Wiley A. Branton Award Recipients

Wiley A. Branton

About Wiley A. Branton

Wiley A. Branton, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduate of the School of Law of the University of Arkansas, was a lawyer wholly devoted to equality and justice serving as the principal lawyer representing the Black Students during the 1957 school desegregation controversy at Central High, Little Rock, Arkansas. Wiley A. Branton handled a number of civil rights cases in the Old South and responded to the cause of justice wherever it beckoned him.

2007 Wiley A. Branton Award Recipients

2007 Recipients

• Johnny Ford
• Charles Price
• Ernestine Sapp
• Jock M. Smith

HONORABLE JOHNNY FORD
Mayor Johnny Ford was again elected Mayor of Tuskegee in September, 2004. He served as Mayor of Tuskegee previously from 1972 - 1996. Mayor Ford is a native of the great State of Alabama. He was raised in Tuskegee, the home of Tuskegee University, "the Pride of the Swift Growing South."

Mayor Ford graduated fromWashington Public Elementary School, and Tuskegee Institute High School. Mayor Ford received his B.A. degree in History and Sociology from Knoxville College and his Master's of Public Administration from Auburn University at Montgomery. Mayor Ford has received four honorary doctorate degrees.

Mayor Ford was elected State Representative in 1998, and served on the County and Municipal Government Committee, the Lee County Legislation Committee, the Health Committee, and the Tourism and Travel Committee. He served as State Representative until he was re-elected Mayor of Tuskegee in September of 2004. Mayor Ford is the Founder of the World Conference of Mayors, Inc., and also serves as President of Johnny Ford and Associate, Inc. He is a President-Emeritus and a Founder of the National Conference of Black Mayors, Inc., a former member of the Alabama Foreign Trade Commission, and the Alabama Municipal Electric Authority. He also has served as Chairman of the National Utility Alliance. Mayor Ford chairs the National Policy Alliance which is headquartered in Washington, DC.

Mayor Ford has served as a former U. S. Presidential Appointee to the Presidential Advisory Committee on Federalism, and the U. S. Intergovernmental Policy Advisory Committee on Trade. He was reappointed by President George W. Bush to the Policy Committee in 2004. Mayor Ford is a past President of the Alabama League of Municipalities and the first African American in Alabama history to be elected to this statewide position. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, the Founding President of the Tuskegee Optimist Club, and is a member of Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, the home church of Dr. Booker T. Washington.

Mayor Ford has three adult children, John, Christopher, and Tiffany and one granddaughter, Lauryn. Mayor Ford resides in Tuskegee where his home overlooks beautiful Lake Tuskegee. Mayor Ford and The Honorable Joyce London Alexander, United States Federal Magistrate Judge of Boston, Massachusetts recently married on December 9, 2006 in Tuskegee, Alabama.

HONORABLE CHARLIE PRICE
Judge Charles Price graduated from Carver High School in Montgomery, Alabama. He served six years in the United States Army: three years with the Green Beret (Special Forces) unit and three years with the 82nd Airborne Division. After his discharge, still feeling a sense of duty to and a strong sense of honor and pride in his country, he joined the United States Army Reserves from which he retired as Lt. Colonel, Judge Advocate General's Corps, receiving numerous Meritorious Service Medals, awards, and commendations.

After graduation from Virginia Union University, Judge Price enrolled in law school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., from which he graduated with honors. His legal career began at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. Judge Price returned to Alabama to work as an Assistant Attorney General. While serving in that capacity, the Attorney General for the State of Alabama appointed him Acting District Attorney for Escambia County, Alabama. He later became Deputy District Attorney for Montgomery County, Alabama, holding that position until he entered private practice. Judge Price was appointed Assistant Municipal Judge for Montgomery County and on April 4, 1983, Governor George C. Wallace appointed him Montgomery County Circuit Judge.

Judge Price has served as adjunct instructor of Political Science and Criminal Justice at Alabama State University, and adjunct professor of law at the University of Alabama and Jones Law School. He has participated in many seminars, including Yale University School of Law and Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers Judicial College in Jackson, Wyoming. He likewise has served on the faculty of the National Judicial College. Presently, Judge Price serves as lecturer for the American Academy of Judicial Education and with other organizations on community, national and judicial matters.

