UA Little Rock to Host Guest Speaker Vincent Tolliver for Evenings with History
UA Little Rock’s next Evenings with History Lecture will feature guest speaker Vincent Tolliver to present, “Chicot County Massacre: The Life and Times of James Worthington Mason (1841-1874).”
The lecture will take place Feb. 6 in the Ottenheimer Auditorium at the Historic Arkansas Museum at 200 E. Third Street in Little Rock. Refreshments will be served at 7 p.m. and the lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Tolliver is an activist, writer, producer, and director from Lake Village, Arkansas.
“This is an exciting and fascinating piece of missing Arkansas and American history and worthy of the attention it’s receiving in Hollywood,” Tolliver said. “The talk is timely, considering the current political landscape, with the reckless assaults on Black history, education, books, and American democracy.”
The lecture is centered around James Worthington Mason, a former slave who became the first Black senator to be elected in Arkansas, and his orchestration of the massacre of prominent whites in Chicot County in 1871 as revenge for the murder of his friend.
“I am thrilled to kick-off the Chicot County Massacre lecture tour at the Historic Arkansas Museum in downtown Little Rock,” said Tolliver. “I am grateful for the invitation from Dr. Barclay Key and all the good folks in UA Little Rock’s venerable History Department.”
