The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Institute on Race and Ethnicity has announced the names of the honorees for the 2015 Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail.
Established in 2011, the Arkansas Civil Rights Heritage Trail honors those who made significant contributions to civil rights in Arkansas. This year's theme is "Politics and Law" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a news release said.
The unveiling of the latest plaques on the trail will take place at 3 p.m. Nov. 12 at the corner of Scott and East Markham streets. The event is free and open to the public.
The trail begins in front of the Old State House Convention Center on Markham Street and will eventually extend to the Clinton Presidential Center and other points throughout the downtown corridor. A 12-inch bronze marker is placed in the sidewalk for each honoree.
This year, the event will coincide with the Southern Historical Association conference in Little Rock, which officials expect to bring 1,200 historians to Little Rock.
"The Institute will partner with the SHA in its opening plenary session that evening on 'Justice After the Civil Rights Movement' featuring nationally recognized speakers," institute Director John Kirk said in the news release.
This year's 14 honorees are:
• Annie Mae Bankhead, a community activist in Pulaski County's black College Station neighborhood.
• Wiley Branton Sr., head of the Southern Regional Council's Voter Education Project in the 1960s.
• Charles Bussey, leader of the Veterans Good Government Association who became Little Rock's first black mayor in 1980.
• William Harold Flowers, who laid the foundation for the state Conference of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branches.
• Jeffrey Hawkins, for decades the unofficial mayor of Little Rock's black East End neighborhood.
• Irma Hunter Brown, 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, the first black city manager of Little Rock.
• I.S. McClinton, head of the Arkansas Democratic Voters Association, a forerunner of today's Black Democratic Caucus.
• Richard L. Mays and Henry Wilkins III, among the first blacks elected to the Arkansas General Assembly in the 20th century in 1972.
• Olly Neal, the first black district prosecuting attorney in Arkansas who later served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
• Lottie Shackelford, the first black woman mayor of Little Rock.
• State Rep. John Walker, D-Little Rock, who for more than five decades has been involved in civil-rights activism in the courts, most notably in school desegregation cases.
State Desk on 10/03/2015