(Extra)ORDINARY MEN

(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 va- riety 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; em- ployees of The Arkansas History Commission, The Butler Center of the Little Rock Public Library, 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 Universi- ty 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 lawyers 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. [He- reinafter 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 revised Aug. 1920” and the names are initially typewritten (probably indicating the “revi- 300 ARKANSAS LAW REVIEW [Vol. 53:299 ing elitist views, as did educated whites of the day,3 and work- ing with the tools available to them – initially, political action and, later, the courts – to secure their new citizenship rights. None of these attorneys devoted themselves exclusively to civil rights. In fact, personal ambition may have been the primary motivation for some of those who entered the law. However, a look at the circumstances and history of the period provides evidence that demonstrates the courage, steadfastness, and strength with which these early African-American lawyers met over- whelming challenges to their civil rights. They understood that legal rights were paramount to full citizenship and that lawyers were essential to achieving them. This article is subdivided chronologically into three periods. The first focuses on the years 1865 to 1891, beginning with the Reconstruction period and ending with the passage of laws that decimated the African-American franchise in Arkansas and confirmed the Democratic Party’s return to total political control in state politics. Approximately thirty African-American sion”). Later admissions are entered by hand. Listings date from 3/27/1878 to 7/11/1938. Not every name listed in the first ledger appears in the second, apparently indicating the death of the attorney, and a few early admissions appear in Book 2 that are not recorded in Book 1. [Hereinafter SUPREME COURT ENROLLMENT BOOK 2]. The third ledger is the same size as the second and contains the same alphabetical section markers, but with a black leather cover. Its pages also are not numbered. Listings are initially typewritten, with handwritten additions. The earliest admission listing is 1/25/1885 and the last is 4/13/1973. On the first page appears the following note: ROLL REVISED, JULY 1938. This roll is to be used in connection with the preceding one. It was not the inten- tion to include all attorneys who are licensed, but only such as were known or thought to be actively engaged in the practice. As a basis for the revision the Hubbell-Martindale [sic] Directory was used. There are no doubt a number of errors of omission, but these will be corrected as they are discovered. C.R. Ste- venson. [Hereinafter SUPREME COURT ENROLLMENT BOOK 3]. Additional admissions to practice were made by the individual circuit courts until 1917. At times, there would be a circuit court admission, with a later admission to the supreme court. Circuit court records were not available and other lawyers have been identified through city directories, newspaper reports, and other printed sources. The supreme court records and other sources sometimes, but not always, identified attorneys as African-American by the use of notes such as “(Colored),” “col’d,” or “c.” In some instances, these notations were italicized. The genesis of this list, 25 names, came from J. CLAY SMITH, EMANCIPATION: THE MAKING OF THE BLACK LAWYER 1844-1944 (1993) [hereinafter EMANCIPATION]. 3. C. VANN WOODWARD, THE STRANGE CAREER OF JIM CROW 30-32 (1957) (commenting on class differences in attitudes toward African-Americans) [hereinafter WOODWARD]. 2000] AFRICAN-AMERICAN LAWYERS 301 attorneys were active during this time. The second period in- cludes the years between 1891 and 1923, when the adoption of “Jim Crow” laws made race relations in the state more fraught, and ends with the United States Supreme Court’s decision con- cerning the 1919 Elaine, Arkansas, “riot” defendants in Moore v. Dempsey.4 During this period, an additional twenty-seven Afri- can-American attorneys were admitted. The final period looks at activities during the period from 1924 to 1950 when the Great Depression, World War II, and the United States Supreme Court decision in United States v. Allwright brought major societal changes to the United States and to Arkansas. In this last period, twelve new African-American attorneys were admitted. The article describes activist African-American lawyers in each of these periods who used and adapted to different tactics in a common goal of achieving equality in civil rights. Some of them became well-known for their efforts to establish and pro- tect the rights that came with the 13th Amendment and for wag- ing a continuing struggle against racism and intolerance in Ar- kansas. Initially, these lawyers relied almost entirely on political action, the vehicle that had brought citizenship and was seen as offering the most hope for equal status and treatment. The practice of law was generally subordinated to party activities. In the second period, politics became unreliable (although it still was used). Mass public demonstrations and formal legal action were adopted as forms of protest and lawyers provided the representation. In the third period, there was increasing re- liance on the legal system and lawsuits in efforts to secure civil rights, including political ones. This latter period provides a preview of the era after World War II, when use of the courts and public demonstration became predominant, and protest became more confrontational.5 The work of these lawyers created a path that leads directly to the civil rights legal battles of the 1950s and 1960s. Not all African-American lawyers were activists, of course. In each period, many lawyers toiled quietly in the handling of legal affairs for clients. Although these men did not make head- lines, they, too, deserve much credit. An African-American 4. 261 U.S. 86 (1923). 5. Of course, the periods do not segment so neatly. A few of the attorneys over- lapped two, or even three, of the periods. 302 ARKANSAS LAW REVIEW [Vol. 53:299 lawyer representing other African-Americans in a society con- trolled by the white majority, sometimes against white citizens, needed a full measure of courage. This was particularly true after 1891 when there was little outward evidence that justice would prevail in a climate of increasing hostility toward the rights of African-Americans. II. PERIOD ONE: EMANCIPATION TO 1891 AND “JIM CROW” Thirty (approximately 43%) of the African-American lawyers admitted in Arkansas before 1950 were active during this first period after the Civil War. Only five of them were Arkan- sas natives; all of whom were admitted after 1887.6 Another eighteen arrived in Arkansas as adults, part of a wave of migra- tion into the state from both north and south.7 The origins of 6. Benjamin Frank Adair (identified as an attorney in the 1887 Little Rock City Di- rectory); Lewis Jenks Brown (admitted 5/15/1887, SUPREME COURT ENROLLMENT BOOK 1 at 10 with notation “Colored”); John A. Robinson (6/15/1889, Tom Dillard, Scipio A. Jones, 31 ARK. HIST. Q. 201, 204 (1972) [hereinafter Dillard, Scipio A. Jones]); Nelson H. Nichols (identified as an attorney in the 1888-89 Little Rock City Directory; licensed 10/21/1899, enrolled 10/14/1901, SUPREME COURT ENROLLMENT BOOK 1 at 212); and Alexander L.

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