Two Chosen to Receive Honorary Degrees during Fall Commencement Ceremony

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Ernest Green and John Paul Hammerschmidt

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Civil rights icon Ernest Green and longtime Arkansas Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt will receive honorary degrees from the University of Arkansas during the Fall Commencement Saturday, Dec. 17 in Barnhill Arena. Both men will address graduating students during the ceremony.

Green will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters degree.

Hammerschmidt will receive a Doctor of Laws degree.

“These two Arkansans have contributed to our state and to our nation in noble and distinctive ways," said university Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “We are very pleased to recognize their achievements and honor them in this way.”

The decision to hold a Fall Commencement was made in response to student requests and an expanding student population. This is the first time since 1971 that the university has held a commencement ceremony for students who graduate during the summer and fall semesters. As many as 800 students are expected to attend the ceremony, which will begin at 9 a.m. More information is available at the registrar’s website.

Ernest Gideon Green Jr.

Ernest Gideon Green Jr. achieved national fame in 1957 at the age of 16 as one of the “Little Rock Nine,” the first African American students to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. He and the other students were initially barred from entering the school by troops from the Arkansas National Guard. Three weeks later President Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock to escort Green and his fellow students into the school and protect them from the angry crowd of protestors outside. The “Nine” endured threats and harassment during the school year, but in May, 1958 Green, the only senior in the group, became the first African American student to graduate from Central High. Martin Luther King Jr., who was in Arkansas for another event, attended the graduation ceremony with Green’s family.

Green has been honored many times for his role as part of the Little Rock Nine: in 1957 he and the group received the Springarn Medal, from the NAACP for outstanding achievements by African Americans; that same year the Boy Scouts of the America honored Green with its highest rank, Eagle Scout, and followed that in 1995 by presenting him with its Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. In 1999, Green and the other members of the Little Rock Nine received the highest honor the U.S. bestows upon civilians when President Bill Clinton presented each of them with a Congressional Gold Medal.

Green’s achievements have gone far beyond his experiences in 1957-58, however.

He attended Michigan State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts in social science and a Master of Arts in sociology. After graduating he moved to New York City and worked with civil rights leaders A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, recruiting minorities into the building trades. From 1968 to 1977 he directed the A. Philip Randolph Education Fund and served as executive director of the Recruitment and Training Program, Inc.

Green was appointed assistant secretary of labor for employment and training by President Jimmy Carter and served from 1977-1981.  He entered the private sector as a consultant in 1981 and was a partner in the firm Green and Herman until 1985, when he established and led Ernest Green & Associates. He joined the Lehman Brothers investment banking firm in 1987, eventually becoming senior managing director of public finance in the company’s Washington, D.C., office. In 1996, Black Enterprise Magazine named him as one of the “Top Twenty Five African Americans on Wall Street.” When Barclays Capital acquired Lehman Brothers in 2008, Green became the senior investment banker on transactions for clients such as the cities of New York, Chicago and Atlanta and the states of New York and Connecticut. He retired in 2009.

During his career, Green served on the board of the National Association of Securities Professionals and served as its chairman for two consecutive years. He also served on the Legislative Action Committee of the Public Securities Association.

Throughout his career Green remained committed to social causes. He has served as a member of the NAACP’s national board of directors, and as a board member of the Albert Shanker Institute. He has also served on the boards of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Village Foundation. In 2010, Green was named as honorary chairperson of a capital campaign committee seeking to raise $11 million to restore the historic Metropolitan AME Church in Northwest Washington, D.C., which is known as the National Cathedral of African Methodism.

Green has also been active in programs to benefit Africa. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as chairman of the African Development Foundation, a federal agency that supports community-based development programs in 15 African nations. He is a former board chairman of Africare, a nonprofit focused on improving food security, safe water supplies, health and emergency response services in Africa. He currently sits on the advisory board of Advanced Finance & Investment Group, an African private equity fund management company.

His support for education has included service on the College of Social Sciences Board of Visitors and the establishment of the Ernest G. and Phyllis Green MSU Black Alumni Scholarship in Social Science, both at MSU. He has been a trustee at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Ga. During the Clinton administration he served as chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board. He is a trustee emeritus of The Black Student Fund. 