Judge Price has served as President of the Montgomery Trial Lawyers Association and as President of the Alabama Circuit Judge's Association in 2002-2003. He is a member of the National Bar Association, the Alabama State Bar Association, the Alabama Lawyers Association and the Montgomery County Bar Association. On January 6, 1999, he was unanimously elected Presiding Judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Sigma Phi Boule Fraternity.

Judge Price is the recipient of numerous awards and citations: he was named Citizen of the Year in 1997 by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, in 1997 by Omega Psi Phi, and in 1998 by Kappa Alpha Psi. In 1997, Alpha Phi Alpha presented him with an Achievement Award. In 2000, the National Bar Association presented him with the Raymond Pace Alexander Award.

Judge Price is the 1997 recipient of the 1997 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. He is also the recipient of the Alabama Democratic Conference John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. In 1998, the National Education Association presented him with its Dr. Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award. Judge Price received an Honorary Doctor of Law Degree from the University of West Alabama in 2001, and an Honorary Doctor of Christian Humanities from the Global Evangelical Christian College and Seminary in 2005. On December 11, 2006, he was appointed by the Governor of Alabama to the Tuskegee Board of Trustees.

Judge Price is the co-author of Alabama Peace Officers' Guide to Law Enforcement. Judge Price is married to Bernice B. Price, a college professor. They have two children: Susan Price, a graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School; and Charles Price II, a graduate of Morehouse College and Creighton University School of Law. Judge Price is a member of St. John's AME Church, where he serves as a steward and as a Sunday school teacher.

ERNESTINE SAPP, ESQUIRE
Avery tragic accident led Ernestine Sapp to the practice of law. As a child she was involved in an automobile accident that left her aunt and uncle dead and her severely injured. "That incident skewered my perspective on life and community service,"Sapp said."After the accident, I felt like there had to be some reason that I was left. "It led me to become very actively involved in community work and also led me to law school," she said.

Sapp, now a senior citizen, has spent the last three decades practicing law and trying to improve the lives of all Alabamians. Her storied career ended in January when she retired from the firm of Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray and Nathanson, one of the country's premier law firms that has gained national attention fighting for civil rights for all people, regardless of race, gender, and age.

Sapp spent the first 10 years of her married life taking care of her three children and working on community service projects in Tuskegee. The family moved to Tuskegee after her husband, Dr. Walter J. Sapp, went to work at Tuskegee University. At the encouragement of friends, she entered Jones School of Law and was the first African American woman to graduate from there and go on to practice law. The BLSA Chapter at Jones is also named in her honor.

Law school graduation was just the beginning of a lot of "firsts" for Sapp. She was the first African American woman to serve on the Alabama Trial Lawyers Executive Committee, she was the first African American woman from Alabama to serve on the board of the National Trial Lawyers minority caucus, she was the first Alabamian elected first vice president of the National Bar Association , she was the first African American woman elected Bar Commissioner for the Alabama State Bar, and was the first African American elected to lead the Alabama Delegation in the American Bar Association's House of Delegates.

"It has been a pioneering effort on my part to be involved in various legal activities," Sapp said. "I have tried to do things on behalf of women and minorities. "I don't think it was a hard thing," she said. "I think you had to be genuine and work hard, and I have tried to do both."

Her "favorite" case has been the landmark Lee vs. Macon which has been heralded nationally for the improvements it has made in special education. She praised the work of the state officials, lawyers, and U.S. Federal Judge Myron Thompson for working together to do "wonderful things to improve the plight of children."

A big disappointment was losing a case in federal court that would have required the state to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol dome, but said she is glad that Montgomery attorney Morris Dees won the case in state court. "

I thought it was important to remove the flag so we could be a united society," Sapp said. Sapp had planned to retire three years ago but stayed at the firm after a tragic fire destroyed their building. "I promised Fred (Gray) that I would work until he got in the new building and I have kept my promise," she said. "We are going to move this month."

