PIONEERS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: AFRICAN-AMERICAN LAWYERS IN ARKANSAS BEFORE 1950

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Just after the Civil War's end, almost 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, African-American lawyers began laying the groundwork for racial equality in America, according to a University of Arkansas law professor.

In the process of writing a biography on Wiley Branton -- the lawyer who represented the nine students in the Little Rock Central High case -- law professor Judith Kilpatrick decided to research the number of black lawyers practicing in Arkansas who could have served as role models for Branton. She found nearly 70 African-American lawyers whose careers spanned the time frame from 1865 to 1950.

Her findings formed the basis of an article in the Arkansas Law Review: (Extra) Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas Before 1950.

In the article, Kilpatrick shows how the fight for equal rights shifted over time: The lawyers first sought civil rights through political means, then through the legal system and finally by grass roots organization combined with the courts, she said.

Kilpatrick gleaned her information on these lawyers from newspaper articles, telephone and business directories, obituaries and some state supreme court records. She believes that the number of African-American lawyers during that time span was higher, but the records have proved difficult to find.

"There's a lot of inconsistency in labeling," she said, "And many records were lost through fires."

From Reconstruction to the start of "Jim Crow" laws, about 1865-1891, 30 African-American lawyers practiced in Arkansas. Little is known about their daily practices, and their client base was likely to be small.

"Most black people were poor, and the lawyers weren't getting any white clients," Kilpatrick said.

However, several black attorneys served in the state legislature during that time.

"Many of them spoke up quite strongly and eloquently in favor of social and civil rights for African-Americans," Kilpatrick said.

When the state constitution was passed in 1868, it afforded African-Americans full citizenship under the law. During the next 20 years, African-American lawyers sought to affirm those rights through political action, proposing legislation and opposing the passage of laws that institutionalized inequality. But with the advent of "Jim Crow" laws in Arkansas and elsewhere, their political efforts foundered.

At that point, Kilpatrick discovered, attorneys active in civil rights issues moved their struggle into the courts system, using the courts to push political rights.

One lawyer, Scipio Jones, figured prominently in the "Jim Crow" era. He was prominent in the successful defense of the 12 African-American men who were sentenced to death after the Elaine Riots of 1919. His work also figured into the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Moore v. Dempsey, which sent the case back to the state courts for retrial when the court concluded that the defendant's rights may have been violated by the way in which the first trial was conducted. All these men were released by 1923.

Jones' work and that of other lawyers in criminal defense cases paved the way.for reliance on the federal court system to establish civil rights.

From 1920 to 1950, African-American lawyers in Arkansas continued to fight for civil rights through the court system, but they also began to work with a growing statewide and national community of African-Americans in organizations whose goal was to obtain political and legal rights. Two groups in Arkansas, the Arkansas Negro Democratic Association and the Conference on Negro Organizations, were formed in the likeness of the NAACP. These organizations worked with lawyers in seeking to change state laws so African-American citizens could vote in Democratic primaries, "because that's where state officials were being elected," Kilpatrick said. Arkansas lawyers brought cases to court that argued for equal pay, and equal access to education and voting rights.

"These were national goals, carried out by local attorneys," Kilpatrick said.

Prominent among this era's attorneys was Harold Flowers, who brought the first African-American law student, Silas Hunt, to the University of Arkansas campus in 1948. Flowers may have also influenced Wiley Branton in his decision to attend the U of A two years later.

Branton graduated from the law school in 1953. Just one year later, Brown v. Board of Education was decided, and, in 1957, Branton represented the nine black students who wanted to attend Little Rock Central High School.

"World shaking events in civil rights did not occur in Arkansas [prior to 1950], but seeds were planted that later would reach fruition," Kilpatrick concludes in her paper. "African-American lawyers were cultivators."