An Evening with Bass Reeves

Enjoy a public reading at the Fort Smith Public Library Community Room of "Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshal" by dynamic Fort Smith citizens Rick Foti, Reginald Moore and Janie Weber. These are three of the 82 local citizens who will read the award-winning, factual, children’s book in February, Black History Month, to all fifth- and sixth-grade classes in Fort Smith public and private schools.

Reading volunteers and all other interested folks will hear the book read out loud while viewing the pages on a big screen. This free event will also feature comments by Bass Reeves (Baridi Nkokheli, Fort Smith’s Director of Sanitation who portrays Reeves for the Bass Reeves Legacy Initative), and by Initiative board members, including Sebastian County District Judge Jim Spears, Craig Pair, and Tonya Nkokheli. Local singer/songwriter Herschel Parker will perform his original tune about Bass Reeves. Refreshments will be provided.

The mission of the Bass Reeves Legacy Initiative is to support projects that commemorate and exemplify the legacy of U.S. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves. A slave in childhood, Reeves was the only Deputy U.S. Marshal to serve from the beginning of Judge Isaac C. Parker’s court in 1875 through to Oklahoma statehood in 1907. He captured more than 3,000 felons in Indian Territory and is becoming rediscovered as possibly the greatest frontier hero in U.S. history. This legacy includes education and awareness through the themes of law enforcement, leadership, civil rights, literacy, and American History from slavery through westward expansion.

The organization’s first priority is funding the Bass Reeves Legacy monument, a 1 1/4-scale bronze of Reeves on horseback, in downtown Fort Smith’s Pendergraft Park.