Major Speaker Series Named for Gene Earnhardt
Inaugural Event in March
Carlotta Walls LaNier, one of the who integrated Little Rock (Ark.) Central High School in 1957, will launch a new speaker series honoring the late Gene Earnhardt, a Professor Emeritus of History at Pfeiffer College.
Earnhardt arranged for many historically important figures to speak at Pfeiffer, where he taught for 30 years. The Eugene I. Earnhardt Speaker Series, made possible by a gift of the Earnhardt family, will feature LaNier as its inaugural speaker on March 21, at 10 am in Merner Gymnasium on 黑料专区鈥檚 Misenheimer, N.C. campus. The event is free and open to the public.
鈥淧feiffer College offered the perfect setting for a young history professor鈥檚 passion and the college mission to widen students鈥� worlds,鈥� said Barbara Earnhardt, Gene鈥檚 wife, a Professor Emerita of Writing at Pfeiffer. 鈥淔rom 1966 to 1996 Gene devoted himself in and out of the classroom to linking the past with deepening the understanding of the present.
鈥淕ene would be modest about this idea to use his name, but he would be so pleased with the program鈥檚 intentions. As his wife of 60 years, I am delighted for him — and his three sons are proud.鈥�
Dr. Juanita Kruse, a Professor of History at Pfeiffer during much of Gene Earnhardt鈥檚 tenure there, called him a wonderful colleague who 鈥済ave everything he had to the University, as did Barbara.鈥�
鈥淗is students and I still talk about him on Facebook,鈥� Kruse said. 鈥淭he series is a well-deserved honor.鈥�
The series鈥� principal organizer is Dr. Michael Thompson, a Professor of History at Pfeiffer who is also the Dean of the University鈥檚 Undergraduate College and the Director of its Honors Program.
鈥淲e thought a speaker series connected well with Gene鈥檚 knack for bringing in speakers who either interacted with students in his history classes or spoke to a general student audience,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fitting tribute to what he did when he was faculty here.鈥�
Dr. Margaret Earley Whitt 鈥�68, who was profiled last November in Forever Falcons, recommended that LaNier kick off the series, which she called 鈥渁 brilliant idea.鈥� Whitt was greatly influenced by a 1968 talk that Gene Earnhardt organized at Pfeiffer by James Robertson 鈥淏ob鈥� Jones (1930-1989) when Jones was the Grand Dragon of the North Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
Whitt taught English for 27 years at the (DU) until 2009, when she retired as a full professor. She is an expert on the Civil Rights Movement and the short fiction it inspired, and she arranged for LaNier, a Denver resident, to speak to her DU students several times. The Pfeiffer engagement of LaNier, the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, coincides with the 65th anniversary of Central High鈥檚 integration.
Thompson said that the Earnhardt series will bring at least one guest speaker to Pfeiffer each academic year. Speakers may also converse with smaller groups of students before or after their lectures.
Thompson said that the series鈥� ultimate aim is to introduce the Pfeiffer community to people who, like LaNier, have a 鈥渞eal-life connection鈥� to history or to contemporary events.
鈥淲e want to make certain that students are challenged to think critically and to think beyond the confines of their classrooms,鈥� he added. 鈥淕ene embodied that ideal at Pfeiffer.鈥�
John Earnhardt, one of Gene鈥檚 three sons, said that Pfeiffer gave his father 鈥渢hat perfect platform to bring knowledge and perspective of history to his students.鈥�
鈥淗e agreed with the sentiment that 鈥榠f we don’t know history, we are destined to repeat it,鈥� he added. 鈥淪o, he took history as a high-calling and a way to bring the past to life and make it relevant to the present and the future. A speaker series allows his legacy on campus to continue through hearing from newsmakers and primary sources.鈥�
John Earnhardt called LaNier鈥檚 story 鈥渁 vivid historic connection for everybody.鈥�
鈥淲e are very fortunate to have her,鈥� he said. 鈥淒ad would want the spotlight on her.鈥�
The Eugene I. Earnhardt Speaker Series Endowment will fund LaNier and future guests. Gifts can be made in support of the endowment at (note Earnhardt Endowment as the designation).