FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas has named four people as 2011-12 Silas Hunt Legacy Award honorees.
The newest class — selected by a UA committee of students, faculty, staff and past recipients — is:
Roderick McDavis of Athens, Ohio. McDavis, dean of the UA College of Education and Health Professions and professor of counselor education from 1989-94, became the Ohio University president in 2004.
Christopher Columbus “C.C.” Mercer of Little Rock. He is one of only two living members of the university’s “Six Pioneers,” the first six black American students to enroll at the University of Arkansas School of Law. He has been an attorney for 57 years.
Nolan Richardson of Fayetteville. Richardson coached men’s basketball at UA, taking the Razorbacks to the Final Four tournament three times, including the national championship in 1994. He was named the National Coach of the Year in 1994.
Marjorie Wilkins Williams of San Antonio. She was one of the three black students first officially admitted as undergraduates at UA in 1955. She worked as a professor of nursing for San Antonio College for 30 years, served on the School of Nursing faculty at Troy State University, and worked as a general staff and operating-room nurse.
During the 2011-12 academic year, the recipients will interact with students and participate in a variety of activities in the community and on campus. A banquet will be held in April.
The Silas Hunt Legacy Award, created by UA in 2005, recognizes black Americans for their achievements or contributions.
The award is named after Silas Hunt. On Feb. 2, 1948, Hunt became the first black student in modern times to attend a major Southern public university when he was admitted without litigation into the UA School of Law.
Hunt, who grew up in Texarkana, was a World War II veteran and a graduate of Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Hunt died of tuberculosis in the spring of 1949 before finishing his law degree.
Arkansas, Pages 19 on 10/30/2011