(Extra) Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas before 1950
![handle is hein.journals/arklr53 and id is 309 raw text is: (Extra)ORDINARY MEN:
African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in
Arkansas Before 1950
Judith Kilpatrick*
The remarkable thing is not that black men attempted to regain their
stolen civic rights, but that they tried over and over again, using a wide vari-
ety of techniques. 1
I. INTRODUCTION
Arkansas has a tradition, beginning in 1865, of African-
American attorneys who were active in civil rights. During the
eighty years following the Emancipation Proclamation, at least
sixty-nine African-American men were admitted to practice law
in the state.2 They were all men of their times, frequently hold-
* Associate Professor, University of Arkansas School of Law; J.S.D. 1999, LL.M.
1992, Columbia University, J.D. 1975, B.A. 1972, University of California-Berkeley. The
author would like to thank the following: the historians whose work is cited here; employ-
ees of The Arkansas History Commission, The Butler Center of the Little Rock Public Li-
brary, the Pine Bluff Public Library and the Helena Public Library for patience and help in
locating additional resources; Patricia Cline Cohen, Professor of American History at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, for reviewing the draft and providing comments;
and Jon Porter (UA 1999) and Mickie Tucker (UA 2001) for their excellent research assis-
tance. Much appreciation for summer research grants from the University of Arkansas
School of Law in 1998 and 1999. Special thanks to Elizabeth Motherwell, of the Univer-
sity of Arkansas Press, for starting me in this research direction. No claim is made as to
the completeness of this record. Gaps exist and the author would appreciated receiving any
information that might help to fill them.
1. Tom W. Dillard, Perseverance: Black History in Pulaski County, Arkansas - An
Excerpt, 31 PULASKI COUNTY HIST. REV. 62, 68 (1983).
2. Supreme Court records of admission to practice are available for 32 of the law-
yers noted here. Except for one microfilm noting admission of William H. Grey, Thomas
P. Johnson, and Wathal G. Wynn, which is located at the Arkansas History Commission,
state supreme court admission records are in the possession of the Office of the Court
Clerk, Little Rock, Arkansas. They consist of three ledgers. The first is approximately 10
inches high by 7-1/2 inches wide with a red cover and numbered pages, quite tattered.
[Hereinafter SUPREME COURT ENROLLMENT BOOK 1]. The first admission recorded was
11/3/1865, the last 7/12/1920. The second ledger is approximately 9 inches high by 11-1/2
inches wide with a tan corduroy cover. Its pages are not numbered and names are entered
behind alphabetical section markers provided by the manufacturer. Within each section,
names are entered approximately in date order. The first page contains the note Roll re-
vised Aug. 1920 and the names are initially typewritten (probably indicating the revi-](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/arklr53&div=19&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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(Extra) Ordinary Men: African-American Lawyers and Civil Rights in Arkansas before 1950
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