The Black History Commission of Arkansas recently awarded Curtis H. Sykes grants for two projects. The BHCA is housed under the Arkansas State Archives and meets quarterly. The Curtis H. Sykes Memorial Grant Program has a mission to support African American historic and historical preservation and public programming projects in Arkansas. Grants are awarded year-round and past projects include historical research, exhibits, workshops, publications, oral history interviews, documentary films, and cemetery preservation and documentation.

A grant in the amount of $3,500 was awarded to the Dunbar/Horace Mann Archives Building Project Foundation for developing a book or brochure about Scipio A. Jones. Jones (1863-1943) was an African American educator, lawyer, judge, philanthropist and politician from Arkansas. The Foundation is working to restore Jones’ home at 1872 S. Cross St. in Little Rock with the goal of using the building to house memorabilia from these historic Black schools and Jones’ career, including his work guiding appeals of the 12 African American men condemned to death after the Elaine Massacre of Oct. 1919.   

A second grant in the amount of $2,900 was awarded to the Grand Prairie Historical Society, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the regional heritage of Arkansas’s Grand Prairie. The grant will fund a historic marker about the Holman School, a center for Stuttgart’s African American education for decades.

The next meeting of the BHCA is Nov. 18 at noon via Zoom. To obtain login information, please reach out to Tatyana Oyinloye, African American History Coordinator for the Arkansas State Archives, at [email protected] or 501.682.6892.

Save the date – the BHCA is planning their half-day symposium for Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022. The event is scheduled to be held at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 W. Ninth St., in downtown Little Rock and will be broadcast online. Closer to the date, more information about this event will be available at archives.arkansas.gov.