James E. K. Hildreth, PH.D, MD

First Arkansas African American Rhodes Scholar, Noted Scientist

James E. K. Hildreth, M.D. is Director of the Center for AIDA Health Disparities Research, a National Institutes of Health funded center at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Hildreth was born and raised in Camden, Arkansas. He gradated valedictorian from Camden High School in 1975 and began studies at Harvard University that fall. he was selected as the first African American Rhodes from Arkansas in 1978 and graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in chemistry the following...(more)

W.R. Smokie Norful, Jr.

Grammy Award-Winning Gospel Recording Artist

Pastor Smokie Norful, a minister who is the son of an African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.) minister, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. He grew up in Pine Bluff, and was deeply involved in his fathers church. He was interested in music from a very young age, reportedly picking out one-finger piano melodies at age two. His parents supported him with music lessons, and unusual for his background, allowed him to experiment with and listen to the current R&B and soul music of the day as well as gospel music. Norf...(more)