From Buffaloes to Badgers: Student Histories of Peake and Arkadelphia High Schools

There are currently no published histories of integration on Arkansas colleges and universities (though some are in progress) and few about high schools outside of Little Rock Central High. Arkadelphia schools integrated in 1970, and the History Research Seminar class from Ouachita Baptist University has spent the last two years collecting the stories from this time period and its aftermath. We believe that this project can serve as a model for other studies and student collaborative research. Arkadelphia is a very unique community: integration came rather late, it is very socioeconomically and educationally diverse because of the two universities and large presence of manufacturing centers, it is religiously incorporated, and residents report less cross-race tension than other areas in the South. Our group created a virtual exhibit containing oral histories, primary sources, and context analysis. We conducted oral history interviews with residents of Arkadelphia who experienced integration and its effects on the community, compiled data from the Clark County Archives, and combed through newspapers from the time of integration. We organized ourselves into teams and learned about project management, research, editing, and writing. Our research strengthened the community by connecting different generations through sharing their stories, made space for difficult conversations, and deepened a sense of understanding within the community. The research highlighted the educational significance of this type of project to other students and gave us firsthand accounts of integration that we probably would not have heard otherwise. It taught us new skills such as communication, teamwork, archival research, compiling oral histories, and technological skills.

The proposed poster contains screenshots of the website, pull quotes from the interviews, and a picture of community members. We will also have boxes listing the benefits of the research to the community and the students and suggestions for future work.

A project like this could be easily replicated by high school or college students to gather further information on integration. Research like this needs to be done, because local and often difficult histories can help build reconciliation and understanding within communities. We hope to help guide other researchers by our work.We look forward to the opportunity to share more about both the content and the pedagogical experience.