Sapp says she is looking forward to retirement. She wants to spend time with her husband of 45 years, her three children and her six grandchildren who live out-of-state. Her son Van, his wife and three children live in New York: her son Erik, his wife and three children live in Washington, D.C.; and her daughter Elizabeth lives in Atlanta. She also will remain active in LINKS, Inc., a national women's service organization, and her church, St. Joseph's Catholic Church. "I have been blessed," she said. "I am grateful to the Lord for all of my blessings." Ernestine Sapp is a true pioneer and a "Champion of Justice" who will be missed in legal circles in Alabama and across the nation.

JOCK M. SMITH, ESQURIE
Jock M. Smith serves as the Attorney/Senior Partner in the National Law Firm of Cochran, Cherry, Givens & Smith, P.C. in Tuskegee, Alabama. He has practiced law in the areas of civil litigation, personal injury, mass torts, fraud, product liability, wrongful death and class actions along with national partners, the late Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr, Sam Cherry, and Keith Givens. Other offices located in Dothan, Alabama; Los Angeles, California; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; and District of Columbia.

He is a Sports Agent/Principal Stockholder with Cochran Sports Management (Certified via National Football Players Association and National Basketball Players Association as a players agent). In this capacity, Smith represents professional athletes with contract negotiations with professional teams as well as promotional appearances; provide investment opportunities.

Smith is the CEO/Founder for Scoring for Life, Inc. - Tuskegee, Alabama, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (Motivational speaking company - ministry) which uses game-worn uniforms of athletes and sports heroes to teach the fundamental principles that enables one to score in the only game that matters, the game of life; develop and deliver motivational messages to help children, teenagers, and adults develop principles based on self-awareness.

As the County Attorney for Macon County in Tuskegee, Alabama, Mr. Smith represented the county in all legal matters. From 1993-1994, he served as an Administrative Law Judge for the Alabama Department of Environmental Management in Montgomery, Alabama, where he heard complex environmental cases involving alleged violations of law by individuals and major corporate entities as well as major disputes involving private corporate entities.

From 1977 - 1998, Mr. Smith operated the Law Offices of Jock M. Smith, Attorney at Law in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he engaged in general practice of law by representing plaintiffs and defendants in both criminal and civil actions of law. Primary emphasis was in civil litigation. He has also served as a City Municipal Judge in Camp Hill, Alabama and as an Assistant Attorney General, State of Alabama. Mr. Smith has served as a Professor of Political Science at Tuskegee University and as a Professor of Afro-American Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Mr. Smith has served as a Legal Advisor for the NAACP Civil Rights Project in Broome County, New York, as well as a legal assistant for the National Urban League in South Bend, Indiana. He began his work as a clerk for the United States Customs Court in New York, New York in 1970.

2006 Wiley A. Branton Award Recipients

Photo: NBA President Linnes Finney, Jr., Sonyá Finney, Minnijean Brown Trickey, Dr. Terrence Roberts, Ernest G. Green, Thelma Mothershed-Wair (in front), Elizabeth Eckford, Carlotta Walls LaNier, and Lottie H. Shackelford, 1st female Mayor of Little Rock (1987 - 1991).

2006 Recipients

• Melba Pattillo Beals
• Elizabeth Eckford
• Ernest G. Green
• Gloria Ray Karlmark
• Carlotta Walls LaNier
• Thelma Mothershed-Wair
• Dr. Terrence Roberts
• Jefferson Thomas
• Minnijean Brown Trickey

Melba Pattillo Beals
Born December 7, 1941, Beals was not yet 14 years old when in May, 1955, she volunteered to go to Central High, an all-white school. Two years later, she was enrolled as a student at Central High. In an interview for the 1987 public television documentary on the Civil Rights movement, Eyes On The Prize, Beals said that when she arrived home on the last day of the school year, she was so upset over the way she had been treated that she burned her schoolbooks, and admitted that she wasn't looking forward to going back to school in the fall. As it turned out, she didn't have to; the Little Rock school system chose to shut down operations in the fall of 1958 to resist integration, leading other school districts across the South to do the same.

