School of Law and National Bar Association Present Symposium on the Civil Right to Education

Photo Submitted

Wiley Branton, right, with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas School of Law and the National Bar Association will present a symposium on “Education: The New Civil Rights,” from 1-4:45 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in the E.J. Ball Courtroom at the School of Law. The event, the Wiley A. Branton Issues Symposium, is free and open to the public and qualifies for four hours of free continuing legal education for practitioners. To register, please visit the symposium website.

George Haley Rodney Slater

The event celebrates both the 25th anniversary of the Wiley A. Branton Issues Symposium and the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The namesake of the symposium, Wiley A. Branton, was a 1953 graduate of the School of Law and one of the University of Arkansas’ “Six Pioneers,” the first six African-Americans to integrate the university and School of Law. Branton went on to a distinguished career as an attorney, a civil rights activist and as dean of the Howard University School of Law. Ambassador George Haley, the lone surviving member of the Six Pioneers, will attend the symposium and offer remarks at the reception afterwards.

The symposium will feature a host of nationally respected leaders and academics, including:

• The Hon. Rodney E. Slater, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and partner at Squire Patton Boggs, Washington, D.C.
• Cynthia E. Nance, dean emeritus and the Nathan G. Gordon Professor of Law, University of Arkansas School of Law
• Antoinette Barksdale, attorney, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice
• Stephen Clowney, associate professor of law, University of Arkansas School of Law
• Hope Goins, chief counsel for oversight, Committee on Homeland Security, U.S. House of Representatives
• Elizabeth O’Sullivan, senior associate general counsel, section head U.S. Compliance, Walmart Legal
• Laura R. McNeal, assistant professor of law, University of Louisville D. Brandeis School of Law
• Cory D. Childs, associate, Mitchell Williams, Little Rock, and president of the W. Harold Flowers Law Society
• Janel A. George, Esq., NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• The Hon. Wiley A. Branton Jr., Circuit Judge, Sixth Judicial Circuit, Arkansas
• David Winfrey, senior associate general counsel, Merchandising, Marketing and Supply Chain, Walmart Legal
• Stacy Leeds, dean of the University of Arkansas School of Law
• Pamela Meanes, president of the National Bar Association.

The full program is available for viewing at the symposium website.

The symposium will be followed by a reception at the Inn at Carnall Hall, where Slater will be recognized with the National Bar Association’s 2014 Wiley A. Branton Award.