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EMOBA - Ernie's Museum of Black Arkansans
Photo: Valis55, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This museum housed in the historic First Baptist Church celebrates the colorful culture, history, and heritage of African American people in Arkansas.
The Museum of Black Arkansans and Performing Arts Center is a museum and performing arts venue at 1224 South Louisiana Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is located on the former campus of the First Baptist Church of Little Rock, an historic property listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The former church, built in 1941, is a prominent local example of Collegiate Gothic architecture, designed by local architect A. N. McAninch. Little Rock's First Baptist congregation now meets at 62 Pleasant Valley Drive.
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Adjacent to downtown Little Rock is a residential area made up of 19th century Victorian homes, including the Governor's Mansion. Most of the homes are privately owned; however, twice a year (the first weekend in May and the first weekend in December), several of the homes are opened to the public and can be toured. Of note is the Villa Marre, dating from 1881, which was used in the TV sitcom Designing Women as the home of the interior design company.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places and known by the nickname "The Westminster Abbey of Arkansas", this historic 19th-century cemetery is the final resting place for many noteworthy Arkansans. Among the most notable: David Owen Dodd, the "Boy Martyr of the Confederacy"; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Gould Fletcher; and William Woodruff, founder of the Arkansas Gazette, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi. Also buried here are 10 former Arkansas governors, 14 former Arkansas Supreme Court Justices, 21 former mayors of Little Rock, and 6 former U.S. Senators.
9th and Broadway. The original headquarters of the Mosaic Templars (a black fraternal organization, now defunct save for a single chapter in Barbados), destroyed by fire in 2005, has been reconstructed to house a cultural center dedicated to the history and culture of black people.
Also seen in Designing Women, as Suzanne Sugarbaker's home. No admission fee for tours, but they must be scheduled in advance.
9th and Commerce. Includes a museum school, children's theater, and a wonderful art gallery. The gallery is home to works of Cézanne, Van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O'Keeffe, Rembrandt and Dale Chihuly. The Museum School is a great place to learn or develop art skills. Children's Theatre productions are on most weekends during the school year.