Highway Bears Name of Late Civil Rights Leader

Arkansas` highways made history Saturday morning. The late civil rights attorney Wiley A. Branton, Sr. became the first black man in Arkansas to have a highway named in his honor. The Interested Citizens for Voter Registration in Pine Bluff and the Pine Bluff chapter of the NAACP have been working for ten years to make it happen. Branton was the chief cousel to the black plaintiffs in the 1957 case, Cooper v. Aaron, the one that integrated Little Rock Central High School with the Little Rock Nine. Branton is also known for coordinating the registration of over 600,000 black voters during his life. "He was always trying to enlighten people of the attorneys` role in the civil rights struggle. So I think he would`ve accepted this upon their collective behalfs," said his son, Judge Wiley A. Branton, Jr. "I thought it was appropriate for those to say, look at the sign, be happy for this day, but also be inspired by it do do what we were called to do," said Former U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. The Wiley A. Branton, Sr. Memorial Highway stretches 11 miles of the I-530 Pine Bluff Bypass from White Hall to the overpass near The Pines Mall. Arkansas passed a bill allowing the designation in 1995, but the Arkansas State Highway Commission did not authorize the installation of the sign until January 2003.