Library donation features Arkansas political collection

December 5, 2005

By Peggy Harris
Associated Press Writer

LITTLE ROCK (AP) – Students of Arkansas politics donated a small, but unique, collection Sunday to the Little Rock public library that features taped interviews of 20th century political figures, toe-tapping campaign songs, and provocative political ads.

Twelve students of a Lyon College class taught by visiting professor Skip Rutherford researched high-profile Arkansans and pivotal campaigns, beginning with a 1958 congressional race during the Faubus era and ending with Gov. Mike Huckabee's entrance into the lieutenant governor's office in 1993.

Rutherford, who headed the $165 million Clinton Presidential Library project, said the students' research papers on the campaigns using primary materials are an important addition to the state's record of its history.

“Those (the campaigns) all had profound impact on the shape of Arkansas politics,” Rutherford said before the students formally signed over their papers to the Butler Center of the Central Arkansas Library System.

After processing the materials over the next few months, the center will make them available to the public, center director David Stricklin said. The fact that the materials focus on recent political history is important, Stricklin said, because that period is often overlooked in preservation efforts.

The donation also coincides with the center's plans to soon collaborate with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in maintaining Arkansas history materials under the same roof at the center's downtown location, Stricklin said. The Clint on library also is a few blocks away.

Historians and others who use the campaign collection can listen to Democrats David Pryor, Ray Thornton and Jim Guy Tucker reflect on their contest for the U.S. Senate in 1978 or enjoy the lively populist campaign song of Tommy Robinson in his 1990 race for governor.

Students played a little bit of it Sunday, bringing back memories of then former tough-talking sheriff who boasted of driving a pickup truck and being ''raised on beans and cornbread.''

“What we all need is a brand new governor,” the campaign song says to the beat of country music. “What Arkansas needs is a little more respect for the Lord and the law and the working man.”

Robinson lost to Sheffield Nelson in the Republican primary. Nelson lost to Clinton in the general election. Two years later, Clinton won the White House.

(Lyon students donating their research were: Jessica Allen of Jacksonville; Jonathan Bunch of Newark; Michael Dicken of Russellville; Daniel Haney of Farmington, Mo.; Josh Manning of Crawfordsville; Alyssa Papineau of Tuckerman; Adam Penman of Pottsville; Matt Petty of Cabot; Jacob Sperry of Pine Bluff; Sarah Sweatt of Hot Springs; J.T. Tarpley of Gurdon; and Eric Wilson of Little Rock.)