Author and attorney Grif Stockley to lecture at ASU on race relations in Arkansas

March 18, 2008 -- Author, historian, and attorney Grif Stockley will present a free public lecture at ASU's Fine Arts Center Recital Hall on Wednesday, March 26, at 3 p.m. Stockley will present "Race Relations in the Natural State," a history of black/white relations in Arkansas from slavery to the present. This lecture is sponsored by the Office of Diversity.

The lecture's title is that of Stockley's most recent book, "Race Relations in the Natural State." Stockley, a native of Marianna, is also the author of "Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas" (University Press of Mississippi, 2005), winner of the Arkansas Historical Association's 2006 Ragsdale Award for the year's best book on Arkansas history. In 2007, "Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas" won the Arkansania Award given by the Arkansas Library Association. Stockley has written novels, non-fiction, and plays and is the content manager for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies/Central Arkansas Library System's Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation grant project, "Ruled By Race?"

Grif Stockley has written a total of nine books, including six novels: "Expert Testimony," "Probable Cause," "Religious Conviction," "Illegal Motion," "Blind Judgment," and "Salted with Fire." His 1999 short story “The Divorce,” was included in "Legal Briefs: Stories by Today’s Best Thriller Writers."

His first non-fiction work, "Blood in their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919," published by the University of Arkansas Press in 2001, won the Booker-Worthen Prize and received a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History.

His 1985 play, "A Metaphysical Beast," was performed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In April, 2009, the Weekend Theater in Little Rock will perform his newest play, "Truth! Reconciliation?"

He has won the Porter Prize for fiction and is a member of the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame. He also teaches "Law and History of Arkansas Race Relations" at UALR's William H. Bowen School of Law.

For details, contact Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch at (870) 972-3291, or Bill Rowe at (870) 972-3050.
 

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