Green has been recognized by the Urban League with its Frederick Douglas Freedom Medal and has received the John D. Rockefeller Public Service Award.

In 1993, he became one of six inaugural inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.

Green and his wife, Phyllis Caudle-Green, live in Washington, D.C. They have three children, Adam Green, Jessica Green and McKenzie Ann Green.

Ernest Green’s mother, Lothaire Scott Green, taught in Little Rock schools for 43 years. She earned a master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Arkansas in 1951. At that time she was not allowed to take classes on the Fayetteville campus and was not allowed to attend graduation ceremonies. In 2011, Ernest Green’s sister, Treopia, brought this to the attention on Chancellor G. David Gearhart and in response the university presented Mrs. Green’s degree posthumously to her daughter during the May commencement ceremony.

 “This honor represents a great moment for the family,” Ernest Green told a reporter for Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. “I’m very proud of my sister for pursuing this and I applaud the University of Arkansas for stepping up and giving my mother this opportunity.”

John Paul Hammerschmidt

Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, from Harrison, was the first Republican elected to Congress from Arkansas since 1877. He represented Arkansas’ Third Congressional District for 26 years, from 1967 until his retirement in 1993. During that time he earned a well-deserved reputation for his attention to the needs of his constituents, especially in their dealings with federal agencies. As a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee he was a tireless advocate for veteran’s benefits and the man that many Arkansas veterans turned to about issues with the Veteran’s Administration.

The Congressman became the ranking member of the House Public Works Committee, where he helped guide federal funding to Arkansas for much needed projects such as Highway 540 from Interstate Highway 40 to the Missouri line, the four lane divided Highway 65 from Harrison to the Missouri line, general improvements to many highways in the Third District, federal buildings in Fayetteville and Harrison, and construction of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.

In addition Congressman Hammerschmidt co-authored legislation, which was passed in 1980, to create the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, D.C.

In what some consider his most significant accomplishment, he was the House of Representatives sponsor of the bill that in 1972 established the Buffalo River in Arkansas as the nation’s first national river, under management of the National Park Service. 

In the realm of foreign affairs, Hammerschmidt was a member of the congressional delegation to the November 1977 mid-East talks and also attended the historic meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, when Sadat addressed the Israeli parliament. Hammerschmidt was the minority leader of the delegation appointed to survey the Vietnam refugee “boat people” situation in Southeast Asia in 1979 and was the minority leader of the first official U.S. delegation to enter Hanoi post-Vietnam war in 1984.

He maintained a long friendship with President George H.W. Bush that started when they were both freshman congressmen in 1967. The two men accompanied President Richard Nixon to the “Game of the Century” between Arkansas and Texas at Razorback Stadium in 1969.

John Paul Hammerschmidt had an active and productive life before and after his time in Congress. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the Army Air Corps and went through pilot training.  He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and volunteered to serve with the Third Combat Cargo Group in the China-India-Burma Theater. He flew 217 combat missions, many of them flying over the "Hump," as the eastern Himalayan Mountains were known. For his service, he received four Distinguished Flying Cross medals, the Air Medal with four oak-leaf clusters and three battle stars. Following World War II, he continued service in the Air Force and Army reserves.    

When he returned to his hometown of Harrison after the war, he took over the family lumber business, running it as president and CEO until 1984. He was also active in many local civic organizations.

After his service in Congress, Hammerschmidt remained active in regional development, serving for 15 years as chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Council.

He has worked on many other public organizations as well, including serving as chairman of the Governor’s Citizens Council on Highways and Transportation; chairing the Arkansas Economic Development Commission; and chairman of the Congressional Medal of Honor Commission. He is a member of the University of the Ozarks Board of Trustees and also a member and past chairman of the Arkansas State University Board of Trustees.

He was also past president of the Harrison Rotary Club and founder of the Boone County Industrial Development Corporation.

Hammerschmidt donated his Congressional papers to the special collections department of the University of Arkansas Libraries in 2005. It is the largest manuscript collection held by the University Libraries, and it was recently opened to researchers and scholars.