At age seventeen she began writing for major newspapers and magazines. She later earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. She was the only black person there who later graduated. In 1958, the NAACP awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal to Pattillo Beals and to the other members of the Little Rock Nine, together with civil rights leader Daisy Bates, who had advised the group during their struggles at Central High. In 1999, she and the rest of the Nine were awarded the highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal. Only three hundred others have received this.

Beals is the only one of the Little Rock Nine to write a book. Warriors Don't Cry, chronicles the events of 1957 during the Little Rock crisis, based partly on diaries she kept during that period. She also wrote White is a State of Mind, which begins where Warriors left off. Today, Beals lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is a journalist and chair of the communications department at Dominican University in San Rafael, California. She is married with one daughter and twin grandsons.

Elizabeth Eckford
Elizabeth Eckford is the daughter of Oscar and Birdie Eckford and one of six children. She recalled that her mother had previously been an overly protective parent. It had to have been difficult to watch her daughter go back into harm's way each school day. Mrs. Eckford, a state employee, lost her job at the end of the school year. Meanwhile, her father, a railroad worker, continued to work late at night "where men were walking around with shotguns even though it was not hunting season," he said. That intimidation did not keep him from taking Elizabeth to school each morning.

Together, Eckford and one of her former tormenters who had apologized to her, received an humanitarian award from the National Conference for Community and Justice. They were cited for contributing to the organization's mission of promoting understanding and respect among all through advocacy and education. They talked to students for two years and attended a twelve-week racial healing course.

Eckford is the recipient of the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the Army's Good Conduct Medal, and the Florena Lasker Award from the ACLU. Former President Clinton presented to all of the Little Rock Nine the Congressional Gold Medal in a White House ceremony. Eckford has a degree in History. A United States Army veteran, Elizabeth is now a probation officer in her hometown and had worked in various social and political reform positions previously. She speaks now about what America was like in the past, the impact of language, and lessons learned from the past. She challenges students to be active participants in standing up for others, rather than be silent observers. She reminds audiences of another writer who once said, "the dead can be buried, but not the past."

Ernest G. Green
Ernest G. Green is the Managing Director of Public Finance for Lehman Brothers' Washington, D.C. office. Since joining Lehman Brothers in 1987, Mr. Green served as senior investment banker on transactions for such key clients in the City of New York, State of New York, City of Chicago, Port of Oakland, City of Atlanta, State of Connecticut, Detroit Wayne County Airport, Denver Airport and the Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority.

President Clinton appointed Green to serve as Chairman of the African Development Foundation. Secretary of Education, Richard W. Riley, appointed Mr. Green to serve as Chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Green was president of Ernest Green & Associates, a minority consulting firm that provided technical assistance in marketing, financial management and economic forecasting. Green served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training during the Carter Administration. During his tenure with the Labor Department, he formulated U.S. Presidential Policy and directed implementation of a vast range of activities.

Green was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, September 22, 1941. He earned his high school diploma from Central High School in Little Rock. He received a B.S. in Social Science and a Masters in Sociology from Michigan State University. He also received Honorary Doctorates from Michigan State University, Tougaloo College and Central State University. Green presently serves on the Board of Directors for numerous schools and foundations.

Hundreds of organizations have honored Green during his career and he is the recipient of numerous awards. These awards include the Urban League's Frederick Douglas Freedom Medal, the John D. Rockefeller Public Service Award, the NAACP's Spingard Medal, and the Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout. Green and his wife Phyllis live in Washington, DC. He is the proud father of Adam, Jessica and McKenzie Ann.

Gloria Ray Karlmark
Gloria Ray Karlmark is the daughter of H.C. Ray, the first agent and founder of "The Arkansas Agricultural Extension Service for Negroes", and Julia M. Ray. Her father was Laboratory Assistant to George Washington Carver and received his degree in Horticulture under Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute. Gloria attended Little Rock Central High School the entire school year of 1957-1958 as one of the Little Rock Nine. When the schools were closed the following year, she and her mother moved to Kansas City, Missouri.

