Jackie Lamond Shropshire (1927–1992)

Jackie Lamond Shropshire was one of the Six Pioneers, the first African American students to attend the University of Arkansas School of Law. He was the first of the group to graduate and went on to have a distinguished legal career in Gary, Indiana.

Jackie Shropshire was born on September 11, 1927, in Little Rock (Pulaski County), the youngest of three children of William Bruce Shropshire, who was a railroad worker, and Irene F. Bailey Shropshire, who was a teacher. All three of the Shropshire children gained national prominence in their careers: William Bruce Shropshire Jr. was a medical doctor in Atlanta, Georgia, and Thomas B. Shropshire was a top business executive at Miller Brewing Company.

Jackie Shropshire graduated from the historic Dunbar High School in Little Rock in about 1944. He served in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of captain. He earned his BS from Wilberforce College of Education and Industrial Arts in Wilberforce, Ohio, in 1948 and was a lifelong member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 1948, he enrolled at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville (Washington County), making him the second Black student to enroll, after Silas Herbert Hunt; Hunt had enrolled earlier that year and became the first African American in the South to attend an all-white institution of higher learning since Reconstruction.

The University of Arkansas School of Law required the first two Black law students at the law school to sit in a segregated fenced-in area, inside the now famous first-floor law school classroom. At the time, it was thought that separating the Black students from the white students in a segregated classroom would appease the whites who were against them being there.

The segregated classroom ended in the fall semester of 1949, when the one wooden pole that separated the “coloreds” from the whites was removed. Shropshire and Hunt were required to be prepared to discuss each of the possible five to ten cases assigned for every class period. Shropshire regularly studied each night until 3:30 a.m. so he would be prepared for his classes the next day. Because Shropshire was at first being taught in a classroom alone, other white students started to join in his classes to hear the lectures for a second time.

Four other Black law students—George Howard, Wiley Austin Branton Sr., George W. B. Haley, and Christopher Columbus Mercer—eventually joined Shropshire, with the group (which also included Hunt) becoming known as the Six Pioneers. A seminar room at the UA Law School was later named for the Six Pioneers. A historical marker commemorating them was erected on the UA campus in 2001.

Silas Hunt contracted tuberculosis and died in 1949 before he could finish his studies and graduate. Shropshire graduated on June 9, 1951, becoming the first Black graduate of the UA School of Law. He opened his first law office in Little Rock. In 1956, he moved to Gary, Indiana, and joined the law office of Benjamin F. Wilson. In 1960, Shropshire opened his own law firm, known as Jackie L. Shropshire, PC, in Gary.

During his long career as an attorney in Gary, Shropshire served as corporation counsel for the City of Gary, referee and acting judge for the City Court of Gary, chief attorney for the Gary Sanitary District, and counsel for many area businesses and local residents. He was a life member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and a life member of the NAACP. He was a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, and the James L. Kimbrough Legal Society. He was associated with Jack and Jill of America, Inc., and Connecting Link of the Northern Indiana Links, Inc.

He also held the position of attorney (pro bono) for the Trustee Board of Saint Timothy Community Church, where he was an active member for twenty-eight years.

Shropshire received awards from the Thurgood Marshall Law Association, the Members of the Minority Business Community, and the W. Harold Flowers Law Society of Little Rock. He was inducted into the 1990 UA Law School’s Hall of Fame. In February 1992, he was honored by the Little Rock Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc.

He continued practicing law in Gary until his death on April 22, 1992, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, after a full day of playing golf—his favorite sport—with his closest friends. He was survived by his wife, Toni S. Whitfield Shropshire, and their children, Jackie Jr. and Cori. Shropshire is buried in Evergreen Memorial Park in Hobart Lake County, Indiana.

For additional information:
Fullerton, Jane. “Peers from UA Law School Recall 1^st Black Graduate.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 11, 1992, p. 2B.

Kilpatrick, Judith. “Desegregating the University of Arkansas School of Law: L. Clifford Davis and the Six Pioneers.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 68 (Summer 2009): 123–156.

James Medrick “Butch” Warren
Historic Arkansas Museum Commission