Bill Lewellen, who was the second Black person to serve in the Arkansas Senate in the 20th century, the lead sponsor of the law that created the Arkansas Minority Health Commission and lead attorney for the historic Lake View School District school-funding case, died Tuesday.
He was 71. The cause of death was unknown. The death of Roy C. "Bill" Lewellen was announced by the Arkansas Democratic Party on Wednesday.
Lewellen helped initiate the Arkansas Minority Health Commission, which was established by Act 912 of 1991 and which was the culmination of the work of Dr. Jocelyn Elders, director of the Arkansas Department of Health and state public health officer at the time, as well as the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus, according to a history of the commission.
The act specified that the commission would study issues relating to the delivery of and access to health services for minorities in Arkansas, identify any gaps in the health service system that particularly affected minorities, and recommend improvements for the delivery and access to health services for minorities.
His involvement in school funding came about as lead attorney for the 1992 lawsuit by the Lake View School District in Phillips County. The district sued the state, claiming that the funding system for public schools violated both the state’s constitution and the U.S. Constitution because it was inequitable and inadequate.
The Arkansas Supreme Court agreed.
The case spent years in the courts, resulting in school consolidations across Arkansas — including the Lake View School District, which became part of the Barton-Lexa School District — and changes to school-funding laws.
To this day, legislators and policy makers refer to "the Lake View case" when discussing school funding.
Lewellen was lead sponsor in the state Senate of the Arkansas Civil Rights Act of 1993, culmination of the work of the Governors’ Task Force on Civil Rights, which was formed in 1991 by then-Gov. Bill Clinton.
Lewellen was born in Lee County and raised in Marianna, and served on the city council there before becoming a state Senator.