Gloria graduated in 1960 from the newly integrated Kansas City Central High School. [Gloria's mother had graduated magna cum laude and held two university degrees, but was, in spite of this, fired by Gov. Faubus and blacklisted from working as a Sociologist in the state of Arkansas when she refused to withdraw Gloria from Little Rock Central High School.] Gloria graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago, Illinois in 1965; after which she joined the IIT Research Institute as Assistant Mathematician on the APT IV Project (robotics, numerical control, and online technical documentation)-This included work at Boeing in Seattle, Mc Donnell-Douglas in Santa Monica and NASA Automation Center in St. Louis.

In 1969, she and her husband took a sabbatical year following the trail of the Maya Indians, before immigration to Sweden-where she was recruited to join IBM's Nordic Laboratory. In the years that followed, the Karlmark family was blessed with a son and a daughter. In 1975, she completed the Svenska Patent och Registreringsverket "Patent Examiner" Program and joined IBM's International Patent Operations as a European Patent Attorney. She currently resides in Europe.

Carlotta Walls LaNier
The oldest of three daughters, Carlotta Walls LaNier was born on December 18, 1942, in Little Rock, Arkansas. LaNier made history as the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine. Inspired by Rosa Parks, she had a desire to get the best education available by enrolling in Central High School. White students called her names and spat on her while armed guards escorted her to classes, but LaNier concentrated on her studies and protected herself throughout the school year. LaNier, along with all other Little Rock high school students, were barred from attending Central the next year when the Little Rock high schools were closed, but she returned to Central High and graduated in 1960.

LaNier attended Michigan State University for two years before moving with her family to Denver. In 1968, she earned a Bachelor of Science from Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado) and began working at the YWCA as a program administrator for teenagers. In 1977, she founded LaNier and Company, a real estate brokerage firm. Her experience in real estate includes everything from constructing and remodeling properties to marketing and selling them.

LaNier is currently the president of the Little Rock Nine Foundation, a scholarship organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to education for African-Americans. She has also served as a trustee for the Iliff School of Theology. LaNier and her husband, Ira "Ike" LaNier, have two grown children.

Thelma Mothershed-Wair Thelma
Mothershed-Wair was born in 1940 in Bloomberg, Texas. She attended Dunbar Junior High School and Horace Mann High School before transferring to Central. Despite daily torment from white students at Central, she completed her junior year at the formerly all-white high school during the tumultuous 1957-58 school year. Since the city's high schools were closed the following year, Mothershed-Wair earned the necessary credits for graduation through correspondence courses and by attending summer school in St. Louis, Missouri. She received her diploma from Central High School by mail.

In 1964, she graduated from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and earned her master's degree in Guidance and Counseling, as well as an Adminstrative Certificate in Education from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Mothershed-Wair taught home economics in the East St. Louis school system for 28 years before retiring in 1994.

She has also worked at the St. Clair County Jail, Juvenile Detention Center in St. Clair County, Illinois, and was an instructor of survival skills for women at the American Red Cross Shelter for the homeless. During the 1989-90 school year, Mothershed-Wair was honored as an Outstanding Role Model by the East St. Louis chapter of the Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc. and the Early Childhood Pre-Kindergarten staff of District 189.

Thelma Mothershed-Wair and her late husband have one son.

Dr. Terrence Roberts
Terrence J. Roberts, Ph.D. is one of the "Little Rock Nine" who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. As a 15 year old eleventh grader, he joined eight other students and became one of the first nine black students to go to a formerly segregated public high school in Little Rock.

Dr. Roberts is CEO of Terrence J. Roberts & Associates, a management consultant firm devoted to fair and equitable practices in business and industry. A graduate of California State University at Los Angeles (BA), and UCLA (MSW), Dr. Roberts obtained his Ph.D. in psychology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. Currently he is on faculty in the department of psychology at Antioch University, Los Angeles, California.

He is married to Rita Roberts, Ph.D., professor of American History at Scripps College in Claremont, CA and they are the parents of two daughters, and the grandparents of two grandsons.

A much sought after speaker and presenter, Dr. Roberts lectures and presents workshops and seminars on a wide variety of topics.

