Arts
Discover Sue Cowan Williams, an early Civil Rights advocate in Arkansas, who sued the Little Rock School District for equal pay in 1942. With Thurgood Marshall at her side, she paved the way for social justice work in Arkansas. On this episode, we take a deep dive into early Civil Rights by examining the life and social justice advocacy of Sue Cowan Williams and foundational work of the NAACP in Arkansas and beyond. Historian John Kirk is our guest and shares his lecture on teacher pay equalization laws suits and rare audio recordings of Cowan Williams from the 1990s, where they discussed her leadership role in the law suit, her personal sacrifices, collateral damages and outcomes of the suit. "We knew that we were not getting the same salaries as white teachers. As a matter of fact, there was no salary scale." In 1992 and 1993, as a young graduate student, Kirk travelled to Arkansas from England to interview historical figures and Civil Rights leaders in Arkansas. During these travels