UA Honors College Hosts Exhibit About Geleve Grice in Pine Bluff

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- The University of Arkansas Honors College will host an exhibit of photographer Geleve Grice’s works throughout the month of February at the Pine Bluff Jefferson County Historical Museum. A reception will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9, at the Pine Bluff Jefferson County Historical Museum. The public is invited.

Sponsors of the exhibit, on loan from the Old State House, include the Pine Bluff High School History Club, the Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Historical Museum, the Center for Arkansas and Regional Studies, and the University Libraries. The Pine Bluff High School History Club choir will sing at the reception. Two UA professors, Bob McMath, dean of the UA Honors College, and Bob Cochran, author of “Geleve Grice: A Photographer of Note,” will be featured speakers.

Geleve Grice, born in 1922 in Tamo, Ark., was the oldest of seven children. He attended Dunbar High School in Little Rock, and during his senior year, he contributed articles and photographs to the Arkansas State Press at the urging of Daisy Bates. Following his World War II service in the U.S. Navy and his graduation in 1950 from Arkansas AM&N (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff), Grice operated a commercial studio in Pine Bluff. His thousands of photographs include celebrities such as Martin Luther King Jr., Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Harry Truman and Joe Louis; historic Arkansas events related to Civil Rights; and numerous buildings in southeast Arkansas. His most important work chronicles the daily life of African Americans in Pine Bluff.

"The Honors College is excited about this opportunity to bring the exhibit back to Mr. Grice's home. We thought it especially appropriate for his photos to be there during February," said McMath. "As a history professor, I look forward to working with the Pine Bluff High School history club, the first in my experience to have over 100 active members and its own choir. It should be a memorable event.”

The exhibit has been on tour across the state, visiting schools in Fort Smith, Little Rock and Hot Springs. For more information or to arrange to have the exhibit in your school, contact the Honors College at (479) 575-7678 or e-mail honors@uark.edu.