April 20, 2007

Invited to Arkansas in 1901 to join the faculty of Arkansas Baptist College in Little Rock (Pulaski County), J. H. McConico became a leader in civil rights. He was the first president of the Little Rock branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1942, as secretary of the Arkansas Negro Democratic Association, he gained national attention after protesting his exclusion from the Democratic white primary. After the Supreme Court overturned the white primary two years later, he was said to be one of the first to appear at the polls at the next election.