The Traveler

Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Lee Bishop Judith Kilpatrick, associate dean of the UA School of Law, scans through the manuscript of a biography she has written. The book will be released this fall.

Judith Kilpatrick, UA law professor, has written the first biography of civil rights activist and UA School of Law alumnus, Wiley A. Branton.

Branton, a native Arkansan, was asked by President Lyndon B. Johnson to head the Voter Education Project. Branton was subsequently able to successfully create the largest voter registration drive in the history of the United States.

"From 1948, when Branton first became involved in voter registration efforts, to the end of 1967, the number of black voters in the South increased from 5 percent of those eligible to more than 50 percent," Kilpatrick said. This momentous change was because of Branton's 20 years of public service, yet his name is not usually mentioned when discussing the leaders of the civil rights movement, she said.

After setting up his own private law practice, Branton represented the students known as the Little Rock Nine. Despite these and other defining achievements throughout his lifetime, by 1997 "Branton had virtually been forgotten by the larger world," Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick's decision to write the biography, "When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior," came after learning about what Branton had done as counsel for the Little Rock Nine, she said.

Realizing that he had been forgotten in civil rights history, Kilpatrick wanted to ensure his accomplishments were given credit by the public while at the same time keeping his legacy from being forgotten, she said.

During his lifetime, Branton was very well known among those involved with the civil rights movement, the government and the African American community, Kilpatrick said. Branton worked with all of the prominent civil rights leaders, but himself never became a leader comparable to a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or a Roy Wilkins.

"His skill was in working behind the scenes, for the most part, and helping others achieve goals," Kilpatrick said.

The stories of the most notable personalities of the civil rights movement - Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins and several others - have been related by the people themselves or told in biographies by others, but these men were not the entire story, Kilpatrick said.

Continued...

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