Lakeport Plantation to host author Grif Stockley for reading, book signing Feb. 7

Jan. 15, 2009 -- Award-winning author Grif Stockley will be at Lakeport Plantation, 601 Highway 142, in Lake Village, Ark., from 1-2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7,  for a reading and a signing of his new book, “Ruled by Race: Black/White Relations in Arkansas from Slavery to the Present.” Published by the University of Arkansas Press, “Ruled by Race” is the first comprehensive history of race relations in Arkansas.

Mr. Stockley, who previously worked as an attorney for Arkansas Legal Services and the Arkansas ACLU, is currently the historian for the Ruled by Race Project at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.  He is the author of two other important histories of Arkansas race relations: "Blood in Their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919;" and "Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas."

Public tours of the Lakeport Plantation home will begin at 1 p.m.  A presentation by Mr. Stockley will begin at 1:30, followed by a signing. Plantation tours and the Stockley presentation are free, and the public is welcome. Books will be available for purchase at $34.95 + tax (cash or check only).

The Lakeport Plantation is one of Arkansas's premier historic structures.  The house, constructed circa 1859, is the only remaining Arkansas plantation home on the Mississippi River.  Lakeport’s mission is to research and interpret the people and cultures that shaped plantation life in the Mississippi River Delta, focusing on the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction periods.

The plantation was donated to Arkansas State University in 2001 by the Sam Epstein Angel family.  After more than five years of restoration, the plantation opened as a museum and educational center in September 2007. Arkansas State University’s Arkansas Heritage SITES (System Initiatives for Technical and  Educational Support) Program operates two other heritage sites: the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center in Piggott and the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza. 

For more information on Grif Stockley’s reading and book signing at Lakeport Plantation, contact Dr. Blake J. Wintory, assistant director, Lakeport Plantation, at (870) 265-6031, e-mail bwintory@astate.edu, or visit http://lakeport.astate.edu/Index.html. For information about traveling to Lakeport Plantation, visit http://lakeport.astate.edu/Visiting.html.                         

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