In 1946, a student named L. Clifford Davis stepped forward to seek admission at the U of A, hoping to be the first Black student to enroll at a historically white Southern university. Even though Davis was never admitted to the university, his effort and persistence at seeking admission over a two-year period pushed the university to desegregate in 1948, admitting Silas Hunt.  

Davis, who later became a judge in Tarrant County, Texas, died Feb. 15, 2025, at Fort Worth. He was 100.

"Judge L. Clifford Davis was a trailblazer whose courage and persistence changed the course of history," said Chancellor Charles Robinson. "His determination to seek admission helped the University of Arkansas become the first Southern white university to admit an African American student since Reconstruction, setting a precedent for desegregation in higher education. His efforts opened doors not only for students at the U of A but for countless others across the South. We honor his legacy and remain deeply grateful for his lasting impact on our university and society as a whole." 

In 2017, the U of A honored Davis for his seminal efforts to desegregate the university by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

“I believe that it is the duty of every individual to respect every other individual without regard to age, sex, race or socioeconomic level,” Davis said in 2015. “I believe that to be what I call ‘civil responsibility.’ I hope all of us carry into our conversation civil responsibility in our private lives, in our homes, our workplace, and those of us that are public officials will carry that into public policy for the general welfare of the total population.”

Davis was born Oct. 12, 1924, to Augustus and Dora Davis, in the southwest Arkansas community of Wilton in Little River County. His parents were strong advocates of education, but high school options for Black students were limited in Little River County. The Davises rented a home in Little Rock so that their children could attend high school under the supervision of their aunt, Mary Kelley. Six of the seven children finished Dunbar High School in Little Rock, Davis being the youngest, graduating in 1942.  

He then earned his bachelor’s degree from Philander Smith College in May 1945. While at Philander Smith, according to former U of A professor emeritus Judith Kilpatrick, Davis began thinking about the law profession, inspired by Little Rock lawyers Scipio A. Jones and J.R. Booker. 

L. Clifford Davis, then a law student at Howard University. (1949 Bison yearbook)

Pursuing a Law Degree

He entered the illustrious Howard University Law School during the school year 1945-46, using an Arkansas tuition grant that allowed Black students to pursue law or graduate studies outside the state if those programs weren’t offered by the Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College, the historically Black college at Pine Bluff. 

The cost of living in Washington, D.C., however, caused Davis to reconsider applying to the U of A. He sought admission in 1946, sending his application materials to Robert A. Leflar, dean of the School of Law. 

Leflar, who was sympathetic to Davis’s application, turned the application down, ostensibly because the admission materials were incomplete. But Leflar also told Davis that — even with complete admission materials — he might be turned down due to the enormous influx of law students returning from World War II. 

Undeterred, Davis said he would reapply. In the meantime, he studied economics at Atlanta University for the next year. His interest in reapplying at Arkansas, though, caused Leflar to begin developing a plan for integration and to advise the university’s president, the board of trustees and the governor about the potential legal ramifications of not admitting Black students.

In January 1948, the university announced that Black law students who met university admission qualifications would be admitted. However, the university said, Black students would be taught separately from the white students, they wouldn’t have direct access to the law library, and even facilities such as restrooms would be separate. Davis told a reporter that he would not attend the university if he was going to be segregated from other students. 

Not long after, Silas Hunt sought admission, despite the onerous classroom situation, and he was enrolled.  

Davis returned to Howard and graduated in June 1949.

Davis' Career in Law

Davis was admitted to the Arkansas Bar in July 1949, starting his legal practice the next month. Under the tutelage of attorney Harold Flowers in Pine Bluff, Davis began to focus his early career on civil rights and desegregation litigation. 

In 1952, Davis moved to Texas and taught business courses at Paul Quinn College in Waco while establishing residency in Texas to take the Texas Bar. He was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1953 and moved to Fort Worth to practice in 1954. He opened the first solo practice for a Black lawyer in the historic downtown Ninth Street business district, as a branch office partnered with Dallas legal trailblazers C.B. Bunkley and Louis A. Bedford. 

Judge L. Clifford Davis, posing for a portrait in front of his judge's bench in 1993. (Black Academy of Arts and Letters Records, UNT Libraries Special Collections)

He was an active advocate for civil rights in Arkansas and Texas, working for integration of public schools, opening wider job opportunities and pushing for greater participation by minority residents in elections and holding public office. He also advocated for open housing and "civil responsibility" for the greater good and welfare of the communities’ total population.  

First appointed and then elected as the first Black judge of a district court in Tarrant County in 1984, he served two decades as a district judge, including service as a senior visiting judge before retirement.