Jefferson Thomas
Jefferson Thomas was born the youngest of seven children on September 1, 1942, in Little Rock to Mr. and Mrs. Ellis Thomas. Thomas was a track athlete at all-black Horace Mann High School in Little Rock (Pulaski County) when he chose to volunteer to integrate all-white Central High School for the 1957-58 school year as a sophomore. Jefferson Thomas made history as a member of the Little Rock Nine who integrated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. The world watched as they braved constant intimidation and threats from those who opposed desegregation of the formerly all-white high school.

The Nine were harassed daily by some white students, and Thomas's quiet demeanor made him a target for bullies at the school. However, he managed to finish the school year in spite of this torment. Thomas, along with all other Little Rock high school students, was prevented from attending school the next year after Governor Orval Faubus and the voters of Little Rock closed that city's public high schools, but he returned to Central the following year and graduated in 1960. He eventually became an accountant for the United States Department of Defense.

Thomas was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1958. In 1999, President Bill Clinton presented the nation's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal, to the members of the Little Rock Nine. Thomas is now retired and lives in Anaheim, California.

Minnijean Brown Trickey
Minnijean Brown Trickey was born on September 11, 1941, in Little Rock, and was 16 years old when she entered Central High School. Although all of the nine experienced verbal and physical harassment during the 1957- 58 school year at Central, Brown was first suspended, and then expelled for retaliating against daily torment. In February of 1958, she moved to New York and lived with Doctors Kenneth B. and Mamie Clark, African-American psychologists. She graduated from New York's New Lincoln School in 1959.

Brown attended Southern Illinois University and majored in Journalism. She later moved to Canada where she received a Bachelor of Social Work in Native Human Services from Laurentian University and a Master of Social Work from Carleton University in Ontario, Canada.

Brown is a social activist and has worked on behalf of peacemaking, environmental issues, developing youth leadership, diversity education and training, cross-cultural communication, and gender and social justice advocacy. She served in the Clinton Administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Workforce Diversity at the Department of the Interior from 1999 to 2001. She has taught social work at Carleton University and in various community colleges in Canada.

She is the recipient of numerous awards for her community work for social justice, including the Lifetime Achievement Tribute by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the International Wolf Award for contributions to racial harmony. Currently, she lives in Maryland, and is continuing her work for civil rights and social equality.

2004 Recipients

• Honorable Shelvin Louise Mare Hall
• Honorable Arnette R. Hubbard
• Honorable R. Eugene Pincham
• Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

Honorable Shelvin Louise Marie Hall

Honorable Shelvin Louise Marie Hall

Justice Shelvin Louise Marie Hall is a resident of the City of Chicago. She graduated from Proviso East High School, Maywood, Illinois; Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia; Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Education Fund trained Justice Hall in civil rights law. She then went into the private practice of law for six years in Houston, Texas where she and four others formed the first all-black, all-female law firm in the country, which was featured in Ebony Magazine. In 1980, Justice Hall went to Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. as Legislative Director to the late U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland. In 1982, Justice Hall returned home to Chicago and became General Counsel to the Illinois Department of Human Rights, the State of Illinois’ civil rights agency, where she directed a staff of 12 attorneys and six clericals.

The Illinois Supreme Court appointed Shelvin Louise Marie Hall to the bench on January 11, 1991 and she was sworn in as a full Circuit Court Judge of Cook County. She was assigned to the Domestic Relations Division. In November of 1992, Judge Hall was elected to a six-year term in November of 1998. The Illinois Supreme Court assigned Shelvin Louise Marie Hall to a two-year term as a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court. She was sworn in on February 2, 1999, by Justice Charles E. Freeman. Justice Hall was elected to a full 10 year term on the Illinois Appellate Court on November 7, 2000.

