John A. Kirk is currently the foremost authority on the black experience in twentieth century Arkansas. His latest edited anthology is a published collection of essays that were presented at “Race and Ethnicity: New Perspectives on the African American and Latina/o Experience in Arkansas,” a conference sponsored by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. This resulting book includes an eclectic group of scholars who address Arkansas’s racial and ethnic history, specifically the experience of African Americans and Hispanics since statehood in 1836. This book is divided into four sections, each with three essays.
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Kirk’s anthology is a substantial addition to African American, Hispanic, immigration, southern, and sun belt studies, particularly that pertaining to Arkansas history. The essays in this collection should be considered in further research and would work well both in upper-division undergraduate courses as well as graduate seminars in their respective fields of specialization.
—Journal of American History, March 2016