2023 Award Winners | Nomination Forms
Annual Conference 2022 in Little Rock
Lifetime Achievement Award
Ben F. Johnson III – for his pathbreaking scholarship in, and vigorous service to, Arkansas history
James F. Willis – for his service to Arkansas history as a gifted teacher, rigorous scholar, and generous mentor
Susan Young – for her devotion to the study and preservation of Arkansas history and dedicated service to the Arkansas Historical Association
Diamond Award
Washington County Historical Society – for its decades of service to state and local history, including publication of the award-winning journal Flashback
Pulaski County Historical Society – for its decades of service to state and local history, including publication of the award-winning Pulaski County Historical Review
Tom Dillard Advocacy Award
Ellen Fennell – for her valiant efforts to save one of Arkansas’s most historic buildings
J. G. Ragsdale Book Award
Kenneth C. Barnes – Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas: How Protestant White Nationalism Came to Rule a State
University of Arkansas Press – publisher of this year’s Ragsdale Book Award
John William Graves Book Award
Kelly Houston Jones – for best book-length historical study of the history A Weary Land: Slavery on the Ground in Arkansas
University of Georgia Press – publisher of this year’s Graves Book Award
James H. Atkinson Award
Randy Lee Story – for excellence in the teaching of Arkansas History in Hillcrest High School, Strawberry
NEARA (Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives)
Blake Perkins – for his outstanding contribution to Arkansas history with his essay “White Merchant Peter Halderman, the Black Washington, and the Southernization of Lawrence County, Arkansas, 1828-1859”
Lucille Westbrook Award
Dr. John A. Kirk and co-authors – for his outstanding contribution to local Arkansas history in his essay “Criminal Justice in the Age of Segregation: Race, Law, and Politics in the Arkansas Cases of Robert Bell and Grady Swain, 1927-1935”
Co-Authors – Gene Thompson, Kathleen S. Burell, Brittany N. Fugate, Christiane Hendricks, Michael A. White, and Logan Yancey
Violet B. Gingles Award
Dr. Cissy Dowdy – for her outstanding contribution to Arkansas history in her essay “J.K. Southerland: From Check-R-Mix to Fancy Pack, Pioneering the Poultry Industry in North Central Arkansas”
Susannah DeBlack Award
Darcy Pattison, Author and Rich Davis, Illustrator – for best book in Arkansas history for young readers Friday Comes on Tuesday: An Adventure at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
James L. Foster & Billy W. Beason Award
Devin Sorrows – for his outstanding contribution to Arkansas history with his master thesis “Life Along the Color Line in Little Rock: An Archeological Investigation of Two Sites on South Arch Street”
Master Thesis, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Award of Merit
‘The Nelson Hackett Project’ University of Arkansas Humanities Center – for documenting the story of an enslaved Arkansan who changed the world by seeking his freedom
Walter L. Brown Award for Best County or Local Journal
Flashback
Washington County Historical Society, Patsy Watkins, Editor
Walter L. Brown Award Honorable Mention for next Best County or Local Journal
The Pulaski County Historical Review
Pulaski County Historical Society, Bob Razer, Editor
Walter L. Brown Award Best Use of Graphics
The Record
Garland County Historical Society, Liz Robbins, Editor
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Article
Joshua C. Youngblood, “Broke of sucking eggs”: The Murder of Hugh Johnson, Race, and Law in Post-Civil War Pulaski County, Arkansas,”
Pulaski County Historical Review, Pulaski County Historical Society
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Biography, Autobiography, or Memoir
Revis Edmonds, “Community Champion and Political Pioneer: Pratt Cates Remmel,”
Pulaski County Historical Review, Pulaski County Historical Society
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Family History
Joel Laster, “Dr. Reuben Ephraim King and Jessie Ogden King, The Life of a Rural Doctor and His Family, Harmony, Arkansas,”
The Journal, Johnson County Historical Society
Mark Hodge, president receiving
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Church History
Mary Cooper Miller, “History of Cumberland Presbyterians in Izard County,”
The Izard County Historian, Izard County Historical and Genealogical Society
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Community History
J. B. Hogan, “Fayetteville and the Influenza Epidemic of 1918,”
Flashback, Washington County Historical Society
Walter L. Brown Award for Best School History
David Edmark, “The University of Arkansas, 1871-2021,”
Flashback, Washington County Historical Society
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Business History
Marlo B. Krueger, “Saline Memorial Hospital,”
The Saline, Saline County History and Heritage Society, Inc.
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Edited Document
John Marinoni, “First Impressions of Fayetteville in 1905: An Italian Professor Finds His ‘American Dream’,”
Flashback, Washington County Historical Society
Walter L. Brown Award for Best Newsletter
News from the Prairie, Grand Prairie Historical Society, Glen Mosenthin, Editor