Justice Hall served from 1998 - 1999 as the Chairperson of the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, a national organization for this country’s then, 1500 minority judges. She also served the National Bar Association as a National Vice President, Chair of the Young Lawyers Division, Chair of the Administrative Law Section, Member of the Executive Committee, Member of the Board of Governors and creator of the Interdenominational Prayer Breakfast in 1985. She is also past Chair of the Illinois Judicial Council, an organization of 140 predominantly but not exclusively, African American judges. Justice Hall has served on the boards of numerous organizations including the Cook County Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the NBA Judicial Council, the Lutheran Family Mission and the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. She was the first woman judge on the Executive Committee of the Illinois Judicial Conference and served on its Education Committee. She also has held membership in the Illinois Judges Association, the National Association of Women Judges, the Illinois State Bar Association, The Cook County Bar Association, the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, the Black Women Lawyer’s Association of Greater Chicago, the Chicago Bar Association, the American Bar Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a member of the bars of the Supreme Courts of Illinois, Texas and the United States.

Justice Hall is a devoted member of the Friendship Baptist Church located on the West side of Chicago, where her father, Rev. Dr. Shelvin Jerome Hall, Past President of the Baptist General State Convention of Illinois, has been Pastor since 1955. Justice Hall has served as Director of the church’s Youth Department, Chair of the Christian Care Department and Chair of the Department of Christian Education. She is married to Mr. Ephraim M. Martin, President of Martin’s Inter-Culture, Inc. Mrs. Lucy M. Hall, the justice’s mother, retired after teaching 53 years, 37 years at Lathrop Academy in Chicago. Her brother, Lewis, is a Supervisor in the New York Education Department and her sister, Priscilla, is a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court. The Justices Hall are the nation’s first elected African American sister judges.

Honorable Arnette R. Hubbard

Honorable Arnette R. Hubbard

Judge Arnette Hubbard has a long tenure in law and public service. As attorney, public official and elected state court judge, Arnette repeatedly demonstrated her commitment to the American way of life and her sensitivity to the people who serve and protect. She stands in the forefront with those who promote the common good and the protection of constitutional guarantees for all.

Hubbard has been a trailblazer in the field of law as she was the first woman President of the National Bar Association, and the first woman President of the Cook County Bar Association. The prestige afforded by these high offices and her honed legal skills gave her greater access to boards and committees and numerous civic and professional groups which she continues to serve with great distinction.

Among such service is her present position as Vice-Chair of the Illinois Commission on the 50th Anniversary of Brown v Board of Education. This statewide commission, created by unanimous vote of the Illinois General Assembly, not only celebrates the monumental human achievement signified by the Brown decision, but, furthers its goal of unfettered access to education. In its first public activity, the Brown Commission reached more than 3 million school children in Illinois via a statewide school electronic network and reached a statewide general audience through its live telecast carried across the state. The Commission’s set program continues through “Brown II.” Judge Hubbard was of critical importance to the creation of this Commission.

Before taking the bench, Judge Hubbard served for nine years as a member of the Illinois Bar admission committee, a critical doorway to the practice of law. She championed unrestricted access for all qualified applicants.

Inspired by the historic struggle to gain the ballot box, Arnette Hubbard contributed to the extension and exercise of voting rights in her various positions. As the only female commissioner of the Chicago Board of Elections, Hubbard expanded actual participation in the workplace and in the Voting processes and procedures for all, including females and youth in particular. Her public outreach program garnered support from sources as diverse as Cardinal Bernadin and “Ronald McDonald” to celebrity figures to pre-school children. Election Commissioner Hubbard instigated the creation of “Desert FAX” which extended voting opportunities to military service persons during armed conflict. While president of the statewide election officials organization, she interpreted and structured systems for implementing the 1993 Voting Rights Act.

Hubbard’s honors and awards are many and include: NBA Gertrude Rush Award; Who’s Who in Black America; J. Ernest Wilkins Award of the Cook County Bar Association; Par Excellence of Operation PUSH; Shirley Chisholm Award of the Chicago Midwest Section of the National Council of Negro Women; Ebony Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Black Americans and recognition in Jet Magazine’s 50th Anniversary Edition.

Arnette Hubbard received her Juris Doctorate degree from the John Marshall Law School which honored her with its Distinguished Alumnus Citation. Her undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Mathematics was earned at Southern Illinois University which bestowed on her its Distinguished Alumni Award and installed her as a member of the Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame. She is a past president of the 160,00 member SIU Alumni Association.

Honorable R. Eugene Pincham (RTD.)

