The big 40 today. Have a job I love, in excellent health, wonderful family and friends. Very, very thankful.

Between a postal worker (my dad) and a middle school secretary (my mom), this house has enough gifted cookies, chocolate, peanut brittle, cupcakes, etc., to kill a man. Or, at least, we will find out. #homefortheholidays

I've found so many instances of interracial cooperation (however tacit or informal) in opposing the convict lease system in Arkansas or holding those responsible for its most egregious sins. Here, a Black inmate was awarded $5,000 from lessees by an all-white jury in Little Rock (1893).

Folks really talked up Dylan Penningroth's _Before the Movement_ to me. They weren't lying. This book is radically altering how I think, teach, and research what constitutes "civil rights" and how African Americans asserted their rights and privileges on an almost daily basis.

New here, so I'll introduce myself: currently teaching history and African American studies @ Missouri State University. PhD candidate @ University of Arkansas (defending March 2026). Dissertation is a history of race, labor, and activism in the Arkansas penitentiary system from its origins to 1970.