UCA journalism faculty members Donna Lampkin Stephens and Dr. Polly Walter and education faculty member Dr. Jeff Whittingham have produced a teacher’s guide to the film “The Crisis Mr. Faubus Made: The Role of the Arkansas Gazette in the Central High Crisis” (2010).
The 30-minute documentary film and teacher’s guide provide an important chapter in twentieth century Arkansas history for grades 6 through 12 that has not been fully told until now.
The project is funded by a grant from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.
The full-length 2006 documentary film “The Old Gray Lady: Arkansas’s First Newspaper,” which tells the story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gazette, is also included in the boxed set to provide a complete historical background of the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River until its demise in 1991.
The teacher’s guide provides key terms, concepts, people and players, discussion questions for social studies and journalism, extension activities, writing prompts and rubric, as well as a list of recommended readings and Internet resources. It is being distributed to Arkansas junior high and high schools.
Stephens, the producer of the acclaimed “The Old Gray Lady” as well as “Mr. Faubus”, was the poject coordinator for the teacher’s guide. Walter served as the designer and Whittingham as the education consultant. Dr. Joe Anderson (retired) was the executive producer and former student Kevin Clark the director of both films.