SNCC in Arkansas-Arkansas State Capital Cafeteria

After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which ordered the desegregation of public facilities and accommodations, the cafeteria at the Arkansas State Capital in Little Rock incorporated as a private club. It believed by doing so it could evade the congressional order to desegregate. Members of the local Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee attempted to use the cafeteria and were beaten by police with billy clubs and tear gassed. Associate director of the Arkansas Council on Human Relations, Ozell Sutton, took the Capital Club, Inc. to court and successfully sued to open it to black patrons. You can find out more about SNCC in Arkansas in a new book published this month by the University of Arkansas Press called Arsnick: the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas, edited by Jennifer Jensen Wallach and John A. Kirk. I'm John Kirk of the UALR History Department and this has been an Arkansas moment.