A group of historians from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock were announced as the winners of the Gingles Award from the Arkansas Historical Association on Thursday.
John Kirk, a George W. Donaghey distinguished professor of history, and his students Dora Bradley, Kristen Miller and Kellie Solomon, researched and wrote a paper exploring a criminal case of two Black Arkansans, James X. Caruthers and Clear “Bubbles” Clayton were executed for the alleged rape of the white woman, Virgie Terry, in the 1930s.
The case drew national attention and became widely known as the Arkansas "Scottsboro" Case for its similarities to an Alabama case that resulted in rape convictions of nine Black teenagers.
Kirk and his students cowrote the paper as part of a capstone course for UALR's public history masters program.
The authors received their award on April 14, which included $500.
The paper, "From Lynching to Legal Lynching, Mob Justice to Courtroom Justice: The Arkansas 'Scottsboro' Cases of James X. Caruthers and Clear 'Bubbles' Clayton, 1935-1939," will be published in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly.