HENSON HENSON BENSON BENSON FFOOUUNNDDAATTI IOONN
We Help Grow Malvern & Perla History
Mission..................................................................... 4 Objectives............................................................... 4 About........................................................................ 5 Programs................................................................. 6 Book.......................................................................... 7 History...................................................................... 8 About Dr. Benson...............................................10 Board of Directors..............................................12
Mission • Promote opportunities, aspirations, and achievements in educational endeavors for deserving learners
Objectives • Explore the unique history of race relations in the Hot Springs/Garland County area and the legacy of their contributions to the region and beyond • Produce and disseminate educational materials about the social and economic history of the Malvern, AR region, including the contributions of significant individuals in that history • Provide scholarship assistance to deserving students who demonstrate potential to make positive contribution to society • Provide financial support to the Malvern Wilson Alumni Committee for educational and community activities • Support the Malvern-Tuggle Restoration Organization in its restoration of the Tuggle School as multipurpose center for training and counseling students • Support various worthy local activities to improve the community well-being
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About the Foundation The Henson Benson Heritage Foundation is a non-profit 501Š(3) corporation established in 2010 by Samuel G. Benson, M.D., Ph.D., a visionary physician-scientist and humanitarian whose heritage is a remarkable family from the Hot Springs/Garland County region of Arkansas. Dr. Benson’s wish in creating the Henson-Benson Foundation was to support the community spirit that is the legacy of the Arkansas communities of Malvern & Perla. We aim to preserve and communicate the stories of Taylor Henson and his descendants and to celebrate the successes of other influential Americans who emerged during this unique era of southwestern Arkansas. The Henson Benson Foundation aspires to teach, through mentorships and positive encouragement, how the principles of compassion, openmindedness, and being an action-driven community are key motivating influences that shape the success of future generations. To reconstruct the setting and events, we are delving into the history of the Malvern & Perla areas in order to obtain more details and background on past circumstances. We are focusing on the culture and the people
in order to document events touching on racial relations, as well as social and economic highlights. This information will help us to understand the motivations propelling the accomplishments of individuals as well as give insight on how the community pulled together for the benefit of its young people. In addition, we are restoring key sites featured in Malvern & Perla’s histories for practical and educational uses. These places and structures embody the legacy that will help bring the stories to life. As a Foundation, we promote and fund educational activities that unify the community, build confidence, encourage self-reliance, and inspire the concept of giving back to society. In these activities, we emphasize the critical need for unprejudiced tolerance and respect. We also seek to assist talented, optimistic individuals in their acquisition of education and life-skills to carry on the Malvern & Perla traditions of achievement and excellence. No matter who you are, if you are inspired by the Malvern & Perla experience and share our philosophy, we invite you to join our efforts and participate in our projects.
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Scholarships The Henson Benson Foundation is dedicated towards elevating the future generations towards success. One of the avenues we have chosen to help the future leaders of America is through scholarships provided by the Foundation. More information on these scholarships will be released during the application period.
Charitable Donations The Henson Benson Foundation is proud to help a variety of different cause, non-profit organizations, and community projects continue the great work they do through charitable donations from the Foundation. Just recently, we made a large contribution to the We are Victory Community Center in Malvern, AK, in order to fund the transformation of the old Wilson High School Gym into becoming a community center. We have also made contributions to such organizations as the American Cancer Society, The Perla Cemetery, Hot Springs County Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture-support Museum and the African American story.
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Documentary: Unearthing the Dream Unearthing the Dream is a documentary film commissioned by the Henson Benson Foundation. A small-town African American community, forced to accept second-hand materials for its schools, refuses to accept a second-class education for its children, giving rise to Black schools that inspired and cultivated success and pride. The 1968 desegregation of the Malvern, Arkansas, schools planned to eliminate this separate and unequal system. But in the process, it forced the very students it aimed to help to sacrifice their shared experience and identity. These formative years that most American high school students enjoy and recall with fond memories were stripped away, for the greater good of integration. Forty years have passed, and those boys and girls are men and women with careers and families. Yet they continue to grapple with the memory of this decision made for them, a memory which continues to reverberate throughout their lives. Directed by Pam Uzzell.
BOOK: Proud Legacy: The “Colored” Schools of Malvern, Arkansas and the Community that Made Them Every three years, African American men and women, some with spouses, children and even grandchildren in tow, travel from all corners of the United States to Malvern, Arkansas for a celebration that few Americans would truly understand. These men, women, and children are gathered to celebrate a legacy that many outside of the community might wish to forget. They are gathered for the Malvern-Wilson high school reunion, a triennial meeting of the alumni of these, the “colored” high schools in this city of 10,000, the Hot Spring County seat. As segregated institutions that flourished during the Jim Crow era, Malvern Colored High School and A.A. Wilson High School challenge many of the stereotypes and beliefs surrounding the education of black boys and girls in the pre-civil rights era south. It has been 30 years since the first Malvern-Wilson reunion was held, and over that time the passionate loyalty of the Malvern and Wilson alumni has combined with their wide range of achievements (in all fields of endeavor and in all regions of the United States)
to bear witness to the simple truth that, when it comes to education, segregated was not always synonymous with sub-standard. The MalvernWilson alumni have, by virtue of their own accomplishments, demonstrated that quality schools owe more to the dedication of the teachers and the support of the community than to questions of funding, facilities, or the local tax base. The rich legacy of Malvern’s African American schools is the subject of this book, which traces the rise of the region’s African American community from its earliest origins, during slavery, to the establishment of its first black public schools, and on to the earliest days of school integration. Although the story of Malvern’s black high schools begins in Arkansas, this book takes readers far beyond the boundaries of the state, as it traces the movements and achievements of Malvern’s graduates, whose educational and professional goals have carried them literally from one coast of the United States to the other. Book Authored by Ajuan Mance, PhD.
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History of the Henson Benson Family Taylor Henson, an African-American who was born a slave in Texas, moved to Malvern, Arkansas attracted by the prospect of new opportunities, including fertile land. Around 1880, he rented a 10-acre field to grow corn. By hard work, diligent stewardship and use of common sense, his first crop raising efforts were quite successful despite weather vagaries that destroyed other corn corps that year. His farming efforts continued to have an upward, expanding trajectory with his cantaloupe, watermelons and sweet potatoes becoming somewhat of a local legend. Nearby hotels contracted for Hensen’s produce and bigger markets in Chicago and St. Louis were eventually supplied when the railroad, seeing the business potential, provided suitable shipping cars. Hensen’s enterprising and creative spirit led him to other business ventures such as pig farming, which had initial success, but was abandoned after disease complications, and oil drilling, where his fledging business struck oil, but was hampered by the politics of competition. Taylor Hensen’s personal and business code seemed to be about not losing hope while still being pragmatic and, at the same time, staying creative and open to new opportunity.
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Throughout this time, while tending to his farming business, Hensen carefully monitored favorable opportunities to buy land, and by age 65, he owned nearly 1000 acres in the Malvern area. Some of his land holdings were eventually sold for highway construction and to expand a successful local brick company. The latter was agreed only under the condition that equal wages for Black workers would be guaranteed, setting a good example for generations to come of how foresight and prudent action can influence the future. In similar spirit, Henson donated some of his land to enable building a place of worship and a public school for Black students, again setting an example, this time on the importance of giving back to community. Henson’s son Hejikah carried on the farming business, enhancing the success of that enterprise and building on its founding principles of hard work, good judgment and concern for the future. His legacy includes handing down these values and serving as a tremendous role model for the community, especially in the time of the Great Depression. His daughter, Francis, continued the entrepreneurial family tradition by starting and operating the Henson
Grocery Store, first in Malvern and then in nearby Perla. She, too, exemplified the family ideals of self-sufficiency and implemented these expectations in raising her son, Samuel G. Benson, great-grandson of Taylor Henson. Samuel was born in Malvern and raised in Perla, and although well-versed by his mother in the importance of self-reliance and achievement, he acknowledges the community support and encouragement that helped instill and crystallize his self-confidence. His elementary and high school education was in the time before integration, yet he was undoubting of
his capabilities and potential to successfully compete with anyone, black or white. Samuel earned both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, has had a distinguished career as a medical practitioner, continues to practice forensic psychiatry and established an innovative medical group, The Registry of Physician Specialists. Continuing to build upon the examples set by his greatgrandfather and family, Dr. Benson established the Henson Benson Heritage Foundation to share the story of the Malvern legacy and to recognize the power of community that propelled a distinguished, successful group of African-Americans to achieve the extraordinary.
