Politics and Law is the theme of the 5th Annual Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Commemoration. Join us on Thursday, November 12 at 3 p.m. as we pay homage to those who have made Arkansas a more fair and equitable place to live.
The following individuals are being honored for promoting equity in the areas of politics and law.
- Annie Mae Bankhead, who was a community activist in Pulaski County’s black College Station neighborhood
- Wiley Branton, Sr., who was head of the Southern Regional Council’s Voter Education Project in the 1960s
- Charles Bussey, who was leader of the Veterans Good Government Association and became Little Rock’s first black mayor in 1980
- William Harold Flowers, who laid the foundations for the Arkansas State Conference of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branches
- Jeffrey Hawkins, who was for decades the unofficial mayor of Little Rock’s black East End neighborhood
- Irma Hunter Brown, who was the first black woman elected to the Arkansas General Assembly
- Scipio Africanus Jones, a leading black Republican who defended 12 prisoners for their role in the 1919 Elaine Race Riot
- Mahlon Martin, who was the first black city manager of Little Rock
- I.S. McClinton, who was head of the Arkansas Democratic Voters Association, a forerunner of today’s Black Democratic Caucus
- Richard L. Mays and Henry Wilkins III, who were among the first blacks elected to the Arkansas General Assembly in the 20th century in 1972
- Olly Neal, who was the first black district prosecuting attorney in Arkansas and later served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals
- Lottie Shackelford, who was the first black woman mayor of Little Rock
- John W. Walker, who for more than five decades has been involved in civil rights activism in the courts, most notably in school desegregation cases
