"First Amendment Studies in Arkansas"

First Amendment Studies in Arkansas brings together fourteen essays, each selected as the winner of the Richard S. Arnold Prize in First Amendment Studies, an endowed fund establish in 1999 to encourage University of Arkansas graduate students in communication and the liberal arts to explore and examine questions about freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

The work of these young scholars draws on public documents as well as oral-history interviews to demonstrate the dynamics of democratic dissent on college campuses, in public schools, in churches, on the streets, on the farms, on the hustings, and in the legislative chambers and courtrooms in Arkansas.

Stephen A. Smith is professor emeritus of communication at the University of Arkansas, where  his teaching and research focus was freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and democratic dissent.