Honorable R. Eugene Pincham

R .Eugene Pincham was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 28, 1925. His parents divorced when he was seven months old. Reared in a single parent home in Athens, Limestone County, Alabama he attended Trinity School, a grammar and high school founded in Athens in 1866, by an abolitionist organization, the American Missionary Association, to educate the newly emancipated slaves.

When Pincham graduated from Trinity School in 1941, he moved to Chicago, Illinois and obtained employment. After a year in Chicago, in September of 1942, Pincham enrolled in Le Moyne College in Memphis, another American Missionary Institution also founded during the Reconstruction post Civil War era to educate the emancipated Blacks. R. Eugene Pincham was expelled from Le Monye twice, at the same time, because of poor academics and unacceptable conduct. Pincham’s expulsion from Le Moyne was the best thing that could have happened to him. This lesson put him back on track.

In 1944, Pincham enrolled at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was initiated into Kappa Alpha Psi Faternity, Inc., at TSU and was Pollmarch of Alpha Theta Chapter from May 1945, until his graduation in June 1947. He received his Juris Doctorate Degree from Northwestern School of Law in January 1951.

Pincham began his practice of law in the summer of 1951, with Attorney Joseph E. Clayton, Jr., the individual he credits as molding him as a lawyer and as an advocate. His primary areas of practice was appeals, criminals and civil litigation, in the state and federal courts. In 1954, he became a partner in the law firm of Evans, Pincham, Fowlkes & Cooper. He soon became known as the lawyer who would not take any “mess” from judges. Pincham estimates he perfected over 250 appeals in his career with an 85% success rate. He also had the esteemed honor of arguing three times before the United States Supreme Court. He continued with the firm of Evans, Pincham, Fowlkes & Cooper until 1976, when he was appointed to the bench as Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois. He was assigned to the Criminal Division until June 1984, when he was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court as Justice of the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District, Chicago, to which judgeship he was later elected in November 1986.

Pincham has taught trial and appellate advocacy and techniques at some of America’s most prestigious law schools and universities, such as Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Nortre Dame, Northwestern, Loyola, DePaul, John Marshall, University of Chicago, University of Hawaii and many others.

Now semi-retired, he continues to teach and lecture in trial and appellate advocacy and techniques and to represent the aggrieved.

Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr.

Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., Founder and President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is one of Americas foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years he has played a vital role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.

Born on October 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, Jesse Jackson graduated from the public schools in Greenville, then enrolled in the University of Illinois on a football scholarship. He later transferred to North Carolina A & T University, and graduated in 1964. He began his theological studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary, but deferred his studies when he began working full-time in the Civil Rights Movement. Reverend Jackson received his earned Master of Divinity Degree in 2000.

Reverend Jesse Jackson began his activism as a student in the summer of 1960, seeking to desegregate the local public library in Greenville, and then as a leader in the sit-in movement. In 1965, he became a full-time organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He was appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to direct SCLC’s Operation Breadbasket program. In December of 1971, Reverend Jackson founded Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in Chicago, IL. The goals of Operation PUSH were economic empowerment and expanding educational, business and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and people of color. In 1984, Reverend Jackson founded the National Rainbow Coalition, a national social justice organization, based in Washington, D.C., devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. In September of 1996, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH merged in the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to continue the work of both approaches and to maximize resources.

Reverend Jackson’s two presidential campaigns broke new ground in U.S. politics. His 1984, campaign registered over one million new voters, won 3.5 million votes, and helped the Democratic Party regain control of the Senate in 1986. His 1988, campaign registered over two million new voters, won seven million votes, and helped boost hundreds of state and local elected officials into office. A s a highly respected and trusted world leader, Reverend Jackson has acted many times as an international diplomat in sensitive situations. In 1984, he secured the release of captured Navy Lieutenant Robert Goodman from Syria, in 1999, he brought hostages out of Kuwait and Iraq. Most recently, in 1999, Reverend Jackson negotiated the release of U.S. soliders held hostage in Kosovo.

Reverend Jackson married his college sweetheart Jacqueline Lavinia Brown in 1963. They have five children: Santita Jackson, Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Jonathan Luther Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Esq., and Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson, Jr.