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About Dr. Samuel G. Benson Head of the Henson Benson Foundation Samuel G. Benson, M.D., Ph.D., earned his M.D. from the University of Nebraska, College of Medicine and his Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology from the same Institute for his research and dissertation on iodine transport and metabolism in the thyroid gland. Following his internship in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York, he completed his residency in Psychiatry at Stanford University Hospital, where he was a member of the clinical faculty in the School of Medicine and lecturer in the School of Law from 1975 through 1986. During this time, he also served as a member of the Human Subjects Committee for the affiliated Addiction Research Foundation. His broad experience with teaching ranges from his understanding of the basic sciences to how medicine is practiced in the community and applied through law. Dr. Benson has practiced extensively in psychiatry and forensic medicine, with more than 35 years of experience conducting psychiatric evaluations and giving expert witness testimonies alongside multiple professional speaking ap-
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pointments and publications. In addition to operating a private practice, Dr. Benson has served as a medical director for the Central Methadone Clinic in San Jose, CA, Charles R. Drew Health Center in East Palo Alto, CA, Park-Gilman Clinics in Burlingame, CA and President of Medical Staff for CPC Walnut Creek Hospital. Dr. Benson’s innovative outreach program to educate, detect and treat hypertension in the predominantly Black community associated with Drew Health Center was recognized by then Governor Jerry Brown in the early 1970’s. The success of this creative program led to his appointment as a distinguished citizen to the Advisory Health Council
for the California Department of Health. Dr. Benson is an active member of numerous professional organizations including the California Medical Association, American Medical Association and American Board of Forensic Examiners.
portunities to former inmates in an effort to reduce recidivism. The Henson Benson Foundation was also formed by Dr. Benson to promote knowledge and appreciation of the social, economic and racial history that has played into the legacy of Malvern, AR.
Currently, Dr. Benson serves as the president and founder of the Registry of Physician Specialists (RPS) and the chief executive officer of two foundations. He has many years of experience in executive administrative positions overseeing policy and operations that involve general medicine, managed care, and health services. His proficient and fluent expertise in these areas is reflected in RPS’s ability to successfully staff healthcare facilities from large state run agencies to community clinics. RPS has successfully staffed 34 prisons in California and expanded into other states including Connecticut, New York and Wisconsin. Dr. Benson’s experience and expertise was a decisive influence for upgrading the level of psychiatric treatment and performance of mental health practitioners in corrections settings. Dr. Benson also conceived and established the Registry Foundation, where his knowledge and experience have allowed him to provide scholarship and educational op-
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Henson Benson Foundation Board of Directors Samuel G. Benson, M.D., Ph. D..................................... Walnut Creek, CA Bonnie Adams.............................................................................. Malvern, AR Lillian Beard................................................................................... Malvern, AR Charlie Carroll............................................................................... Malvern, AR Larry Parker.................................................................................... Malvern, AR Manuel Sanchez (not pictured)............................... North Hollywood, CA Jewell Willis.................................................................................... Malvern, AR Christopher Walthall................................................................... Malvern, AR
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Name (Please print clearly) Company Address City State/Province Zip/Postal Code Email Address
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contact you.
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City State/Province Zip/Postal Code
Address
Company
Name (Please print clearly)
Henson Benson Foundation 1299 Newell Hill Place STE 100 Walnut Creek, CA 94596
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HENSON BENSON F F O O U U N N D D A AT T II O O N N
• (925)315-8152 • contact@hensonbenson.org • www.hensonbenson.org
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