Arkansas highway named in honor of late civil rights lawyer Wiley A. Branton Sr

Arkansas state officials recently recognized the late Pine Bluff native Wiley A. Branton Sr., who served as the chief counsel for the Little Rock Nine during the 1957 school desegregation case, for his accomplishments and contributions, by naming a section of Pine Bluff Highway in his honor.

An 11-mile stretch of Interstate 530 from White Hall on Pine Bluffs northwest side to U.S. 65 on the city's southeast side now bears the name Wiley A. Branton Sr. Highway.

The renaming of the highway, which was campaigned for by the Interested Citizens for Voter Registration (ICVR), took 10 years to accomplish. The occasion marks the first time that a section of Arkansas highway has been named in honor of a Black person.

"[Wiley Branton] was a native of Pine Bluff who had done outstanding work contributing to the community," the Rev. Jesse C. Turner, executive director of ICVR, told JET. "His efforts are recognized around the nation, and we wanted that same recognition here in Pine Bluff as well."

Former U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater was the featured speaker during a nearly two-hour ceremony that honored Branton at the Pine Bluff Convention Center.

As reported by KATV Channel 7, Slater said, "One thing I tried to talk about is that it's a road in and out. It's a way to see the world or come home to Pine Bluff or to get to a job. Transportation is about connecting people, and Branton was about that, connecting us to a higher calling."

Among his many accomplishments, Branton served as dean of the law school at Howard University and he was special assistant to the United States Attorney General and executive secretary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Council on Equal Opportunity. Branton will also be remembered for heading up the voter education project, which led to the registration of more than 600,000 Blacks in the South.

Branton died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 65.