Photo courtesy of the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.

The campus community is invited help celebrate the career legacy of professor emerita Margaret Clark from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27, in the Razorback Room of Fulbright Dining Hall. Fulbright Dining Hall is located in Morgan Residence Hall.

Light refreshments will be served, and there will be a display of pictures celebrating her pioneering role at the U of A. In 2019, nearby Clark Hall was named in her honor. Tours of Clark Residence Hall will be given, and a program of various speakers will begin at 4:30 p.m.

Clark became the first Black woman professor at the university in 1969. She taught in the Foreign Languages Department from 1969-1998.

Though retired, Clark remains active in the Fayetteville community as chair of the Diverse Voices Committee of the Washington County Historical Society.

“I feel that Margaret is an inspirational leader or, to be exact, an inspirational do-er,” said Diana Gonzales Worthen, director of the federal grant Project ELEVATE in the College of Education and Health Professions. ELEVATE stands for Ensuring Learner Equity Via Advocacy & Teacher Education.

Clark and Gonzales Worthen often work together on behalf of the Washington County Historical Society.

Clark began her teaching career at the U of A in 1969 after earning a master’s degree in 1968. She initially taught world languages, including French, while working on a doctorate in education. She was appointed an assistant professor of secondary education in 1972 in the College of Education and Health Professions. She earned her Doctor of Education in 1978. She became an associate professor of secondary education in 1994.

She has served on the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Alumni Association and the Washington County Historical Society and was a member of the Arkansas Division of the American Association of University Women. She also served as the first president of the Phi Alpha Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.

Among other honors, she has been awarded the Silas Hunt Legacy Award, the Outstanding Faculty Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award. Clark was inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2022. She retired in 1998, taking emerita status but remaining active in community affairs.

Video interviews with Clark are available from the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History.

This article was first published Monday, Sept. 25, 2023 in University of Arkansas News (Newswire).