WASHINGTON -- A pro-Hillary Rodham Clinton website being launched today highlights the Democratic presidential candidate's time in Arkansas and will be using dozens of state residents to help tell the story.
Organizers say the "Let's Talk Hillary" project will also document Clinton's role as a senator, secretary of state and first lady, but they wanted to begin with her time in Washington and Pulaski counties.
The premiere video is described as "friends in Arkansas" talking about Clinton's "lifelong commitment to public service and championing women and children."
The website's debut takes place on Clinton's 68th birthday; it also includes a clip of Arkansans sending or singing birthday greetings.
Allida Black, a research professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University, is leading the project. She made three trips to Arkansas and spent a total of six weeks in the state, collecting the stories.
"I would say we filmed 20 Arkansans. I've talked to maybe 40 and I've got about 10 left to talk to," Black said. "I'm a historian, and I think the story of Hillary in Arkansas is so important."
Clinton moved to Fayetteville in 1974, teaching at the University of Arkansas School of Law and founding its legal clinic. She moved to Little Rock after her husband's election as attorney general in 1976.
She remained in central Arkansas, practicing law and pursuing civic projects, until Bill Clinton won the White House in 1992.
During the Arkansas years, Black said, Clinton "learned to organize, she learned to work with people, she learned to build organizations. ... She learned that people are bold and brave and care and that if you build coalitions, you can get things done."
The first video, available at lthproject.org, emphasizes Clinton's work on behalf of Arkansas Children's Hospital and Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.
It features:
• Missy Kincaid of Fayetteville, who met Clinton at Little Rock's First United Methodist Church while in grade school and later served as the First Lady's personal assistant in Washington.
• Bob Nash of Little Rock, a friend for four decades and the former director of White House personnel.
• Nash's daughter, Dr. Creshelle Nash of North Little Rock, who has been an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and medical director of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission.
• Walt White of Beebe, a public relations and marketing adviser whose son, Zachary, was treated at Children's Hospital.
Clinton served for a time on the hospital's board of directors. In 1980, she traveled to New York City while eight months pregnant to appeal for a better bond rating for the hospital.
She was also one of the founders of Arkansas Advocates, a group that lobbies for changes in the state's education, child health care and juvenile justice policies.
In the video, Bob Nash portrays Clinton as inspirational.
"In Arkansas, women were not in many leadership roles. Hillary came in and, you know, she was involved in education, she was involved in health care, she was involved in supporting women's rights, and I think a lot of women in this state were encouraged by what they saw in Hillary Clinton. I know my daughter was one of them," he said.
Kincaid, who also praises Clinton in the video, said Sunday that she was glad to share her story.
"I grew up in Little Rock going to church with her and Chelsea and, as a young woman, she influenced me mightily," Kincaid said. "I just want to let people know what a real, passionate, intelligent person she is."
Unlike the others, White isn't a Clinton friend or associate. In an interview, he said he hasn't seen her since she spoke at Beebe High School in the mid-1980s.
But he said he's grateful that she helped strengthen a hospital that fixed Zachary's damaged heart and repaired his cleft lip and palate and treated him through childhood and beyond.
"I can say her work directly affected my family and my family's life and my son's in particular," White said.
Organizers say they plan to post dozens of other videos featuring people from all over the country who know Clinton or have benefited from her work. Many of them will include Arkansans.
Isaac Foley, a Republican Party of Arkansas spokesman, questioned whether Democrats will be successful.
"The liberal policies that Hillary Clinton is peddling have been routinely rejected by Arkansas voters at the polls. Arkansans will continue to vote for their values in 2016 -- values that Clinton, like the Democrat Party, have abandoned," he said in a written statement Sunday.
The video's backers say the stories will help sway voters.
The group bankrolling the effort is Correct the Record, a pro-Clinton Super PAC that raised $1.4 million during the first six months of the year.
Correct the Record describes itself as "a strategic research and rapid response team designed to defend Hillary Clinton from baseless attacks."
But "Let's Talk Hillary" allows it to take the offensive, not just answer attacks.
One of those promoting the new site is Correct the Record Deputy Communications Director Mary Rutherford Jennings, a Little Rock native and the daughter of Clinton School of Public Service Dean Skip Rutherford.
"As a woman and as an Arkansan, this is just a real opportunity to make history," Jennings said. "I would do anything to get Hillary elected and for the American people to be able to see the wonderful person she is and the great things she will do for our country."
Jennings says the historian behind "Let's Talk Hillary" is an ideal person to tell Clinton's story.
"Allida Black is the most enthusiastic and passionate Hillary supporter that I've ever seen and that's saying a lot because I'm from Arkansas so I know a lot of them," said Jennings. "Her heart and soul is behind this project."
Black said she's enjoying her work. "I went all over Little Rock. I've been to the Daisy Bates House. I've been to Central High School. I've been to the Rose Law Firm," she said, referring to Clinton's onetime place of employment. "I am a historian, so I want to soak up as much of this state as I can."
Metro on 10/26/2015