Dr. Larry Gragg will give a talk on “Inez Parker Griggs and the Rolla Community” on Feb. 13, 2025. Photo by Tom Wagner/Missouri S&T.
Dr. Larry Gragg, university historian and professor emeritus of history and political science at Missouri University of Science and Technology, will present a talk titled “Inez Parker Griggs and the Rolla Community” this February. The talk is part of the Rolla Public Library’s Black History Month event series.
The talk will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, on the second floor of the Curtis Laws Wilson Library on the Missouri S&T campus, located at 400 W. 14th St. The event is free and open to the public.
“Inez Parker Griggs, who lived her entire life in Rolla, was an accomplished African American poet who gained national recognition in the early 20th century, yet few of us, including me until recently, knew much about her,” Gragg says. “Moreover, few of us know much about the African American experience in Rolla during her lifetime. My talk will be an attempt to help us understand not just her accomplishments, but also the nature of the African American community in Rolla between 1875 and 1950.”
Gragg began teaching at Missouri S&T in 1977 and chaired the history and political science department for 17 years. He has authored 10 books, including Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel: The Gangster, the Flamingo, and the Making of Modern Las Vegas, and Forged in Gold: Missouri S&T’s First 150 Years.
The Rolla Public Library is collaborating with the Missouri Humanities Council, Missouri S&T Archives, The State Historical Society of Missouri, The Phelps County Historical Society and Rolla Art Space Transformative Alliance to offer events, information and activities that focus on Black history in Rolla and Missouri. During the month of February, the State Historical Society of Missouri’s exhibit “African American Heritage in the Ozarks” will be on display at the Rolla Public Library.
For information about this and other events this February, visit rollapubliclibrary.org/black-history/.
About Curtis Laws Wilson Library
Curtis Laws Wilson Library is located on the Missouri S&T campus at 400 W. 14th St. in Rolla. Dedicated in 1968, the library is named in honor of the dean of the university (then named the Missouri School of Mines), who served from 1941 to 1963. Learn more about the library at library.mst.edu.
About Missouri University of Science and Technology
Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.
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