Alumnus Returns to Campus to Honor Silas Hunt Legacy

Courtesy of Squire Patton Boggs

Rodney E. Slater

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater (J.D. '80) will present "The Legacy of Silas Hunt" to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Hunt's admission to the University of Arkansas School of Law. The campus and community are invited to listen to Slater's reflections at noon Monday, Feb. 5, in the Bobby McDaniel Classroom at the School of Law (Waterman Hall room 342).

While in law school, Slater served as president of the Black American Law Students Association and the Student Bar Association. As a student, he met George Haley, the school's second African American graduate, one of The Six Pioneers and an assistant on the landmark Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education. Haley later became U.S. ambassador to Gambia and was a confidant and lifelong mentor to Slater.

After law school, Slater was an Arkansas assistant attorney general, chair of the Arkansas Highway Commission and director of governmental affairs for Arkansas State University before joining President Bill Clinton's administration, serving as director of the Federal Highway Administration and U.S. secretary of transportation.

Today, he is a partner of Squire Patton Boggs in Washington, D.C., where he promotes a safer, more efficient, environmentally sound and sustainable worldwide transportation infrastructure — a vision he set as transportation secretary. His practice focuses on automobile use and development, aviation competition and congestion mitigation, maritime initiatives, high-speed rail corridor development and overall transportation safety and funding.

Slater helps clients integrate their interests in the overall vision for the transportation system of the 21st Century. He also helps state and local government clients as they look for ways to close the gap between transportation demand and capacity.

In his lecture, Slater will explore the legacy of Silas Hunt, the first African-American student admitted to a white Southern university since Reconstruction and the first ever admitted for graduate or professional studies. Hunt made history on Feb. 2, 1948, when he was admitted to the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Slater will discuss this groundbreaking event and the 70 years that have followed. He will also consider its role as a catalyst for the admission of Wiley A. Branton, George W. Haley, George Howard Jr., Christopher Mercer and Jackie A. Shropshire, who, along with Hunt, collectively became known as The Six Pioneers.