About the Initiative

The Testimony to Tolerance Initiative is a program established in 2007 by the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education and the Central Arkansas Library System, with funding from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, L'Oreal USA, Inc., and the Jewish Federation of Arkansas. The initiative serves Little Rock and the surrounding communities in Central Arkansas.

At the center of the Initiative is the Little Rock Visual History Collection, a collection of 26 of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute's video testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses — including four interviews that were conducted in Arkansas. The testimonies are a unique and powerful educational resource, addressing such topics as prejudice, fairness, justice, and scapegoating, issues that today's adolescents confront in their own lives. The testimonies can be checked out at any of the twelve branches that make up the Central Arkansas Library System.

The Testimony to Tolerance Initiative strives to develop opportunities to create a dialogue about and improve upon diversity in both schools and the greater community. In a variety of ways, the Initiative has inspired student leaders to take the lessons of the past and apply them to their lives today.

About the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History & Education

The USC Shoah Foundation was established in 1994 to record and preserve the videotape testimonies of Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. Since that time, the Institute has recorded more than 50,000 testimonies in 56 countries and in 32 languages. Today, the Institute’s mission is to overcome prejudice, intolerance, and bigotry– and the suffering they cause– through the educational use of the Institute’s visual history testimonies.

About the Central Arkansas Library System

The Central Arkansas Library System serves to provide free access to information, entertainment and a place to meet for our visitors. Aside from books, our collection is also home to a growing number of audio books, popular movies and musical selections that are available for check-out.

Each branch of the Central Arkansas Library System offers meeting rooms for community, civic and business groups. We also offer study carrels for quiet study sessions for small groups.