Former state Court of Appeals judge testifies about challenges of being Black attorney

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit that could force the state to change how state Supreme Court justices are elected wrapped up their case Thursday in federal court with the testimony of a former Court of Appeals judge who was the lead plaintiff in a landmark 1992 voting rights case.

Former Court of Appeals Judge Eugene Hunt testified about his experiences as a young Black law school student and the challenges of building a law practice as a Black attorney in the 1970s and 1980s.

State Sen. Joyce Elliott also testified about her experiences as one of a handful of Black students who were on the leading edge of integration in Nevada County, as a teacher and later, as a lawmaker in the General Assembly.

The lawsuit, brought by a coalition of ministers, community activists and voters challenges the impacts of judicial elections on Black voters, particularly Supreme Court elections which the plaintiffs say make it impossible for Black voters to elect a Black candidate to the high court.

If successful, the case could result in the creation of a single majority-minority district for electing justices of the Arkansas Supreme Court and two majority-minority districts for electing state Court of Appeals judges. Currently all Supreme Court justices are elected at-large and one Court of Appeals district is designated a majority-minority district.

Defendants in the lawsuit are Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Secretary of State John Thurston and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. They comprise the state Board of Apportionment and are represented by attorneys from Rutledge's office.

The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys for the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund as well as private attorneys from New York, Washington, D.C., and Little Rock.

The case is being heard by U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr.

Hunt, who lives in Pine Bluff and has a law practice there, was appointed by former Gov. Mike Beebe to the District 7 Court of Appeals seat -- currently held by Appeals Court Judge Waymond Brown -- in 2008 to fill the unexpired term of U.S. District Judge Brian Miller, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush.

Hunt ran for the seat later that year but was defeated by Brown. Brown testified Wednesday to his experiences with racism as a Black lawyer and later judge.

Hunt was the lead plaintiff in the 1990 lawsuit Hunt vs. State of Arkansas that resulted in a consent decree in which the state agreed to create eight circuit court sub-districts in which the majority of voters were Black. That consent decree resulted in opportunities for Black candidates to mount credible campaigns for state trial court judge positions.

He testified that in law school at the University of Arkansas in 1969 he worked full time to put himself through school, a practice he said that was discouraged by the dean, but Hunt said with few resources he had no other options.

"I asked him if he had an extra room in his home and that ended that inquiry," Hunt said.

Hunt also related a story from his early days practicing law in which he said a judge ordered him to pay $600 to reimburse the court for the costs of assembling a jury in a case that settled the day it was to go to trial.

"Was that a white judge?" asked NAACP Legal and Educational Fund attorney Michael Skocpol.

"There were no Black judges then," Hunt said, quietly.

Hunt said he wrote the judge a letter first, then went to his office after receiving no response.

"There was a very short discussion about the problem and the judge kind of, the judge got upset," Hunt said. "He lost it."

"Lost his temper?" asked Moody, from the bench. "When you say lost it you mean lost his temper?"

"I would say he lost his temper," Hunt said. "He came around his desk and came after me."

As he recounted the story, Hunt briefly lost his composure, his voice breaking and his eyes filling with tears.

"I ran out of the room," he said. "I wasn't going to hit the judge so I ran from the room and I stopped in the hallway because he didn't have any jurisdiction in the hallway."

Hunt said although that was the most egregious example it was not the only time he was subjected to harsh treatment at the hands of judges or other lawyers.

Following the Hunt Decree, he said doors began to open for Black judicial candidates in state trial courts with the formation of Black-majority sub-districts, but said opportunities in other districts were limited or non-existent. Asked if he would ever consider a run for a statewide judicial seat, presumably the Supreme Court, Hunt said no.

"Not in the present environment," he said. "Trying to run in an at-large system would be a total waste of money."

Elliott, who was among the first group of students to integrate the white high school in her hometown of Willisville in 1966, said there were a number of inequities in how that was accomplished.

"We were informed that the Black children were going to be the ones who had to bear the burden of going to the white schools but not vice-versa," she said.

As a child in the 1950s, Elliott said, she could recall hearing her parents and other adults talk in whispers about voting.

"They were afraid to talk about it out loud," she said. "The first time I heard the word poll taxes I had no idea what it was but I could tell from their voices that it was a frightening thing."

Elliott said in her old school she was on track to be the school valedictorian, a goal she said she had worked toward since fourth grade. But at her new school, she said, "it was pretty clear those plans were dashed."

She said officials at her new school called her to the office to discuss her transcript from her former high school.

"I was happy because I knew it was a good transcript but they weren't there for a good purpose," Elliott said, but instead she said both the principal and superintendent challenged how she got the grades. She said the principal told her that she would not "be getting those n****r grades in my school."

But it was those experiences, she said, that attributed to her passion for civil rights.

Both Hunt and Elliott said that the current at-large system of electing Supreme Court justices has the effect not only of denying opportunities to Black candidates to run for the court, but also prevents Black people from seeing anything of themselves reflected in the court.

Following Elliott's testimony, the plaintiffs rested their case. The trial resumes Monday with testimony by John Alford, a political science professor at Rice University testifying for the defendants.

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