My name is Madison Whipple and I am a senior in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences with a major in history and a minor in Spanish. My mentor is Louise Hancox, lecturer of history and Director of Career Innovation in the Honors College. I am in my first semester of research, heading into a second semester of research and plans to graduate in May of 2021. I have applied to be an English Teaching Assistant in a country called Andorra as a part of the Fulbright US Scholar Program for the 2021-2022 academic year. Eventually, I would like to earn my Master of Arts in Public History and work for a museum or in the National Parks system.

My research centers around the actions of the Mildred Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) in the 1920s and 1930s in Fayetteville. The UDC was a Confederate memorial association that was established in Fayetteville in 1897 and was active until the early 1990s. Many UDC chapters are most famous for their public monuments, built to honor the Confederacy, as these statues and memorials have been a recent topic of controversy in the United States. However, the Fayetteville UDC never built a memorial, so my research focuses instead on the other facets of the UDC’s influence in Fayetteville. I will cover their power over literature, both in schools and in the Fayetteville Public Library, their influence over newspapers and local publications, the influence of visual memorial in non-monumental form, and the UDC’s performance of the Confederacy in the early twentieth century. I will use all of this evidence in an attempt to prove that the UDC’s influence in Fayetteville was still powerful, even without a public monument, in the two decades between the World Wars. The real-world application of this research is that I will be able to dispute the long-held belief that Fayetteville is more progressive than its neighbors to the North (Bentonville) and the South (Fort Smith). This is especially important today, as we continue to identify and reconcile with systemic racism in our society, which stemmed, oftentimes, from the ideologies perpetuated by groups like the UDC.

I chose this topic specifically because I have always been fascinated by both the Civil War, and the role of women in history. I knew that I had a particular interest in Southern women’s history, and in following that interest I found out about the UDC. This piqued my interest because it was a group of powerful women who exerted influence over a huge majority of the South in the twentieth century. I chose my mentor, Louise, because I knew that she had done professional projects in Arkansas history, as well as that she had an interest in women’s history. I knew Louise through the Honors College, and I knew that she was not only interested in my topic, but she was also someone who I could rely on to give me honest and structured feedback.

I have learned a multitude of things about my research topic. I went into this research barely understanding what the UDC was, and I have learned so much about not only the organization, but the women who comprised the Fayetteville chapter. I have learned that the Mildred Lee chapter of the UDC perpetuated the Myth of the Lost Cause- the idea that the Confederacy was on the right side of the Civil War and that they protected the glory of the Old South- in Fayetteville. They did so through newspapers, donation and distribution of textbooks and books that supported the Lost Cause narrative, memorials ceremonies to the Confederacy, even the donation of portraits of Confederate generals to Fayetteville High School. I learned that their influence was especially great because the women who belonged to the chapter were also those who had power within the University of Arkansas, like Annie Gaines Duke-Futrall, wife of University President John C. Futrall, and first female member of the University’s Board of Trustees. The UDC left traces in the lives of many people whose personal records now belong to the University, so I used those to my advantage, and was able to build my research on concrete primary sources. However, there is not much secondary literature on the UDC in Arkansas. Despite this, I have been able to learn about the UDC on a national scale through authors like Karen L. Cox, who is the leading scholar on the influence of the UDC nationwide, and through books like Free Speech and the Lost Cause in Arkansas by Fred Arthur Bailey. Although the secondary literature does not directly address my topic, I have been able to structure an argument that localizes the work of other historians. Also, obviously the COVID-19 pandemic has affected my ability to research. However, I have stuck it out by utilizing the limited hours at the Special Collections department of the library, and finding primary sources I can use from home, like books checked out from the library.

My faculty mentor, Louise Hancox, has played a huge role in my research. We meet regularly, and she has helped me think critically about what information I should use in my thesis, as well as helping me organize my thoughts into concrete chapters and topics. Louise also plays the role of my “agent” almost, letting me know of opportunities where I can present my work, such as the Phi Alpha Theta Conference, or an interview with KUAF. In presenting me with these opportunities, Louise has also brought in other faculty members and students who have lended their time to look over or provide feedback on my work. There are many others who have helped me through this process: Katie Wilson Powell, a PhD Candidate in English who is studying the James H. Berry chapter of the UDC in Bentonville, Michael Pierce, my professor and committee member who suggested that I use his newspaper-based term paper assignment to tackle a chapter of my thesis, and Michele Johnson, another of my professors and committee members who really sparked my interest in Southern women and power, as well as providing me with invaluable secondary resources.

Special collections housed every primary source I could need, from the Mildred Lee Chapter Records to copies of the books donated by the UDC to various places in Fayetteville. I will continue to use this archive to write my thesis, which I am currently in the process of doing. I will defend in March or April of this year, and so right now I am focused on writing and editing, which I will do until I turn my completed thesis in on Dead Day of the Spring 2021 semester.