

As unlike the stereotypes of the "Middle East" as you'd hope to find. These poets are really fresh and new; some of them have avant-garde weird images and sexual references, and some are more traditional; some are funny, some are sad; some of them are talking about their experiences in their own country and some are talking more generally. The translation hardly shows at all; you could be reading Laurie Jackson, or at times the early Beats. If you like poetry, or are interested in other cultures - or perhaps are interested in finding out that we're not so different after all - buy it.
(Bonus: If you're a student of translation, Arabic poetry, or just of Arab issues, there's a very informative introduction about the ancient Arabic poetry tradition and how it's been an influence on modern writers. For me, it was worth the price of the book just for this info.)

I just got the cookbook, and the buttermilk fried chicken is to die for! As a hunter, there are no fish and game recipes around that compare to the ones found in the Arkansas Classic Country Cookbook! I just can't wait until my wife finds the dessert section.

I am Jack Lankford, son of Bess Lankford and Grandson of Ruth Moore Malone. As many of these recipes I've sampled , I've got to be the official taste tester of this cookbook!
Some of the fish and game recipes are so tasty you can find some of them in Arkansas Fish and Wildlife Magazine as well as Ducks Unlimited Magazine.
Easy to follow recipes and simple ingredients are the key to this cookbook!
Down home, taste with the touch of family traditional recipes.
This cookbook has got to be the gift that keeps on giving for appetites everywhere!

Jack Lankford

This book is a wonderful tool. It is very clear about what to expect on each trail. It is accurately descriptive. My copy is worn, but wherever we go hiking-so it goes as well.

This book reveals the wealth of knowledge Tim Ernst has accumulated over his years in the Ozarks. It is descriptive enough to keep you on your toes for upcoming views and special areas, but not overladen with detail. There are maps, but they contain no topographical info.