Grif Stockley
Historian Grif Stockley has repeatedly turned to Jay for his expertise on local racial issues.
The Jay I know has demonstrated an on-going commitment to understanding and elucidating Arkansas’s racial past and in particular the dynamics of race relations in Little Rock. As someone who has tried to document our racial history over the course of four books, I have repeatedly cited Jay’s work. His 2005 updating of Arkansas Politics and Government is an indispensable guide to comprehending racial events in the past and present.
The Jay I know is not only a leading scholar of past race relations in the state but someone whose recent work has become a crucial tool in trying to understand and predict our racial future in Little Rock. His recent demographic study for the Central Arkansas Library System and Butler Center for Arkansas Studies provides a state-of-the-art analysis of the metropolitan area racial patterns since the 1957 School Desegregation Crisis. His lecture and presentation at the Darragh Center on this subject demonstrated his unsurpassed ability to analyze and interpret for the public some of our most complex issues involving race.
The Jay I know is the premier interpreter of current events involving our statewide racial attitudes and behavior. It is Jay whom the media and writers like myself turned to analyze the politics of race in the state during the recent presidential election.
The Jay I know combines an expertise on racial issues with a deep and abiding commitment to solving our racial problems in ways that honor the dignity and concerns of all persons. It is this quality that makes him so unique in an era in which so many people who profess to be knowledgeable about the subject of race seem content to be ideologues rather than actual problem-solvers.
Grif Stockley
Historian
